Photo Art Friday, June 14th

Hi there!  Hope this post finds you well and enjoying your life.

It's Thursday, so that means it's time again for Photo Art Friday!  Our virtual art gallery opens its doors early to accommodate our photo-artists in other time zones.

Hard to believe that it has been two months since our last virtual photo-art showcase. The doors to our virtual gallery open Thursday and close Saturday.  That gives you lots of time to create or select a piece of photo art to share, if you have not done so already.  If you are new to Photo Art Friday, you can read the guidelines for participation here.

Regulars will recall that you are always welcome to feature any piece of your photo-art here ... AND, if you wish you can create some photo-art in line with the optional theme. The optional theme for this edition of Photo Art Friday is:   DREAMY or ETHEREAL.

Before displaying my photo-art, thought I would share some of my recent creations from playing with paint.  Actually, these photographs are now from a couple of weeks ago.

A peek at one of the work tables in the studio.

This one was photographed as a WIP (work-in-progress).  Some white has since been added to the background, among other tweaks.  I love the sort of eerie mystery and monochromatic tones of this one.  I'll be doing some other versions with different colours.  (Click on the image to enlarge.)

This quasi abstract image was created using only a metal spatula - slapping areas of colour on the canvas and then carving the trees and branches into the colours with the corner of the spatula.  The path was created by simply smoothing the area with the spatula and the leaves were made by patting the spatula up and down on the areas.  Yes, I had to add some green blobs of paint to the canvas in the appropriate areas for those leaves.

This piece hardly qualifies as a painting - not sure what to call it.  When I completed this piece it reminded me of something but I could not put my finger on exactly what it was.  Then my son said it looked like native American Indian totem art - the kind seen in British Columbia.  That was it!

Unplanned cracks appeared in a lot of the paint due to a glossy 'pouring' medium used to thin the paint. I actually love all the cracks.  No brushes were harmed in the making of this piece!  All the paint was poured onto the surface.  Guess I should call it a 'pouring' rather than a painting!

Now for this week's 'dreamy' photo art:

A coral-colored poppy made pink and dreamy with simple edits in Photoshop Elements.

To achieve the dreamy look I played with a pale gradient fill - among other manipulations in Photoshop.



I have decided to have only one Photo Art Friday per month - on the first Friday of every month.  This new schedule will begin on Friday, August 2nd.  I'm skipping July for health and holiday reasons.



The optional theme for August 2nd's edition of PAF is:

A photo-art collage sampler that also includes one of the following features -

*  your name (or initials), or

*  the name (or initials) of your blog or website, or

*  the name (or initials) of your business

This could turn into a useful project that can be used as a background or header for your blog/website;  business cards;  shipping labels; etc. etc. 

(A tip:  Add the initials or name to the collage using a separate layer.  Then you can easily remove it and use the photo-art collage sampler as is - for other purposes.) 

This may seem like a big project, but you have about six weeks until August 2nd to create something using your photo-art, your editing skills to make a collage sample of your photo art, and featuring as much or as little 'self-promotion' (3 choices above) as pleases you.