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In staying with the subject matter of lasts weeks post about our week in San Diego County, I have attached four pictures that tell the weather story of the week. The beginning of the week started with storm clouds and dreary weather. There was what was left of a hurricane and now a tropical depression to the west of the Baja in Mexico that was changing course and heading towards the Baja Peninsula and eventually the Desert Southwest of the US grazing Southern California in the process. Having lived in San Diego for over 24 years and then Arizona for the last 5, not anything unusual and actually kind of welcome rain for the desert. This particular storm brought drizzle and light rain to the San Diego area and multiple inches of rain to Arizona. Having said all of that, it moved quickly and I was able to get some before and after pictures along the beach where we were staying. The pictures present two totally different aspects of beach life in San Diego County.

The first two say to me….”beach season over”…”pack it up and get the heck inside”. The clouds give such an ominous look to the coastline. Both shots are looking southward towards the city of San Diego.

Then just a couple of days later, I took the following two pictures. (click link for more info to go to original post on Wordpress)

Looking south towards the city of San Diego. You can actually see the bluffs of La Jolla on the horizon.

This capture is looking north towards Oceanside and the mountain ridge in Camp Pendleton leading into Orange County and Los Angeles.

Thoughts?

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After spending the month of September unpacking (yes, we have a lot of stuff), my wife and I took an R&R and spent last week at the beach in San Diego County. We had a place in Carlsbad where we stayed with a fabulous ocean view. I have attached two shots I took of two separate sunsets.

The lighting obviously is different between 1 and 2 with the first sunset captured as the sun emerged from behind a cloud versus the second sunset which was taken as dusk had settled in and the last sliver of the sun was ready to slip below the horizon

Having lived and raised our family in San Diego County for 24 years, we spent the week catching up with old friends, former co-workers and employees. My sister and her husband also live in the county, so was great spending time with them. It dawned on us that we did have an ocean view from our house (albeit 3.5 miles inland), but nothing compares to having the ocean at your door step so to speak. Was fun sleeping at night listening the sound of the surf and getting up each morning with surfers flocking to the beach to catch some waves before starting their day.

We left almost 6 years ago and have been back a couple of times for family functions with my sister, but it just felt calming being back in the “hood” where we had lived so long. I will be sharing a number of shots from that week over the next few.

For those of you geographically curious, you probably know San Diego lies south of Los Angeles (120 miles) and is adjacent to the Mexican border. What you may not know is that it’s the 8th largest city in the United States and the 2nd largest city in California. That last fact surprises most people as they assume San Francisco is. The Bay Area surpasses the metropolitan area of San Diego by a long shot, but San Francisco (the city of) doesn’t encompass the population you would think. The county itself follows the Pacific Coastline on the west and includes a mountain range on the east. The city proper encompasses a large portion of the county but there are numerous towns along the coastline going north to Camp Pendelton such as Del Mar, Solana Beach, Encinitas, Carlsbad and Oceanside and then inland along the northern tier.

One more fun fact: San Diego Bay is the site of the first European setting foot on what is now known as the West Coast of The United States.

Thoughts?

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While helping Mom and Dad introduce our granddaughter to animals at the Los Angeles Zoo last fall, the Flamingos caught my attention. I have always loved the look of Flamingos and their coloring. Looking at some of the images I took from a photo shoot, I visualized them in a unique abstract colorful form. I started by drawing the Flamingos in various stages of walking and feeding. I then filled the forms with a variety of vibrant colors. I took those creations and ran them through a digital painting process that creates strong “impasto style” brush stokes. The attached art prints are the resulting images.

Thoughts?

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This week I am featuring two art prints I created representing some of the palm trees surrounding a small lake in Papago Park which is located in Phoenix, Arizona. Papago Park has a very unique history starting with being named a reservation for local Maricopa and Pima aboriginal Americans in 1879. In 1914 it was designated a National Monument and that designation was later rescinded in 1930. During the Great Depression, the state established a fish hatchery on the land (thus the lakes that are still here today) and during WWII it housed a POW camp. Ultimately the land was sold to the city of Phoenix in 1959 and currently is home to the Desert Botanical Garden, The Phoenix Zoo and the park itself with hiking trails and unique red rock geological features.

Walking around one of the lakes I was mesmerized by the palm trees lining one of the lakes and chose to recreate the scene using a digital painting technique that was true to the colors and shapes I was seeing.

Thoughts?

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I’m featuring four art prints this week that I created from a photo shoot I did a couple of years ago from a visit my wife and I took to San Antonio. I hadn’t been to the River Walk since I was a young adult and my wife had never been. We had business in Austin and since the two cities are only about an hour and a half apart, we took a day for me to introduce her to the infamous River Walk. From that shoot, I used a two different watercolor techniques to soften up the images.

For those of you who have not had the pleasure of visiting the River Walk, it is along the San Antonio River in downtown San Antonio. It sits about one story below street level and winds throughout the downtown area. When you descend onto the River Walk, it feels like you have just entered another world. The hustle and bustle of street traffic disappears to the quiet of a peaceful river walk lined with restaurants and shops.

The first two pictures I created using a slightly abstract watercolor technique that creates small abstract shapes to “paint” the picture. They give you a better perspective of the walkway as it winds along both sides of the river. Love the trees as they shade all of the outdoor cafes.

The last two pictures, I used a more traditional watercolor technique giving you a view of two different outdoor cafes.

Thoughts?

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I use the sepia filter in my photography for old vintage subjects to reinforce the historic look. Today I am featuring two covered wagons I came across in Oregon when I was doing a photoshoot of covered bridges. They were on the grounds of a local museum and of course I couldn’t resist the opportunity to shoot them. Presenting them using sepia tone to duplicate the old chemical process in developing film seemed an obvious choice for the subject matter.

As I looked at these covered wagons, I couldn’t help but think how it would have been traveling cross-country in this type of transportation. To traverse across vast distances of landscape with your family and all your belongings for months, to start a new life blows my mind.

As a child, I can remember loading up the family station wagon, (mom, dad and four kids) traveling from the midwest to visit relatives in California. I can recall that we would always drive the desert stretch at night since this was before air conditioning was common in cars (ok…I’m old). We did eventually get a new station wagon during those years that had AC and us kids thought we were in heaven during those later trips.

I applaud our forefathers in the eastern parts of the United States and Canada that headed west in both countries with this mode of transportation. Some settled in the plains and others continued westward through the Rocky Mountains to settle in the far west of both countries.

(on a side note: for those of you that follow my blog…after two weeks as I write this, we just today finished unpacking all boxes from our move… it has been a grueling but wonderful two weeks. We have had the pleasure of “much” time with our granddaughter, our daughter and son-in-law!! After getting everything set up in the house, we now have a garage full of furniture and assorted storage boxes that will find their way into a storage unit. We downsized with the move, but have a number of “heirloom” furniture pieces from my wife’s family and mine that that we will use in our next move to Seattle in about three years. What I haven’t shared is that in May, my wife had knee replacement surgery and then during recovery found out a prior injury months before surgery was actually a bone fracture in same foot as knee surgery. Bottom line…she is now in a “boot”, but has she let that slow her down in unpacking, etc…nope!! Bless happy hour and wine…wine mostly me!!)

Thoughts?

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With the post from last week, I used a desert sunset with saguaro cacti that I created using the same technique that I used originally with these two art prints. Using a few of the filters on Photoshop, I originally created a background where the top half of the picture was sky and the bottom half of the picture was ocean. I used the gradient filter to take the sky and the ocean from light to dark at the horizon line. I then drew the lighthouse and sailboat and filled them with black to look like a silhouette against the background. The look is very abstract and the simplicity with the colors creates a unique look.
Thoughts?

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One of my personal prayers each morning and I thought this capture with the sunlit background made a great match….

Thoughts?

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Over the years, I have featured a number of prints from my Hot Air Balloons Gallery. I love hot air balloons and especially love to create prints that are not typical for them. You usually see pictures of the balloons floating in the sky, but I like a different approach. I find the process of preparing these big, bright, beautiful balloons fascinating. Watching them get unpacked, stretched out and then inflated creates an interesting visual experience which I have tried to capture. Over the years I have used a variety of techniques in my presentations. Today, I am using a technique that creates a slightly abstract approach, using bold ink pen strokes to outline the balloons and then filling in with bright colors and strong brush strokes. Thoughts?

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Using a sketching technique, I created these two prints of a patio done in a Spanish theme. I like the softness the color sketching creates allowing the eye to see detail on specific subject and softening the edges keeps the eye more centrally focused on the specific subject matter.

The setting is an outdoor patio/kitchen located in Los Angeles. The door is from a very old building and was repurposed for this project. The table is black metal and the top is inlaid with tile matching the color scheme of the tile work above the fireplace. What you can’t see is a grill and separate smoker lining the side on your right and a large screen TV on the wall to your left. The entire patio is covered by a pergola to create shade from the sun.

Ok, so that’s the lay of the land if you will, so back to the prints. I have talked about framing a photograph or art print in such a way that you create focus on the visual aspects that you want to convey. I am presenting two very similar art prints, yet both create a slightly different sense because of what I have left in or taken away. In the first one “The Spanish Patio”, you have a bit more sense of the door, fireplace and table being a part of something bigger. This is created because the stone wall to the right of the door is shown with a hint of a large potted plant. Very subtle, but gives the impression of more there then just the door, fireplace and table.

In this second print “The Fireplace, Table and Chair”, the focus is clearly just these three subjects. This presentation is my preference for that very reason.

What I wanted to do was show two slightly different presentations of the same general subject matter so you can make your own assessment comparing the two. I believe they do tell slightly different stories for the reasons I have stated…..Thoughts?

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