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S.Weber

~ Traveler / Artist / Photographer / Observer

S.Weber

Tag Archives: arts

Works In Progress…

04 Friday Mar 2016

Posted by Susana Weber in Art, Caribbean, Nature, Painting, Pastels, still life, Travel ~ Photography/Art/Food/Culture, Uncategorized

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art, arts, landscape, nature, outdoors, painting, Pastels, rain, reflections, special place, St Martin, travel, tropical

Aren’t we all?!

Who said something about standing in the spring rain?

Oh, yeah… that would be me.
And here, it happens every day… faithfully. Everything reflecting in the lovely Italian marble floor… so beautiful, so… dangerous. I brought an old box of pastels, broken and worn. I used them years and years ago…I think. I’m so used to my soft pastels in the big box there was no hope of bringing along. So… the old box would do, of course!

Mistake.

I used these? Seriously.

They are the hardest, most frustrating materials. And…they won’t be returning to New England… they’ll be used up or buried on the island where no one will ever think of looking for them. A mystery one day when unearthed.

Until then… a reflective pool after a spring rain.

A work in progress.

After the Rain

After the rain – Pastel work in progress – approx 20×15

Collecting time…

03 Thursday Mar 2016

Posted by Susana Weber in Caribbean, Painting, still life, Travel, Uncategorized, watercolor

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art, arts, beach, Caribbean, painting, pebbles, St Martin, still live, texture, travel, watercolor

For all we really do is stand here

in a springtime rain and wonder if

time is passing by or we are passing

through time. Grasping every moment,

every drop, every breeze, every tick

of time. And do what we should do.

Beach pebbles - 12x9 watercolor

Beach pebbles – 14×10 watercolor

Unfinished but… delicious.

02 Wednesday Mar 2016

Posted by Susana Weber in Art, Caribbean, Food, Painting, still life, Travel, Uncategorized

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art, arts, food, painting, St Martin, still life, Susana Weber, texture, travel, vacation, watercolor

Are you done with those yet? The light isn’t right… it’s not going to be right today. Well… alrig__…. Hey!

Acacados - 12x9 watercolor

Avacados – 12×9 watercolor

 

Leading the eye…

26 Friday Oct 2012

Posted by Susana Weber in Art, Image Post Processing, Learning, Nature, Photography, Uncategorized

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arts, clouds, composition, cropping, inspiration, landscape, leading the eye, learning, nature, outdoors, photography, special place, sunset

I noticed something odd while I was editing a few recent images that I found interesting and thought I’d share… We’ve had some spectacular “cloudshows” lately and I stopped to capture one in the parking lot of my local grocery store. I liked the angle of the cloud formation and the overhead, umbrella of the massive formation on the left. While looking at it on the screen, I made a duplicate copy to try a different crop so I could look at them side by side. The two images aren’t that different but… it occurred to me that I was looking at images with two different subjects!

cropped version

In the cropped version above, the eye is moving down the dark column on the left and finally rests on the bright sun in the sunset at the bottom. To me, the subject  of this image is the sunset, the color and drama in the distance.

original version

In the original, it’s just the opposite… the eye is drawn down the thin clouds from the right and back up to the bright spot at the top. The eye is being lead in a completely different direction. (See the black and white images with the arrows.) The subject of this version of the image is the overwhelming scale of the scene, the height of the column of clouds, aided by the bright edge at the top and the tiny light poles at the bottom. A completely different feel. The actual sunset is secondary.

I’ve never seen as dramatic an example of the effects of knowing where the eye is being led and how much a simple edit can change the subject of an image. It’s important to know where the viewer’s eye is going in the composition of an image. You want the viewer to see what you see… to experience the impact of the scene as you did… or at least as close as you can assist them to see and feel.

Which image conveys what I wanted you to see? I’d have to pick the original. While I cropped the duplicate to make it a stronger composition, I lost the subject I wanted to present… the scale and feeling of being a tiny being on a beautiful planet… a very special place, even in the grocery store parking lot! :)

Agree? or Disagree? Your thoughts?

Filling the empty canvas…

16 Sunday Sep 2012

Posted by Susana Weber in Art, Painting, Uncategorized

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art, arts, canvas, inspiration, intensity, painting, special place, St Martin, travel, vacation

The large white space has been knocking around this room and that one for longer that I remember… a 4 x 5 foot canvas… totally empty, that I bought for something that must have been in my mind years ago. Every now and then it would be in the way and it would get shuffled to the basement or the studio upstairs… or even used in the big window in the summer as a sun shade. Forgotten, it would sit in a corner… or behind a stack of frames where I’d eventually rediscover it. It’s accusatory white face gleaming at me… wanting to be painted and hung somewhere… anywhere. It developed a cut from something… a careless moment or pressure from some unkind frame or piece of orphaned glass leaning too close… Oops! so sorry… I hope it doesn’t hurt too much. A 4 inch gash 2 inches from one edge. Now that would have to be fixed before it could be painted… another delay!

Lucy's Snack Inspiration

Lucy’s Snack Inspiration

Several years ago… (God, this sounds awful!) I actually decided what I wanted to paint on the now spotted, fingerprinted and slashed white stretched surface. Vacationing in St Martin a few winters back, I took a photograph of a building whose orange color hurt the eyes to look at it… but, it changed the mood of the day to pass by it’s glowing walls! Everyone who walked in it’s presence looked outlined and “graphic”. One woman walked by in an outfit the same orange color. It was AWESOME! But, even though I could ‘see’ the finished painting in my mind… the start was still years away. Then……………………. I started.

Work in Progress in the photo studio... this thing is BIG!

Work in Progress in the photo studio… this thing is BIG!

The photo is fine for a photo but the painting in my head was a lot closer… a color-blocked composition with a figure walking through it. I rearranged the elements… sky, wall, roof, gate, sidewalk, street, figure… tighter and more focused… the elements becoming an abstract by themselves. Oh, and see that big hole on the right… yeah, gotta do something about that. I sketched the elements out and used a little fixative on the charcoal lines… then rough scrubbed in the blocks of color and values. Because this was so set in my mind, I felt there were few decisions that hadn’t been worked out even though I don’t remember thinking about it that much. I was just executing an already done painting. Weird… Next…

WIP 2

WIP 2

Things started picking up and I put an orange wash all over the figure and the sidewalk. Anything in front of the walls of Lucy’s Snack would glow! The under-painting let’s me work through what the values of the elements should be. I left off the iron gate because it would be easier to over-paint the wall instead of painting around the delicate lines. I really missed it as an element and couldn’t wait to get it back in.

WIP 3

WIP 3

I work on detailing some of the green metal roof, putting in a shadow for the figure on the wall and under-painting the clothing. The time of day is early morning just after sunrise with the sun low in the sky. This is when colors are their most intense, washing out in mid-day and softening in evening. This is the best time of day to photograph… and I love the light. The light is certainly an important subject of this painting. Oh, yeah… the hole is patched. Duct tape on the back and filled the gap with gesso and orange paint. Fingers crossed.

WIP-4

WIP-4

More detailing, building up that glowing color on the walls, adjusting values… darker or lighter… over-painting the clothing to the black and white in my vision… Really missing that gate. She needs that element to walk toward… to be ‘grounded’.

WIP 5

WIP 5

Finally… the gate from the unseen doorway. It adds so much… oh, well… that’s just me. Things are coming together. Lots of adjusting here and there… I think her head looks too big… so, I make it smaller from the back taking out some of the cap in the final. Seeking more movement in the skirt. Finishing the sidewalk textures and the street and painted stripes. The purse looks too important… no, just unfinished. I add a texture and more shaping, a shadow, a reflection from the white skirt on the bottom.

Morning light... Final

Morning light… Final

Is it done? Seems to be. I’m trying not to overwork it. Time will tell.

WIP face detail

WIP face detail

The canvas size makes it hard to see detail… so I’ve included these. It is great to keep a record of whatever kind of art project you’re working on.

WIP Final detail

WIP Final detail

Filling the big white space...

Filling the big white space…

So it’s done… the white canvas is no longer getting kicked from place to place. There’s a fortune in orange paint on it. The price of canvas has doubled since this one was purchased. And the empty white space in the kitchen is filled with something that reminds me of a very special place on the planet. It makes me smile… and want to plan the next trip there!

Saving Mid-Day

20 Wednesday Jun 2012

Posted by Susana Weber in Art, Image Post Processing, Learning, Photography, Uncategorized

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art, arts, bright light, dark shadows, fashion, landscape, learning, Lightroom, mid-day shooting, model, nature, outdoors, photography, Photoshop, plants, post processing, saving images

I don’t have many shoots where we’re outside after 10am in the brightest sun of the day… but it happens. In this case, we only had mid day on the hottest day of the summer in New England. We were all sweating our clothes through… except the model who never broke even a drop of sweat!! How did she do that??!! Anyway, our limited time found us outside in a garden with clear primary colors and heavy dark shadows… extremely bright highlights and an impatient and sweltering crew. A year later and I’m looking at these images with new eyes in light of having installed the new Adobe Lightroom 4 and Photoshop 6.

I’ve been testing the new features as I find them… or need them and the new organization in LR where “Fill light” is broken into Whites and Blacks, Highlights and Shadows… 4 separate sliders that really let you put your finger on what an individual image needs. In addition… in PS6 there’s a whole new “Blur” gallery that will simulate the lensbaby effects but with more precision about where the image will be blurred, what direction the blur will take, by how much, etc. Very controllable and fun to play with! There’s even a “Tilt/Shift” blur! Cool!

There’s lots more but I’d rather share some of the results of trying to do something more with all these mid-day shots. Some alternative treatments to the first which is the original. Suggestions welcome… what would you try?

Mid-day original
Mid-day original
Mid-day Fill
Mid-day Fill

Mid-day pastel blur
Mid-day pastel blur
Mid-day split tone BW
Mid-day split tone BW

Mid-day selective color
Mid-day selective color
Mid-day midnight glows
Mid-day midnight glows

Archway
Bench

We did find a little shade in corners to hide in and a few of the new tools worked better than what I was able to achieve a year ago.

Archway

Bench

Playing with fire…

18 Monday Jun 2012

Posted by Susana Weber in Abstract Macro Photography, Art, Photography, Uncategorized

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abstract, accidental image, accidental images, art, arts, clouds, hidden picture, landscape, macro, macro photo, peeling paint, photography, volcano, volcanos

Volcano 1

Volcano 1

In my ongoing and seemingly endless project of organizing my files, finding a way to work off the network that my husband and I both use… and do a little editing along the way when something interesting pops up in the files… I found a collection that I didn’t know I had! What a nice surprise. And… an odd subject as well which, makes them even more attractive to me. :) Volcanos!!!

I do realize that the hidden picture… or Accidental Image isn’t the most exciting of subjects… but, most people do identify with the phenomenon of seeing something that is an accidental occurrence… and recognizing it’s existence. The most common is perhaps the clouds that look like rabbits or profiles of people, angles or fish shapes. Just how common is it? Well, I host a group on the Redbubble site which is all about these hidden pictures and the membership has reached 800+ and there are are 16,300 images in the group collection!! Come visit the group and click on the “Gallery” in the menu to scroll through the image thumbnails. Click on any thumbnail to go to that images page.

So, here is my little collection of smokin’ mountains of molten whatever from the center of the earth… distant views with smoke spewing in metal, concrete, asphalt and a peeling paint diagram of magma tubes as plain as day. I hope I find some more!

Volcano 2

Volcano 2

Volcano 3

Volcano 3

Volcano 4

Volcano 4

Volcano 5 Magma flow

Volcano 5 Magma flow

Re-evaluating B&W in the digital world

14 Thursday Jun 2012

Posted by Susana Weber in Art, Photography, Travel ~ Photography/Art/Food/Culture, Uncategorized

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art, arts, B&W photography, landscape, nature, photo editing, photography, travel

The Sleding Hill

The Sleding Hill – Boxford, MA

The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts is presenting a marvelous new look at the works of Ansel Adams from now until October.  It’s a fascinating look at an iconic photographers work… with some surprising images that send me back to my own collection of work to re-evaluate the whole black and white idea in my own portfolio.

Peabody Essex Museum – Ansel Adams: At the Water’s Edge.

In the 60’s and 70’s my photographic interest was totally in the B&W darkroom. My husband and I would build a darkroom in the basement or bathroom of whatever apartment or house we were living in and spend our evenings in the dark with our hands in the chemicals… adjusting exposures, dodging and burning… to achieve the range of tones of the great Modernist photographer who was already a legend.

Adams system involved ‘previsualization’ which meant the artist should imagine what the final print should look like before he even took the shot. Today’s modern digital cameras provide that in the ‘scenes’ setup modes in even the least expensive models… and the digital preview on the screen that shows what you’re about to shoot… and what you have shot!! B&W and sepia toned images are possible without even the slightest bother of a darkroom tray. I wonder what Ansel would say!!

I went back to my own files, in which I’ve only made a few conversions to B&W over the past few years. I was interested to see if the modern B&W processes would turn a few of my favorite images into something new and different. I have to admit that I saw them with new eyes in their new B&W forms. The process let me visualize what they should look like before the conversion and that helped me make the decisions of tone and exposure along the way. A far cry from the smelly darkroom dodging and burning and more satisfying results!!

Rainbow from the Pass

Rainbow from the Pass – Ireland

Murphy's Pub

Murphy’s Pub – Dingle, Ireland

Garden of the Gods - Colorado Springs, CO

Garden of the Gods – Colorado Springs, CO

Johnson's Pond

Johnson’s Pond – Boxford, MA

Maple walk

Maple walk – Bradford, MA

On the road in VA

On the road – Virginia

Witch Hollow Barn

Witch Hollow Barn – Boxford, MA

Wax poodles and mermaids…

12 Tuesday Jun 2012

Posted by Susana Weber in Art, Learning, Photography, Sculpture, Uncategorized

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art, arts, learning, mermaid, mermaid sculpture, mermaids, photography, sculpture, wax

 

Mermaids 2

Mermaids 2

An unlikely combination, I’ll admit. This is tough stuff, this dark red-brown, sticks to everything medium! My dentist… or rather… my hygienist gifted me with a couple of dental tools which are very helpful with really tiny things on the small pieces. Especially helpful as they can be heated to melt just the smallest area of wax and make a tiny change. I’m not there yet. The pieces are rough but starting to take more of the graceful shapes I’m hoping I can achieve. Photographing them is also helpful from an evaluation point of view. I do see how I’d like to change a gesture… reduce or build up an area. Love the learning process and the new challenge. Can a full size mermaid sculpture feature for the garden be far away? Hmmmm…. better finish these that fit in the hand first! Deal!

Wax poodles

Wax poodles

The poodle pack 2

The poodle pack 2

Running poodle 1

Running poodle 1

Hot tools

The heated tool melts the hard wax instantly… and briefly… for removing or re-shaping the material.

The distraction of ‘found art’.

11 Monday Jun 2012

Posted by Susana Weber in Abstract Macro Photography, Art, Photography, Uncategorized

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abstract, accidental image, art, arts, hidden picture, landscape, nature, peeling paint, photography, texture

In the act of fixing a chewed piece of woodwork (aren’t puppies wonderful!!) and after applying the necessary wood filler and sculpting an edge with handy pallet knives… and the necessary sanding, etc… I finally opened the almost empty gallon of white interior latex paint to finish the job. But, my progress ground to a complete halt with the discovery of a whirlwind of winter weather on the walls of the inside of the can of paint and the round lids as well. These kinds of images have become an obsession… I’ll make my husband wait at a gas station while I capture the peeling an crackling paint on the side of a rusting dumpster. But… this is the first time I’d been delayed by the fresh paint itself dried into wintery shapes and textures in the can it came in!! I share them with you…

A can of winter in the middle of June…

Whiteout

Whiteout

Lasting impression

Lasting impression

What we don't see

What we don’t see

Perceptions

Seasonal cold

Seasonal cold

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