My Latest Abstract Art and a Few Photos.

Hello to all my readers.

A very Happy New year to you. I hope it's a peaceful one for all of us.

I'd intended to put this post up three weeks ago, as usual, life got in my way. The post is a mixture of computer generated art and modified photography. There are 22 images in all. I hope you enjoy them.

I decided that rather than just post the images, I'd say something about the inspiration or thought processes that lead me to create them.

The first one is a modified photo of two of my Arabic/Fusion Dancer lady friends. As I was looking at the original, I realised I'd not seen them for a long time, until I took this photo. I began to realise that remembering friends is bound to give you a slightly distorted view as time passes. That lead me to try and create an impression of such distortion. Here is the result.

 Distant Memories.

Next is a photo of two of my wife's Arabic Dance coin belts hanging up. I like the textures and colours and didn't think it needed any thing doing to it.

Coin Belts.

Now for something I've been meaning to take a photo of for several years. Once a year in late August, we go to the week long Whitby Folk Music festival. For my overseas visitors to this blog, Whitby is on the East coast of Yorkshire in England.  Some of you will know that I was a professional singer, musician and storyteller until ill health got in the way.  The cottage we stay in, is about 300 years old. The walls are plaster, painted white. One wall has an area of plaster that had not been smoothed for some reason. I noticed that it looked like a medieval Jester's face, complete with hat. I took it's photo last August. All I've do it is changed the colour to make it stand out more.

Jester. (Hey nonny nonny my Lord).

I was out for a walk at the start of January, it was a sunny, bitterly cold and frosty day. I walked along part of the Calder and Hebble Canal and the scene below caught my attention. The multi-coloured lights are a happy result of the sun shining on the camera lens. I thought it made it look magical. All I did was to increase the colour saturation and enhance the texture of the water.

 Mystic Portal.

The following photo is a remake of one I took two years ago. It's the ruin of the ruined boiler room of an abandoned cloth dye-house mill. If you look back in this blog, you will see five other photos of this mill here: (On the page, scroll down to see them.)

http://gordonartphotoand3dsci-fi.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Post%20Industrial%20Art

Mill Wall.

The image below started life as an area of rust on an old steam railway engine, in York Railway museum. I like the textures of rust and paint. I'm always fascinated by that sort of image. As soon as I saw it, I knew I could make a "Modern Painting" from it.

Still Life #4.

Now for the last of the landscape format images. It's my interpretation of what a newly sunken ship looks like to a diver.

Shipwreak.

Now for four square format pictures:

First is my fanciful try at portraying a human aura - the spiritual energy force surrounding living things. Humans are very seldom beings with one aspect to their personalities or moods. Very simply put, different colours of an Aura show different aspects of the person. (I don't want to get in to a deep explanation here). Blue, is a healing and spiritual colour. Red can be strength or anger. I tried to show the mixed nature of the human Aura in "normal" conditions.

Auric Field.

I created the next image to be the cover of a CD of quiet jazz, suitable for a Valentines Day meal, (14th of February, don't forget) or any romantic meal for two.

Jazz For Lovers.

The one below was inspired because I'd been out on a mushroom finding session with the local fungi recorder. She has an amazing memory for facts about fungi. I thought I'd have a go at creating a logo suitable for a fungi society. Just to explain, the fungi hunting people I know are NOT foragers. We simply record, with photos and location, where we find certain types. They get sent off to an area recorder, who publishes an annual report on what had been found in their area.

Mushroom Logo.

I was looking up at a telegraph pole one day. I suddenly realised what a magical thing sending voices, images and text along bits of wire, all around the world, really is. We take technology for granted, familiarity tends to do that. However, I don't believe that we should ever loose a sense of wonder about the world. As I looked at it, I thought "It's like a wizards's hat". That was the birth of this image.

Wizard's Hat.

For a great many years, I have believed that buildings can speak to us, if we are prepared to listen. The builder/decorator we use, was looking round our house last year. He was getting ready to do some major work inside it. He looked at me, then said, "Sorry, I was listening to the house, I want to know what it wants us to do to it. Too many people don't listen to their houses. They end up doing things that make the place uncomfortable to live in". He was thinking along the same lines as me, it was wonderful to find someone who feels the same.

Some of you will have heard people say, "If only these walls could talk, I bet they could tell you a tale or two". The picture below is a story waiting to be told. I used four of my photos, each on it's own layer in Photoshop, to create this image.

History Tales.

A few minutes up the hill from where I live, there are three Japanese Larch trees. Over the years, I've taken several photos of them at different times of the year. I kept trying to get "THE" photograph. With the picture below, I think I have finally done justice to the trees. In case anyone wonders, I only used two of the trees. The third one is a little distance from the others and didn't frame well.

Larches.

Liminal spaces are thresholds, points or places of entering or beginning. Liminal space is where all transformation takes place. Author and theologian Richard Rohr said, "This is the sacred space where the old world is able to fall apart, and a bigger world is revealed". There is an ancient legend of liminal spaces having Guardians. The Shinix is one. These Guardians can respond to prayer and offerings (sacrifices). I created the image below with this in mind. It was layered from several photos. The strange thing about the image is, that there is nothing in any of the individual photos that could produce the figure you can see in it. A friend and I studied the image and the separate photos used. In the end I said I thought that perhaps I shouldn't look too deeply and he said he felt that was right. I don't have any explanation for the result, but he is there and holding something that, again, we couldn't find in the layers. There is a lot on the Net about Liminality, articles and images, should you wish to dig deeper into the subject.

Liminal Guardian.

I think it's time for one of my Abstract Expressionist artworks now.  I couldn't decide if I liked the colours in the piece below at first. They seemed a bit subdued compared to a lot of my work. I tried several colour pallets on it. Finally, deciding to go with the one I started with, it's quite a restful piece. I'm proud to report that a poetess I know liked it so much, that a copy is now hanging in her front room, 

Indigo #2.

The next image is a straight photograph. It looks as if I've spent a long time layering images in Photoshop but all I did was take a photo of a shop window. The result was far better than I ever expected. So much so that a week later, (the 29th of January this year, if anyone's interested). I got the bus to Halifax and spent an hour taking photos of shop window reflections. It was Sunday, it's the best day for this. There are not as many people about to walk in front of the camera at the wrong moment. Also, most shop lights are turned off. This usually gives better reflection shots. I did take some with the reflection of shop lights and they came out well. I'm starting to make a book with the best photos as soon as I get this blog post online. There will be 36 images in it, one to each A5 page.

City View #1.

Regulars to this blog will know that I'm a big fan of pop art. From time to time, I create a piece in that style. I'm going to put five examples below.

Soundblast.

Soundwaves.

Port to Starboard.

Magical Mystery Tour.

The next bit of pop art, titled Barnstormer's, is a tribute to the daring and skill of the pilots and performers who did public shows. They did stunts like, flying a plane though a barn, having people stand on the wingtips whist they flew and a lot more. barnstorming became popular in the USA during the 1920's. There are a lot of video's showing Barnstorming on YouTube. There are some from the past and some of people still practising it now. I liked the modern one with two Englishmen flying wingtip to wingtip through a barn. Once mistake and they would have had a terrible accident. They must be mad to want to try things like that. I'm happy if I cross a road without being run over.

Barnstormer's.

This is the final piece, it's called Hy-Brasil. It was an island which appeared on maps as early as 1325. It was still being shown on maps in 1865, where it was called Brazil Rock. On most maps, it was shown to be about (200 miles) 321km off the west coast of Ireland, in the North Atlantic Ocean. It was described as being cloaked in mist except for one day every seven years, when it became visible but still could not be reached. This was the home of a wealthy and highly advanced civilisation. There is a lot of evidence to support it's existence. Anyone wishing to read more about it could start by looking at the link below.

http://www.historicmysteries.com/hy-brasil-the-other-atlantis/

Hy-Brasil.

Well, here we are at the end of another Blog post. It's been far too long since I posted, I'll try not to let it be so long next time. I hope that some of these images stimulate people to read up on some of the things I mentioned. Better still, go out with a camera, sketch pad and pencil or working with a graphics program and creating their own art.

Until next time, be nice to one another and have fun. Gordon.

19 Photos of Found Art, Photography, Abstract Art, Modern Art., Post Industrial Art.

Hi once again. Welcome my Found Art post. I was going to put this one up a week or two ago, but I have had very serious computer problems. Three of my four PCs stopping working within a few days of each other. It's been a frustrating, expensive time. I'm still having problems, my scanner has died. Ah well never mind, on with the show.

I mentioned quite a while ago in another post, that the whole point of Found Art photography, as far as I am concerned, is that I do NOTHING to the subject matter. I do no arranging or repositioning of any components. Apart from adjusting the levels and contrast in Photoshop, they are just as I find them. It's amazing what you can find if you keep your eyes open and view everything with an open mind.

There is quite a lot of crossover in the categories of this sort of artwork; One could take a photo of a small part of a tree and file it under Natural History, or Abstract Art. A photo taken in a disused factory could be placed in several categories; Urban Exploration, Found Art, Post Industrial Art or Abstract Art.  It all depends on how you chose to present the image, or on what the project you are working on at the time. This is what I meant by keeping an open mind. Try to examine everything you see from as many viewpoints as possible.

O.K. Now for the photos. A note about the titles: I was told by those artists who trained me, that a good title will sell work and a boring, mundane one will put people off. At the time, I had the oppinion that the art should sell itself. I still think that, but I have seen the truth of what I was told too many times to ignore it.

The shot below is a close up of a rubbish skip which had been on fire and the paint badly scratched. This skip yielded quite a few amazing, ready made abstract paintings.

Rust Fern #2

I was in the city of Leeds, walking under a railway bridge. In the wall across the road are a set of small lights showing through a steel plate. It was a nice little art display put there to decorate a gloomy area. I took a photo of it. Looking at the result, I discovered that I had moved the camera a fraction due to the long exposure. The image was FAR better than I'd expected, all due to this happy accident. 

Discharge

I am a great admirer of the sculptor Sir Anthony Caro. The photograph below was taken in an abandoned plastic recycling factory and is just as I found it. It was perfect, a ready made Caro. The grass growing in the cracked concrete adds a wonderful extra dimension.

Caro Lines

The next one is a photograph of the cliff face in Old Hunstanton, Norfolk. It bears a strong resemblance the colour field art from the 1945-1950s. The title refers to the sticks of children's sweet rock found at the seaside. My favourite rock is still peppermint!

 

 Holiday Rock

A few years ago I became fascinated with the idea of rusty metal and flaked paint as a source of natural abstract art. I now have quite a collection of photos of this type. I have been pleasantly surprised at the positive reactions I received from people who have seem some of them There are quite a lot of artists on the Internet whth the same fascination.

Alt Luxor

Another of my favourite photographic subjects are doors and gates. I have a good selection of photos of these, some of which are truly amazing, making striking images on their own. The one below is a good example, demonstrating that less really can be more. This image is made more dynamic by taking the point of interest to one side, rather than showing the whole door.

Blue Set Square

One of my rust photos now. This was part of an iron shed rusting away in a field on the local moorland. The shed proved to be a great source of inspiration. The entire field was a gold mine of images, as the farmer had used it as a dumping ground for unwanted equipment. Again, it is remarkable how closely it resembles a certain style of art seen in galleries.

Broken Perception

I think I'll put two more rust shots in now. These are details taken from a railway bridge which carries a small road to the town I was born in almost 67 years ago. The street I was born in was pulled down a very long time ago. Our house then faced Percy Shaw's famous Roadstuds factory, where the "Catseye Roadstuds" set in the centre and edge of roads are made. http://www.percyshawcatseyes.com/  

Every Sunday afternoon in summer, he could be seen dressed in a cream coloured jacket and trousers and a straw hat, out in the field about 12 feet (6.4 metres) away from us, shooting rabbits for his tea. He had a television and crates of beer in every room and would invite his friends in to watch them.

Fractal Diptych

Trio Diptych

I took the following photo at the beach in Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk. The coast of the North Sea there is 1 mile (1.6 km) from the town. You can walk to it, but there is a narrow gauge railway to take you and to bring you back. Or, there is a horse drawn cart. This has to be the nicest way to travel, (in fine weather) that I have ever had the joy of riding in. It's such a peaceful, leisurely way to be carried. Life should be lived at this pace all the time.

Hill Fort

I like this next photo. I think we should have some of the walls around our drab modern towns painted this way to brighten things up. It was taken in the old plastics recycling factory, which had been Allens Brickworks from the 1890s before that.

Home Decorating

The next photo was taken in the plastics factory, but was actually the wall by the fireplace, in the wages office. I'm constanly surprised by the huge amount of wonderful photographs that can be taken if one keeps one's eyes open.

 Terraforming 2

This is yet another shot from the plastics factory. I've put five of them in this post, which demonstrates what a wonderful source of images it was. I was a little puzzled as to what had caused the orange marks of the floor here. Then I looked up. The roof was asbestos and steel. The steel had rusted at the point where rivets were inserted and rusty water had dripped to the floor over time, causing this lovely abstract image, and all ready to photograph!

Retrospective Poem

Now another detail from an old door. It was so good a shot, I'd have been stupid not to take it. Somethings just reach out to you and beg to be photographed.

Psychedelic Wheel

I don't want to tell you what this next one is. I feel it will remove the abstract nature of the thing for some people , (patteren for it's own sake) if I did.

Geomophic Landform

The following image is a little different from the rest. Although I haven't changed the actual subjects, I've turned it in to a triptych. Well, actually it's a double triptych, as the centre panel is a triptych already. 

 

War Wounds

This is the last of the shots from the plastics factory. I have a large number of photos from two disused plastics recycling plants. Both had been brickworks factories before and both were owned by the same plastics recycling company. Strangley enough, both sitse have also been on fire. As soon as I saw this image inside one of the buildings, I knew it was a winner.

Zen Koan

Here we have a detail from a decaying tree. Trees are something of a passion for me. They are the greatest manifestation of life on Earth and keep us supplied with oxygen. I've taken a great deal of tree photos, whole trees, close-up details, young saplins, majestic, fully grown ones and decaying ones. It would be possible to devote your whole life to photographing them. A close look at a tree trunk, decaying or in good health, often shows a set of faces in it; demons, people, animals... The one bleow had what I see as a demon in it. Take a look at my very first post for some other interesting tree shots.

Now for the last photo in the post, it's another rusty paint / natural abstract painting.

Topography #2

As always, I hope you've enjoyed these images I'm sahring with you. I hope that some of you have perhaps found inspiration to take your cameras or sketch pads and pencils or paints out on a walk and see what you can find. All you need to do is look from an unfamiliar angle or an expanded realisation that whatever an object is, it's never JUST one thing. Any object can be many things all at the same time.

My next post in a few weeks will be on Urban Exploration.

In the meantime, have fun. Gordon.