Transitions – “The Gift of Red”
I am overwhelmed with the possibilities.
It begins in the garden, any good garden where I may be blessed to work. Here, Sherry Merciari’s complex Hortisexual garden. (Hortisexuals being the band of horticulturally obsessed who use their garden as a way to contain their plant lust.) But any good garden offers a photographer many possibilities.
In gardens I go looking for art, wandering the living art that surrounds me, often overwhelmed. Yet always my renderings must be in 2 dimensions, in a small image, in a way that communicates what I feel and what I see. Recently this rendering into two dimensions has become a new adventure, a new art with overwhelming possibilities itself.
Four of the states of “The Gift of Red” before they were merged to photomontage
When I started the Mental Seeds blog it was a response to my detached retina in November 2010. I became acutely aware of photography’s limitations of 2 dimensions. Even though I had always been working in 2 dimensions, I had been seeing, like most folks, in 3 dimensions with 2 good eyes. Now that I was seeing in 2 dimensions with one good eye only, I became much more aware of limitations – and possibilities.
Since then, I have been exploring new ways of expressing what I actually see. As I learn PhotoShop techniques I am also learning to express what I really see, what I see as an artist, what shapes, shimmerings, and delicious compositions a garden provides.
I have come to consider myself an artist. What I actually see, what I really see as an artist, is not at all what I see as a journalist. As a journalist I see details, I see reality.
The journalist sees this Restio Chondropetalum tectorum in Sherry’s garden
As an artist I see broad blocks of color, tapestries of textures, movement and life flowing through garden spaces filled with another artist’s, a garden artist’s, creations.
The artist sees this Restio as an explosion of color and line in the garden
The possibilities to communicate the gardener’s gifts are overwhelming – and exhilarating. I am barely scratching the surface but thrilled with the explorations. I am truly beginning to understand the “state” of a fine art print, the states the artist takes it through to completion. Completion being that imperfect state when it is time to move to a new image, to try something different.
I have been trying a LOT of different techniques recently. I have a lot to get out, so that I can move on. It is a joy to have a lot of images to play with, to explore, to dig deep into and to bring out a beauty that is not about details, a beauty that is best in 2 dimensions.
A lot of images have just come as gifts from Sherry’s garden that I photographed last summer. When I see them I remember the shapes, the lines, the textures, and tapestries, not the details.
To illustrate what I see, I am trying different techniques, different states of expression. Four of the many states of “The Gift of Red” that created the montage to open this story are following.
The beginnings, from under an eave behind a large magenta Impatiens overlooking a garden pond:
Original version of holt_1065_017 – “The Gift” statue in Sherry Merciari garden
The photo as an artistic expression became “The Gift of Red”. The statue is “The Gift” (by Vicki Jo Sowell) and she is hoisting up a platter of fresh red flowers. An offering Sherry put in the garden just for me I am sure. A gift of red to draw attention, to create a focal point, a warm touch in a tapestry of green.
I then used PhotoShop’s Oil Paint filter on a smaller, derivative file. The filter’s effect is much more pronounced in the smaller file.
First abstracted state of “The Gift of Red” using Photoshop Oil Paint filter
I like it, but wanted to get more into the blocks of color that underlie the composition and blend them, so I then used Topaz Simplify filter. As I worked with the filter’s various settings and abstracted the image, the single spot of red became less important and spots of warm colors began to arrange themselves in the composition.
Second abstracted state of “The Gift of Red” now using Topaz Simplify filter
The blocks seemed too much a “paint by number” obvious manipulation, (especially because I was also playing with the Adjustments > Replace Color tool to warm up the magenta impatiens), and I lost some of the swirling motion of the composition, so I re-oiled the file:
Third abstracted state of “The Gift of Red” re-using the Oil Paint filter
Then to soften and blur the crude strokes, I found a new filter for me, the Median filter designed to reduce noise, found in the PhotoShop toolset as Noise > Median. *(Jump to bottom to see Adobe’s description of the Median filter)
Fourth abstracted state of “The Gift of Red” now using Photoshop Noise > Median filter
This state of the print is still a work in progress. I want to emphasize here, this is meant to be a print – a large print, not a small rectangle viewed at close range on a computer screen. Step away, imagine it from across a large room.
More gifts from Sherry’s Garden.
This montage of the Spider Agave that Sherry put into a cement bird bath looks great simply as a row of images.
Progress to abstraction from Raw to finally removing a dead leaf in center bottom
Here is the before:
Squid Agave (A. bracteosa) in cement dish in Sherry’s garden
and after, the third state:
Spider or Squid Agave (A. bracteosa) – A gift in Sherry’s garden
More abstractions to follow in the next Mental Seeds. Meanwhile follow them on my Facebook Fan Page
*This is what Adobe says about the Median filter:
“The Median filter reduces noise in a layer by blending the brightness of pixels within a selection. The filter searches for pixels of similar brightness, discarding pixels that differ too much from adjacent pixels, and replaces the center pixel with the median brightness value of the searched pixels. This filter is useful for eliminating or reducing the appearance of motion in an image, or undesirable patterns that may appear in a scanned image.”
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Stunning work Saxon! Picasso? Dali? And I’m not comparing, I’m just saying that’s what frame of mind your work puts me in. And you can be sure that while I was viewing your offerings here I did indeed “step away” and imagine that I was viewing it “from across a large room.”
(I love the term “hortisexual” and always see the underlying eroticism in all gardens.)
Thanks TC – Art inspiration comes from many places and I am trying to explore two things right now, both the impressionistic feeling you get from looking at a Monet Notre Dame Cathedral, where you can only tell what you are looking at from a distance; and I am in love with abstract expressionist such as Jackson Pollack.
I am looking for ways to express what I see, no telling where this ends up
The Hortisexuals are a very loosely organized group here in Northern California, with friends and associates around the world. A fun loving, irreverent group with an intimidating plant knowledge.
It is so much fun to explore the options that such a powerful program affords. The compositions are endless in technique and variety. You are just tipping the iceberg in what you will experience in your explorations.
I just returned from St. Lucia on Wednesday, and everywhere I looked there was a painting to be completed in front of me. The colors and textures of everything – garden plants, sea, sky, birds, fish, presented endless opportunity. I said more than once that I should paint my photographs, better yet, set up an easel. With all the places you have been and the gardens you photographed, you have many paintings awaiting you.
When I returned, I went to the Fling site and saw that there is a session with YOU! I am so excited about this. I hope you talk about what you will be teaching, guiding and helping us with in your presentation.
I see heart here, an artist you are.
Thanks Suz – workin’ on it
I really like the final shot of the Spider of Squid – no, I love it. Now was final rendition after the third state as in: PS Oil Filter, Topaz, Oil Filter repeated?
Phil that last state of the Agave had no more filters. I removed a leaf and adjusted some levels but no more Oil Paint.
Thanks for dropping by
I’m blown away by the explosions of color you present. It really is quite magical. I’m intrigued by your technique and look forward to learning more. And I agree with Susan, an artist you are.
Thanks Carolyn. Part of my madness in describing my thinking process is to remember what I did in each photo transformation. I find myself getting lost in these things, spending hours even days trying this or that filter Adjustment layer. I really don’t know PhotoShop well enough to predict what is going to happen and I have to flatten many states in order to get the effect I am aiming for. (“flatten” is a photoshop term where you merge the layers of adjustment to one state of the print). By writing it down I can sorta remember the history of what works – or not
Saxon, as always, my husband and I are totally enthralled with your work. I was taken by the abstraction you did on the agave. As for the water garden scene, I absolutely loved the first abstraction but then it got a little too abstract for me. What it does show me, however, is your versatility — combining photography with art. You have such an eye for details, color, and then how to manipulate it all.
I must say, however, that that is one of the most stunning images of a water garden I’ve ever seen. If I were going to use that particular image in my home, I would have you crop to cut out the figurine and trim off the left side where a porch or deck or some sort of extension from the home is shown on the left. I love the intense purples and greens and would definitely want to keep that detail probably because those are my favorite colors and water lilies are very special to me. And I’d try to do it in such a way to include the chair – a favorite place to sit and enjoy nature.
I knew this technique would be something one of our cousins would be completely intrigued with – not just because he loves abstract art, but because he would really appreciate the artistic talent.
Ourcousin, Ralph Schiller, is a retired PhD theoretical physicist who decided to something more “hands on” (he spent his entire professional life, well, thinking – well into his mid-70′s). So he dug through his archives of photos and took quite a few more when he and his late wife were able to travel with the goal of manipulating his photographs digitally but in a very different way. He had a gallery showing when he was about 80. He sends us pictures of his latest efforts along with essays about once a month. We love him to pieces and don’t see nearly as often as we would life. (He lives almost 6 hours away.) Interestingly, he hasn’t photographed much in nature that I can recall.
I just emailed him a link to GGW so he could see what you’ve done here – he will like the water garden sequence for certain! We have a pair of his prints – the Brooklyn Bridge and the Roman Aqueducts taken from similar angles showing the symmetry in the architectural elements.
He does what is essentially the opposite of what you did here. He took away the vivid, defined colors in each photograph and transformed them into recognizable but artistically altered images colored in charcoal, cream, burnt orange and dark gray with an ivory background. They definitely have a more abstract feel but you can see the details and recognize them quite nicely. They look like paintings but they aren’t, and they are stunning. He likes abstract art far more than I do so he will love what you did with the water garden.
And lastly, my husband especially liked the term hortisexual … with a wiggling of his eyebrows, and a slight chuckle in his voice, he said, “and here, all along, I thought you were just a genius in the garden. If I’d known all along it was THIS…. we probably wouldn’t have gotten as much gardening done. I told him “Fat Chance”.. the roses done get pruned by themselves!” LOL!
I will close this now by sharing with you that we have been praying that you are now totally healed from your accident, feeling great and back at work. I see you have the latest post on GGW – and a great one for me!
Happy New Year, and I hope the weather where you are is much kinder.
Cathy and Steve
Cathy – You always have such warm (a lengthy :-) ) comments. Thanks for your thoughts and well wishes. The wonderful thing about learning how to abstract photos with these tools is the unlimited ways any of us can take it. Some of these ‘states’ in retrospect may go too far, some are never ‘done’, some open the doors to new explorations. All good and ever onward…