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For the weekend of March 10th, as a Christmas gift to the family, one of our daughters put together a family getaway weekend. The location she chose was up in the Cascade Mountains northeast of Seattle (two of our three daughters and their husbands live in the Seattle area – the other daughter who put this together, her husband and our granddaughter live in the Los Angles area and my wife and I live in the Phoenix area). She chose a location near Stevens Pass (spring skiing) and just outside of Leavenworth, Washington (Leavenworth is a Bavarian village featuring great German food, beer gardens and wine tasting from nearby wineries). The location of the house we stayed in is the subject of this weeks post. The house was located along the Wenatchee River which flows down from the pass area into the eastern side of the Cascades. Most of the river is white water rapids, but the portion of the river where the house was located is just upstream from a small dam. The dam backed up this portion of the river into what looks like a still water pond. The house was perfect with floor to ceiling glass windows allowing the views I posted to be seen throughout most of the house. (Click on more information to go to original blog with all of the pictures)

This first capture is straight across the river looking at a cabin in the woods on the other side (all it missed was smoke curling up from the chimney). The water appears very calm, but is actually flowing at a fairly rapid pace. Loved the reflection on the water.

This is just a close up of the cabin across the river…..

Standing in the same location as the first two shots, this is looking to my right up-stream along the river. If you could zoom in on the river where the green reflection ends, you would see white water rapids as the water flows into this calmer portion. We could hear the sound of the rapids from our location.

This is a cabin located downstream from the house….thought it had that great cabin in the woods look…from this perspective the river is reflecting the white snow of the hillside across from us. Thoughts?

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In keeping with the theme from last weeks post, I am featuring two art prints where the subject matter is pretty simplistic, barren branches. These are shots of trees along the Cedar River in Cedar Rapids, Iowa during winter. I took this simple subject matter and started giving the branches a subtle abstract look to create images with more geometric patterns. As part of that process, I also changed the background to larger abstract shapes to keeping the focus on the barren tree branches. I created the Purple Barren Branches first and then wanted to use some of the same elements in the second one. I liked the power of purple and pulled it into the branches on the second one and notice the hint of green on the first one. I used it as the background on the second one, creating a different look altogether.
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I was in the midwest during the middle of February. Living in San Diego, it's easy to forget how cold winter really is....that trip was a quick reminder. One of my goals was to do a shoot of barns. I found my opportunity around the Amana colonies (if you have never been there or heard of it....worth a visit...old German settlements based on concept of a farming commune). The colonies are located along the Iowa River Valley, so there are rolling hills and woods dotted with farms. It was a lot of slushy through mud...and that's a story unto itself. I got what I came for and I like the look I got. The trees were obviously barren, but that adds to the strength of some of the pictures. I am now going through the pictures I took and would like to walk you through the process I go through to create my art.

Step one: I sort through all of my pictures for the best shots....I usually take 2 to 3 shots of the same thing. From those 2 to 3 (assuming I like what I took), I weed it down to 1. That picture gets a hard look for "framing the shot" . Maybe it's just me, but it seems like I always have subjects just ever so slightly tilted...I must stand crooked?? �Anyway, I then crop and adjust accordingly...the samples attached show only a minor adjustment on this shot.....some are more extreme and some no adjustments or cropping are needed. All of that said, this completes the first step and then I put the resulting pictures in a folder for the next step...painting. More on that with this picture as I work through the rest of the batch from the shoot. Stay Tuned!!

Can you see the subtle differences? There wasn't any "tilting" in this one, but I did tighten up the bottom portion and if you look real close a "one way" sign disappears through the barn just above the hay rack.


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The two art prints I am featuring today are simple items – three decorative balls. These are the typical kind you would find in a large decorative bowl to add a design element to a room. I took these three balls and did my usual photo shoot with various positions and arrangement changes to give me some choices to work with. Narrowing it down to a couple of shots, I then proceeded to do my magic utilizing an abstract technique to create the drawn elements and then started to play with colors. The final piece of the process was to take the resulting colorful “flat” prints and give them a final element of texture which is the impasto technique I employ on a number of my pieces creating large bold brush strokes. From simple decorative balls to bold and colorful abstract art prints.

Who doesn't remember the legendary Alamo? Originally built as Mission San Antonio de Valero. From a contemporary artist / photograhers' viewpoint, the architecture and grounds speak volumes. Having not been to the Alamo since I was a teenager (trust me...many moons ago), my wife and I went to the San Antonio Riverwalk and the Alamo for a day. Both are spectacular and the city of San Antonio has done an incredible job keeping the flavor of both very much alive. What struck me about the Alamo, were the details in the architecture. I found the windows fascinating in their artistic appeal which leads me to this post.

I took a number of shots and have posted one of them here. I was starting with the original shot and then I felt compelled to paint the wood for an artistic impact. I have received mixed feedback on doing so and thought I would open it up to more feedback. I had a vision and does this capture the punch I thought would look good or is it an artist's delusion. Ultimately art is in the eye of the beholder and what looks good to one person looks not so good to another. Attached is the red I painted...