My Latest Project

We've had some big changes recently so its been a while since my last blog post.  I've been fully devoted to the adorable little guy in the photo below.  Our son was born in November, and I have decided to take some time off from shooting professionally, mixed media projects and my blog.  Once he is a bit older I look forward to returning to work, but for now he is going to be my one and only subject to photograph.

The Beach at Sunset - Mixed Media Project

I noticed a few of my recent mixed media projects had a similar theme & palette to them - they involved pink flowers and a green background.  For this project I mixed things up a bit!  I started with a photograph which I converted to black & white in Photoshop.  Once the photo was applied to the canvas I used pastels and acrylic paint to enhance it.  I printed out some text from a recent surf report and applied it to the canvas with gel medium.  I then painted some tape using acrylic paint and applied to the canvas when dry. Before brushing the entire canvas with gel medium to finish it, I splattered some white paint drops on the corners.

Finished canvas - The Beach at Sunset

detail #1 

detail #2

detail #3

detail #4

Walk along the harbor

It was a gorgeous day today so I went for a walk in the afternoon.  After working on the computer and running some errands it was a much needed break.  Walking along the harbor always leaves me feeling refreshed and relaxed.  I took a couple of quick photos with my iPhone, then used the Photoshop Express app on my phone.

Happy Saturday

I just love flowers!  These made me smile & although yellow isn't usually one of my favorite colors, I absolutely fell in love with these.

London

I've been watching the Olympics over the past few days so thought I would post a project completed a while ago.  The original photo was shot in London years ago while we were on vacation & is quite bad.  It was shot with a point and shoot camera before I studied photography.  If you look closely at the original photo you can see my husband in the phone booth.  Not only did I Photoshop him out of the picture, but I used several different filters and brushes and also worked with adding color and contrast. Unlike my most recent mixed media projects which are done completely on canvas, this was done entirely in Photoshop.  I really like the idea of revisiting old photos and giving them new life.

London phone booth

original photo

4th of July

Happy 4th of July from Boston!  This morning Old Ironsides made her way into the harbor, escorted from behind by the USCG Eagle, a Coast Guard ship.  So cool to see this ship from 1797 out on the water!  The weeklong festivities in such a historic city make Boston such a great place to celebrate the 4th!

Around the Neighborhood

Here are a few iPhone shots from a recent walk around our new neighborhood.

The North End, Boston

Yesterday afternoon we spent some time walking around the North End, one of our favorite Boston neighborhoods.  I took a few quick shots with my iPhone, but am looking forward to spending an entire day wandering these streets with my camera!

Our first stop was Bricco Panetteria to pick up some fabulous proscuitto & parmesan ciabatta bread.

Next stop was Salumeria Italiana for some herb marinated mozzarella and soppressata.  They had some fabulous looking bread on display in the window & lots of other Italian specialities in the store.

And no trip to the North End would be complete without stopping at Mike's Pastry for a cannoli!

Inspiration

We have made the move from CA to Boston!  It took longer than anticipated to get settled & unpacked (doesn't it always?!) but we are finally enjoying our new place.  I've got my creative space set up so that means I can finally get back to shooting photos and working on mixed media projects!  I've got a few projects on my to do list & will post them soon. The first thing I did was go to Barnes & Noble to pick up a few of my favorite sources of inspiration........

A new adventure

I am taking a break from my blog for the next several weeks while my husband and I move from the west coast to the east coast.  We really enjoyed living in southern CA and have many great memories to take with us!  This next chapter in our adventure takes us to the city of Boston.  I am excited about living in the city and look forward to all of the new opportunities it will bring.  Once we are settled into our new place I have a list of mixed media projects that I am looking forward to working on.

The beach this week

Tuesday was another gorgeous day at the beach!  I saw 2 whales, several dolphins and lots of surfers.

More tilt shift

I'm having fun shooting tilt shift.  Here's a shot from the other day.

The beach this week

I love walking on the beach.  Not only is it extremely relaxing, but its a great source of inspiration for me.  I don't always bring my camera with me, but try to at least once a week.  After a few rainy and cold days the sun and the surfers were out.  

Lone Surfer

More Mixed Media Art

Recently I finished a few more pieces in my Venice mixed media series. 

Tilt Shift

Here are a few shots taken with my point & shoot camera using the tilt-shift mode. What a fun function!

New Mixed Media Artwork

There has been a flurry of mixed media activity over the past week.  I'm posting 2 pieces that I just finished from my ongoing Venice Series.  Along with each piece is a detail shot showing a closer view of the canvas and the texture of the wax. Check back later this week for more new work!

The beach this week

I'm not sure if winter is going to show up or if its taking the year off.  The unseasonably warm weather has been absolutely fantastic.  This was snapped with my iPhone during a walk to the beach.  Happy Friday!

Fun with Point & Shoot

This weekend the weather was unseasonably warm and sunny so I just had to be outside.  I grabbed my pocket sized point & shoot camera and headed out to a fantastic spot that overlooks the harbor in Dana Point.  I decided to play around with a few functions I hadn't tried yet. 

This panoramic photo of the harbor was taken using stitch assist.  The stitch assist was very helpful with lining up the horizon in all of the photographs.  This made it really easy to combine all 6 photographs together on my computer.  This is a very cool function and I can't wait to use it again.

I then played around with the tilt-shift function, which is definitely cool!  I'm going to play around with this function some more this week & will have more photos to post. 

Mixed Media Article

 The March/April issue of Somerset Studio is on newsstands!  I am very excited to have an article in this issue along with one of my pieces featured on the cover.  The mixed media artwork I created was made using photographs taken during our trip to Venice.  Pick up a copy at Barnes & Noble or Michaels to read about the process.  I've got a few more canvases that I'm working on and will post photos of those once they are finished.

More Mixed Media Beginnings

Experimenting with photography in the darkroom is where my interest in mixed media began.  I was very interested in altering photographs and especially giving them a dream-like quality.  The images below were again shot with film and done by hand in the darkroom, no Photoshop or digital alterations.  A custom negative holder was created to give the photos very soft and 'torn' edges.  The negatives were exposed through a sheet of tissue paper, which gives them a very soft and distorted quality. 

It has been quite some time since I've shot & experimented with film, maybe its time to get out the old Pentax or Holga.

Mixed Media Beginnings

I have always loved experimenting with photography and my first experiments took place in the darkroom.  Garden Dream Series was a project that involved several unique aspects, all done strictly in the darkroom, no Photoshop!  The objective of the project was to create dreamlike images that depicted a walk through a garden.

The first step was to photograph two different subjects individually - nature scenes and self portraits.  I then constructed a special negative holder that would sandwich two negatives at the same time.  These were then exposed simultaneously through a sheet of glass that had Vaseline smeared along the edges.  The overlapping of images, and the distorted edges that the Vaseline provided gave the images a dream like quality.

The first image, Garden Dream 1, was awarded an Honorable Mention in the Plano Art Associations National Juried Show.

Garden Dream 1

Garden Dream 2

Purple Flowers

Several months ago when my sister moved into a new building for work she requested some flower photographs for the walls of her new office.  Since Christmas was approaching I thought it would be a great gift idea.  Her favorite color is purple and we just happen to have an abundance of purple flowers in our garden.  I decided to frame 4 photographs in such a way that when positioned on the wall it would seem like she was looking out of a window onto a garden of purple flowers.