Day 17 Light in Blue Blues

I happened to be staring at light coming in a small basement window and was mesmerized by how everything else in the room disappeared as I focused on the light. Our brains are amazing how they alter reality. Anyway, today's painting deals with this perception.

Tomorrow morning I head out to Ocean Shores, WA for a couple of days of solitary thought and perhaps some enlightenment as to who I want to be when I grow up. It's a traditional birthday vision quest.

My thanks to Mel's daughter-in-law for graciously allowing me to stay at their family vacation cottage. It will be interesting to see what I paint the two days I'm there. I don't think I'll be able to upload them until I return, but I'll see if I can do it all via my iPhone.

The World Through Filters ...

Today I thought about how we see things. I've been playing a lot with effect filters and it is amazing to me how I am affected differently by the same image filtered, resulting in different effects.

It got me to mulling over how differently I see things if I'm sad or depressed, or if I'm ebullient and on top of the world. The same darn thing looks one way if I'm stressed about something my children are going through, and totally different when their issues have been optimistically resolved. Our emotions color what we see, don't they.

How many times are we told things like, "Just go out and take a walk around the block. Things will look better if you simply get out of the house and breathe in some fresh air." (It works, by the way.)

There are painters who create photorealism with their brushes and paint, but the reality of photography is changing, evolving ... anything goes! It is what it is, until it's something else.

Perhaps this is one reason I have such a blast experimenting with these various filters.

Today's photographs were shot back at Hansen's Orchard, and, yes, I have altered my images. This is the reality of how I see them at the moment.


This crate of apples was edited
with a Paint Fresco effect



Oh my! I love zinnias. They're such an
old-fashioned flower that touch me for some
unfathomable reason.
These have been edited with a Poster Edges effect.