Summer Porch

Found a little time to play (work) and Summer Porch was the result. I think the original photo represented a couple of months work at the storm door by Cassie. The colors in this one are incredible! Even though I use a lot of black (traditionally associated with gloom and doom), this is a joyful, energetic work. The black makes the colored areas even more vibrant. It's very hard to judge how anyone sees these on the web - the only way to get the full impact is to actually see the print (done my way!). That means "do not attempt this at home", if you get my drift. Summer Porch will be listed on Etsy by tonight - have a look at PiCassieO . I will offer it as a full-size print and a slightly different version as an ACEO (Artist Card, Edition, or Original) - art to fit all budgets (even mine)! Come visit!

Storm Door April, #2

I liked #1 so much that I decided to play with it some more. This is the first alteration - a different gradient was applied, which totally changed the feel of the work. The printed version really glows!

Summer has replaced spring here with a vengeance. It's probably 90 out there at the moment; when it's that hot, Miss Cassie prefers snoozing in the AC to doing anything outdoors. Until evening, that is. I can't believe we have a yard full of toads already (minus 2 last night!). Since the dog is now 10, I seriously doubt she'll ever learn to leave 'em alone. It's going to be a looong season.

Fired Up!

Wow - have I ever had a productive spurt here! After I cleaned the windows and door last week, Cassie was taking her time getting back to business, but once the deer made a reappearance, there was art on the glass again! For this one (Storm Door April, #1), I decided to angle the shot so her marks would be visible against the porch support for contrast. Since the mark was "ghostly" again, the stylus was used first to capture the strokes, and then I posterized it and applied my favorite custom gradient. I love the colors, especially that yellow! Cassie gives it her seal of approval (give her enough Goldfish and she'll approve anything!). Got at least three more to post, so stay tuned!

Now for a warning for all you dog people out there: do NOT visit a site called "Laurel Canyon Animal Company." Supposedly they make CDs of music for animals and people, and had a video on YouTube of a dog named Eliza Dolittle tearing up plastic bags, which were photographed and processed in a similar manner as "PiCassieO" art (not nearly as good!). BUT- their email is bogus, and the links section is full of attack sites. My firewall got me out of there, thank goodness. Just passing the word along - I hate to see the bad guys get their kicks at the expense of others.

Storm Door, February

I should call it Stormy Weather after the morning I've had! Absolutely NOTHING I've tried to do on this computer has worked, due to a bunch of snafus with Facebook and YouTube - and Blogger. There are bugs and glitches and gremlins everywhere - not my fault this time! For a while it looked like this blog was inaccessible, too - that was about the last straw. Really drove me to tears (no kidding).

Anyway, we're still making art, so life's not all bad (not by a longshot). Storm Door is another step in our artistic evolution: instead of trying for little detail in the background so Cassie's strokes would be isolated, I recently decided to use the objects outside as part of the composition. Most of my art before 2000 had a lot of straight lines in it, from buildings mostly. Then I got bored with the rigidity and switched to flowers and other organic shapes instead, and THEN Cassie took me beyond all that. And here I am, using lines again. I wonder, does this mean I'm going in circles?

All these technical difficulties have me running late - "Cassandra, Queen of the Universe" is needing a walk. I hear and obey.