Combining grayscale and color imagery

I've used some black and white photos in my collage work in the past, but decided to try using the entire background as a grayscale image in this piece. I used a shadow to help the color image "hover" over the background; I also combined horizontal and vertical strips in the featured color image.

I find that most of the appeal of black and white photos is the starkness of the image and how it makes us see it differently. I'm not sure that effect carries into cutting the image into strips...more experimentation might be called for.

This piece is 11" x 14" and depicts the Big Sable Light near Ludington,  MI. The background is a sand dune on Lake Michigan.

Venice!

For my summer show in Michigan I'm making art that features views at the edge of water. This is my "digital impressionism" view from the Guggenheim along the Grand Canal in Venice. We visited there in December 2015 and thoroughly enjoyed the Guggenheim art museum, St. Mark's Basilica, the canal rides and the city of Venice. What an amazing place!

This 10"x20" artwork includes script superimposed in the sky from a letter I photographed in a museum in Bologna, Italy. There are also embedded pieces of ledger paper in the buildings and handmade blue paper in the water.

Multiple-scene collage

In this collage, I wanted to evoke the memories of a day at the beach. The three collages are 10", 8" and 6" squares of scenes in Western Michigan along the lakeshore near Ludington.

Beach still life

Love the beach life? Here's a new 10" x 10" collage of shells, with a surf feel at the bottom. I've added in a few shell postage stamps to this one as well.

Still life

Recognizing that not everyone responds to landscapes, I thought I should do some still life scenes for my upcoming show in Michigan. I took a photograph of some shells I'd collected -- arranged on top of a rustic cabinet. In Photoshop, I ghosted a band of color along one side and then made three digital variations of the image to print out. Cutting those three prints into strips, I assembled the scene from the strips on a 12x12 panel. Then I added some seashell postage stamps and art papers to the band of color. I hope this evokes memories for the viewer of vacations at the beach and collecting shells as souvenirs.

Experiment

I chose a photo of a great blue heron standing serenely above the water and decided to make an active band of color along the vertical edge. I posted the collage on my art Facebook page and asked for input. Several people wanted to see some of the water in the band of color, so the second photo shows the revised version. "Edge of Morning" 12"H x 9"W.

More shore scenes

Working on some fun beach images for my show in Grand Haven, Michigan, July-August 2017.
I've also opened an Etsy shop LoriReedArt.