Friday, October 10, 2014

Panoramic Photos

Since 2005 I have had these panoramic photo prints rolled up but never mounted.  While touring Utah and the southwest I made various attempts at wide angle photos using a digital SLR camera. I digitally stitching them together using a function in Photoshop. The best ones were printed at a service in Georgia nine years ago. These are 12 in. high and 48 in. wide or more. I wanted to finally display them properly.

I was referred to Tom Brock to mount them for me. He runs Imagine Fine Art Printing in St. Augustine.

The paper on those old prints had deteriorated so Tom offered to make new prints using his modern Epson giclee printer. With additional editing by both of us the quality of the images improved enormously! There was so much more to see which was lost in the older photos. The mounting was flawless. He offered a black sintra PVC board as the substrate with just a small border to protect the print edges. I did not want glass so he suggested a hanging technique called a French cleat. I was familiar with this when hanging cabinets. It was an ideal way to display these very wide pictures securely, flat and with a shallow space away from the wall.


I enjoyed working on this project with Tom. He is meticulous and demonstrates a mastery of his printing technique. We both had strong memories of these places like Lake Powell and Canyonlands and we shared stories of our times there. He's an excellent resource for photographers and artists in the north Florida area.
 
Tom Brock in his St. Augustine print shop

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Nothing Very Much To See

I have come close to the finish of this painting on canvas and perhaps this is the completed version.
Nothing Very Much To See
acrylic on canvas
45 in. x 52 in.
2014

It has gone through so many stages beginning in 1984. In the last month I've renewed my interest and included some recent ideas and energy. The visual layering is still an important aspect. In this particular painting the earlier spiral design was very dominant. It took special attention to cover yet also retain this spiral or at least some aspects of it. It retains a reference to some artistic themes I was focused on decades ago.

A couple of phrases are included at the bottom. I had some fun with the letters, their meanings and visual movement. Its the movement of the eye across the picture which fascinates me. I am feeding the vision while provoking the mind to consider some implications of an overused expression.

This is currently still on unstretched canvas. I may keep it this way. Its feeling as an object is akin to a rug, tapestry or banner. It makes it a bit different to display, having no structure to hold it up. I will let it be for a while to wait and see. Absolutely!

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Winterhawk Studio

Here is the look in my studio yesterday. I needed to pull out a large canvas from the back of the stacks so I spread them out in the available space and on the floor.
There is a span here of paintings from the 1980's to last month. My cell phone was set on panorama mode and stitched these individual stills into a wide view automatically in the camera phone.