Holiday Spectacular

Every year at Rogers Gardens there are entire rooms devoted to Halloween and Christmas displays.

I took one of my granddaughters to see them.

There were pumpkins galore in all manner of colors, sizes and shapes....

even a display with a pumpkin man in a vintage tricycle

and a scary skeleton creature from the Halloween display.

A few Christmas displays.....

I liked the stone angel so much I extracted her as best I could and created my own "Angel of Love".

Hot Pink Geranium

In my attempt to use the macro setting on my point and shoot, I got this somewhat blurred 

image, but I love

the hot pink color and decided to play with it in PSE.

From here I changed blend modes to get the black background.

I then added an impressionistic texture I made and a French Kiss texture "Purple Prose".

I think I like this result the best.

  For fun I added Bonnie's "Leafy Landscape" texture just to see.  

I've seen so many great blogs with incredible images and even better processing with and

without textures.  Just look what Andrea of "From the Sol" did with the

"Leafy Landscape" texture.  Also check out Phyllis' images from "A Place to Hang My Pictures"

using the same texture.

JACARANDA BEAUTY

I've finally come up for a little air.....I was so immersed in painting.  Bonnie of Photo Art Friday gave us a beautiful new texture to use in our entries for PAF.  It's called "Leafy Landscape"

First I applied it to an image I have of a very large jacaranda tree in my neighborhood.

Did not do too much to it other than change the blend mode.

I tweaked it a bit more and added a frame from On One

Then I added a Topaz preset and another frame from On One.  I love the riot of color in this one.  Easy peasy.

Come join us to see the other interpretations using Bonnie's texture.  Just click on the button below.

Bloom True Painting Update

I have to admit I'm questioning where to go from here.

Canvas 1 below...

Canvas 2 below...

I'm at the point of deciding which images and colors to keep and which to let go.  Therefore, I'm contemplating for a day or two.  I seem to do just little bits at a time now.  Gone is

the wild abandon of making marks and throwing just any color on.  What decisions will I make?

I can't tell you right now.  I'm stuck at the moment.  Reminds me of that commercial

"I've fallen and I can't get up!"   LOL

I teeter between telling myself this is just practice and wanting to see a really finished result that I can

get excited about.   Who knows?  It may take me a year to finish these, but I hope not.  I 

can say it's been a really fun class.

MAKING MORE INTERESTING IMAGES

I regularly receive newsletters from Kat Eye Studio.  Kat always has some welcome tips

for photography that 

seem so simple.  Yet I don't always think of them.   The most recent newsletter focused on 

"Allowing Space" and the "Process of Elimination".  For this post I will 

focus on "Process of Elimination".  

How many times have we taken photos and they just don't have that special area of focus?

I decided to randomly choose some of my less than stellar photos and 

put her suggestion to use.

Here you will see a very ordinary image of a bicycle (my baby "Peggy Sue").  By cropping it, I think 

the result is far more interesting.

I wanted to eliminate the annoying shadows as much as possible.

Next, a photo I took at a mall in my area.  It's okay but just okay.  I wanted to capture the long corridor.

I found this photo of Mike and Ollie in my archives.

I thought it would benefit from some "elimination".   Awwww, aren't they cute?  Look at

those adoring eyes!

And, finally, an image I took at Rogers Gardens in Newport Beach.

It needed a layers adjustment.  I also wanted to eliminate the man in the blue shirt if 

possible. I could have cropped the door out, but I

would have lost some of the pumpkins.  It still has the annoying

fawcet in the foreground.     I could clone that out if I really want

to make this image "perfect", but you get the idea.

You can get some more great ideas from Kat -- perhaps sign up for her newsletter.  She also 

does some great workshops.  I've taken one on "Finding Your Eye"-- very good!

  

Look Up!

This week our theme for Texture Tuesday is "Look Up".  I found this wonderful image I took looking 

up in the canopy of a huge ficus. 

I used Kim's "Celine" texture on Exclusion  and the poster edges filter to get this.

I also found this image I took at the mall looking up at a decorative framework overhead.

I gave it a couple treatments starting with a Topaz preset and Kim's "cool grunge" texture on Exclusion.

I tweaked it again with another Topaz preset still using Kim's "cool grunge" texture.

I think the first mall picture is my favorite.  Looks like a big storm is coming in that one.

Come on over and join us at Kim's linky party.  There will be lots of "looking up" interpretations to

admire.

Love Me When I Need It the Most

I tried  one of Kim Klassen's recipes from the Test Kitchen.  I'm very fond of her

textures and the dreamy, romantic look she achieves with her textures.

The sentiment is from one of Kim's brush sets.  This week's Texture Tuesday called for at least one of

Kim's textures -- I used "Reverie" here.

The frame is from On One's Photo Essentials, and I like the sort of off center-ness of it.  Not sure if it's 

supposed to be off center but it is.

See, I couldn't stay away from photo editing for any length of 

time.  I feel rusty just leaving it for a few days.

Now back to painting........

Linking to:

Lower the Water Level

Flora, my painting instructor, tells us to imagine that we all have connected roots (so to speak) hidden

below the water.  She has encouraged us to lower the water level to show more of ourselves -- 

that is, our authentic selves.  So, my friends, I'm lowering the water level here by telling you 

I have experienced all kinds of emotions in this class.  At several points, I could hear my

inner critic telling me I really am not a painter.  I took the time to look at my paintings hanging

on the wall to remind myself that, in fact, I am a painter.  

When I look at these paintings still pretty much in the beginning stages, I have to keep telling myself to

 trust the process.   I have to tell myself very loudly, because it's easy to get

discouraged.  I've never painted like this.  It is at once freeing and discouraging.  That's because I'm

expecting them to look like something!

I've been really hesitant to post these images but today I'm lowering the water level and

just baring my self/paintings for all to see.  She used a quote from Dr. Seuss --

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind” -Dr. Suess

I think that puts things in perspective, doesn't it.

I'm adding another layer or two today.  

Have a beautiful, peaceful, happy day!  You deserve it.