Another Chicago scene

After getting good feedback on the last blog posting and in email concerning the Chicago landscape piece, I worked with an interesting photo I'd taken in Millennium Park, downtown Chicago. This view stopped me in my tracks when walking through the park last autumn. All of the upward movement of columns and buildings intersecting with the sweeping curve ... the old architecture and the new... the unexpected angle of the tall building in the upper right corner overlapped by the bit of vine with red blossoms - wow! So, I made some digital alterations of the photo - including combining one with a filter called "acidic", which seemed appropriate for what city buildings deal with - and started combining strips. Interesting how I can divide an image into a series of horizontal pieces and the vertical thrust is still quite strong in the image!

And now for something completely different!

I wanted to see how my technique worked with a complex city scene, so I chose a photo I'd taken while riding on Lake Shore Drive into downtown Chicago from the north. Hmmm, we're hoping to go into the city later this month, so I think I'll be taking some more photos of street scenes and buildings....

It needed something...

After living with this 24" x 18" collage for awhile, I decided it needed something in the middle ground. I decided to add a rock into the grassland. Presto Change-o! I like it better now.  :-)

It all worked out

The woman who commissioned two pieces from me (see April 23rd post) to go with two others she'd purchased from Xanadu Gallery sent an email after they'd received the package. She said they really loved the barrel cactus close-up piece, but it wasn't working with the grouping and was like the song form Sesame Street "One of these just doesn't belong here..." HA! I told her I wondered if it would "play well with others" as it had a very dominant personality. She expressed interest in getting another 12"x12" landscape of mine at Xanadu, so we decided she should ship the cactus piece to the gallery and they would send her the landscape. She sent this photo of how the arrangement looks with the watercolor they already owned. They're very happy with the grouping and I think it looks great!

Marion Fine Arts Festival

One of the places that sells my art is Campbell Steele Gallery in Marion, Iowa. (Marion is adjacent to Cedar Rapids.) They have an annual Marion Arts Festival in the city park right across the street from the gallery and the day of the festival is a busy one in the gallery. (The festival is ranked #17 among the top tier of fine art events in the nation!) The gallery owner asked me to send some more pieces for the event, held May 26th. I'm working on one more piece and will then send four 8"x8" pieces and four 12"x6" works.

Commissions Complete

I completed my commissions and sent them off on Friday. I've been doing mostly landscapes, so working on the close up of the cactus was really fun and gives me new ideas to pursue...check back to see!

Studio Time

I've been spending as much time in my studio as I can. I started the above piece last weekend and then worked on it during the week whenever possible. It is another 24"W x 18"H piece to submit to the Cincinnati "Art Comes Alive" exhibition. In addition to the three digital variations of the photo of the Hoodoos in Yellowstone, I've added sections of topographical maps of the park and photos I took of animals in Yellowstone. There are tiny images of: 1 bear, 1 coyote, 4 bison and 6 antelope (you can actually see some of them if you click on the image to show it larger). I'm calling this piece "Hidden Life" due to those hidden images and also referencing all the other hidden life within the park.

I needed to get the Yellowstone piece finished and off my drawing board as I now have two commission pieces to complete by the end of the month! A woman in Chicago purchased two of my desert collages she'd seen at Xanadu Gallery and asked me to make two more for a grouping of art. The images above are the two photos of mine she chose for me to work with. I started the cactus grouping today....