photography
« Previous Entries Next Entries »New Roots Garden Sculpture
Thursday, June 5th, 2008
…a new addition to the Roots Garden Sculptures, from a dead thyme plant.
Yard work: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008
The Good: all the little unexpected surprises, like this toad that I never would have seen if it had not popped out of the hole at the exact moment I happened to be looking there. The clay container with a hole in the center is designed to coil and contain garden hose, but being used as a plant pot. Good: The beautiful orange flowering plant is called a Sun Star.
The Bad: having no choice about mowing the lawn on a 98*F day, and keeping edges formally trimmed because the neighbors have it that way. Also Bad: Fire ants that bite before you know you’re standing on a nest with bare feet…but Good: Fire ants keep the tough Texas soil aerated. The Ugly: me with ant-bite blisters, mowing and edging the lawn on a 98*F day.
Thunder, Sunset, and Herons
Saturday, May 31st, 2008
Three nights ago, I was out taking photos of storm clouds in the setting sun, and flock of herons crossed by.
Strawberry Fields
Sunday, May 25th, 2008
I wonder if the Anole that lives indoors with us thought it saw lunch when it climbed near the two photos of strawberries, pictures of my sons when they were two and three years old.
Green Thumb
Thursday, May 22nd, 2008
Green Thumb – photography, May 7th: A volunteer Sunflower, must be from last year’s seed, sprouted about 2 weeks ago, is already 5 feet tall with very large leaves.
Red Sunflower, photography – May 22nd: the plant is already 97 inches high, almost to the eavestrough today – that’s over 8 ft., and growing a few more inches every day. I cut off quite a few of the large lower leaves and some secondary flowers to enable the energy to go toward developing the main flower and seeds, which I definitely want to collect. There are still 19 long-stemmed secondary flowers unfolding and 8 more blooms stemming from the secondary flowers. May 26: With more secondary blooms unfolding every day, the plant is now over 9 ft. high.
June 14th: The main flower seed-head was removed. Only a few seeds may be mature enough to reproduce another plant because most of the energy has gone into secondary buds, then as those mature, smaller third and even fourth successive buds are still unfolding.
5:41 a.m.
Wednesday, May 21st, 2008
Office help
Tuesday, May 20th, 2008
Today my little friend helped with the paperwork.
Magnolia blossom
Monday, May 19th, 2008
Magnolia trees require so much energy to bloom, when they do the older leaves die and drop to the ground, temporarily leaving a rather shabby-looking tree and leaves on everyone else’s yard too. Above: a honey bee checks out the other side of a flower, and next: a flower in transition.
Plans for Sun Shower 04
Saturday, May 17th, 2008
I inadvertently leaned the large painting of Maple Leaves near the framed photo of Sun Shower 03 that hasn’t made its way to storage yet after a show.
Ever since I took that photo, left, last summer I have wanted to use the idea of dramatic light rays in a painting, but not until this morning did I think to use it in Maple Leaves. One idea leads to another; I’m also going to use some tricks I learned during the painting of Sun Shower 01 (2007) where Watercolor masking medium was dotted on the canvas with a toothpick in areas where I wanted water droplets to remain white or lighter in color.
The thumbnails here are details of that work. It worked great but I removed it too soon before finishing and the results weren’t as obvious as I had hoped, so this is another chance to try again. This time it will be creating small streaks, left it on much longer so the vibrancy of all the colors will show through when the medium is pulled off.
The painting could be left as ‘Maple Leaves’ which is how it started out, but it has that bright glare acrylics are notorious for and I see a lot of potential in trying something fantastic with this painting. It’s one of those huge decisions made at key moments in the life of a painting – to risk or not? The 84 x 45 x 3 inch Maple Leaves title is now changed to Sun Shower 04.
Photo Smoothie
Friday, May 16th, 2008
Black Sheep Grape, and a Photo Smoothie
