Learning an old lesson

I had the pleasure of meeting Clyde Butcher at the Mainsail Arts Festival in St. Petersburg, Florida in the early 1990s I believe.  Clyde was just beginning to get some exposure for his superb work in black and white capturing south Florida landscapes.  Later I recall reading a comment by Clyde that when he first started as a photographer he realized his “art” work wasn’t selling, so he paired it up with a clock mechanism.   I guess his theory was that a buyer did not necessarily want a fine art photo from an unknown photographer, but might be willing to buy a clock for the wall which just happened to have the photographer’s work in the background.

Now if you have read some of my posts, you realize I do not consider myself a practitioner of “fine” arts at all — perhaps I am more of a crafter, fashioning what I consider a pleasing image from both the camera work and the digital darkroom.

But I have stumbled on featuring the work I do on useful (more or less) decor objects: items like beach towels, tote bags, smartphone cases, and the like.  I thought I might resent having to do that sort of thing, but it turns out I really enjoy it.

For example – I feature this image in square format for some objects and in 2:1 aspect for others.   I think it makes an extremely attractive beach or poolside towel, and in square format a beach tote.  

Rebirth

Weird title, I know.  But this has been a long, long period of little if any creative ideas.

So I took a course in art.  Obviously I do not have the muscle coordination skills of an artist, although I was at one time fairly good at mechanical drawing.  But my short familiarization session seems to have unleashed my sense of — get this – color!

I had always been interested in pattern and form in photography; color came along by accident.  I seem to have awakened an interest in color nowadays — lots of it.

So I experimented with some digital graphic drawing ideas.  There are more floating around in the gray matter and I will get to them as time allows.  Meanwhile – here is Sunset 2.

For those interested in digital art, check out digital art for sale.

As my ideas come to mind, here is another in the set this time in shades of tan.

Sunset on St. George Island, Florida

In some ways perhaps, a routine sunset photo.  Taken on St. George Island, and with a little “darkroom” work there is enough light to get a sense of depth  from foreground to background.  I liked the slight reflections in the windows and doors to the right center of the image.  Have a look at the full sized image here.  Other photos of St. George Island can be seen at st. george island photographs for sale