another sunset

Last night's sunset, just a day past the solstice, was particularly spectacular.

pottery in motion

This is another (semi) abstract photograph from the Gardiner garden.  Also, I've never been one to shy away from a play on words.

levitation

This is another abstract photo from the garden in Gardiner.  A slow shutter speed, combined with camera motion and lens zoom, turns ordinary scenes into abstractions.  It usually takes me a lot of attempts to get an effective composition.

In other news, my three abstract photos in the Northwind Arts Center juried show were all sold early in the evening of the First Saturday reception.

bluffscape

Here is another (somewhat) abstract photograph from the garden in Gardiner, next to the Wild Birds Unlimited store.

garden gate

Here is another landscape abstract photo.  This one is from the garden area next to the Wild Birds Unlimited store on highway 101 near Gardiner.

In other news, three of my interior abstract photos (see below) were accepted into the "Alchemy of the Abstract VI" juried art show, which opens tomorrow at the Northwind Arts Center in Port Townsend, WA.  The show runs through July 1.  M also got some abstract paintings into the show.

deep in the woods

This is another abstract landscape photograph from the old farm near Quilcene.

pond garden

Monday was another plein air painting morning.  Despite the promise of rain, the sun came out and the rain held off until the afternoon.

I started this painting in the garden on Monday but didn't quite finish it.  Yesterday I had the chance to set up in the same spot and finish.

Pond Garden

oil on canvas panel, 8"x10"

trees on mars?

This is how I imagine they would look: very slender and impossibly tall in the low gravity. But these trees aren't on Mars, they're right here, on an old farm near Quilcene.

edge of the woods

This is another scene from two months ago on the old farm, before the arrival of all the spring leaves.

stump with moss

This photo was ready to use straight from the camera, without any further cropping.

catkins

The catkins make a nice counterpoint to the white trunks, the dark background, and the blue sky.

This image is from a couple months ago, before everything started leafing out.

farm in early spring

The plein air painters met at an old farm a couple months ago.  This photo is from that visit.

electric grid 2

The view through under-deck latticework is the subject of this deliberately blurred abstract photo.

electric grid

This is another photograph exploring the abstract qualities of under-deck latticework.

Today I also updated the image in my April 6 post, to improve the cropping from the original square composition.  It sometimes takes me awhile to see these things.

windy

It wasn't actually windy in the garden.  It was just the camera movement.

plaza

Blue adirondack chairs, latticework, and a yellow wall combine to create another imaginary city scene in this exterior/landscape abstract photograph.

courtyard sketcher

This view through a garden gate is another in my series of landscape abstract photographs.

night city 2

Here is another latticework scene from K's place.  This landscape abstract photograph was taken a week ago this last Monday.

the red jacket

In another abstract photo, seen through one of K's garden gates, blurred colors look like a person in a red jacket.  But there wasn't actually a red jacket in the scene.

night city

In another blurred exterior abstract photo from last Monday at K's home, daylight and bits of garden glimpsed though an under-deck lattice take on the look of a city at night.

in the courtyard

Here is another exterior image from K's place.  A painter has set up in the courtyard.  I deliberately blurred the photograph with camera motion and zoom.

I updated this image on April 20 to improve the cropping.  I often find that some time goes by before I see how a composition can be improved.

In case you're wondering, the original version is below:

gate detail

This is another landscape/exterior abstract photo from Monday's get-together.  The subject is a detail of one of K's beautiful garden gates.

You can see a digital painting of the gate in question at M's art blog.

more landscape abstracts

The local art group met at a painter's home studio in Port Townsend yesterday.  I took the opportunity to continue my series of landscape/exterior photos pushed towards (or perhaps beyond) the abstract by using slow shutter speeds combined with camera movement and/or lens zooming.

This one, clearly, is from the garden.

tail feathers

The neighborhood peacock has started to do the tail feather thing.  Sort of a daytime fireworks display.

rock city revisited

This is a new crop of an image I posted here fifteen months ago.  I think the square crop, keeping just the more essential elements, improves the composition.  The location is on the slopes of Mt. Diablo in the San Francisco bay area.

silver succulents

This photo was taken in the Ruth Bancroft Garden, a small garden in Walnut Creek, California featuring dry-climate plants.

garden steps

These steps are in a Japanese garden, but not the one I featured recently.  This scene is from Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island, B.C.

elwha reflections

This is how the lower Elwha River, just north of Highway 101, looked before the dams came out.  Now, this viewpoint offers more gravel than water, but the river has been restored as a salmon run.

new venue

Yesterday, I finally took my photos down from the Copper Canyon Press at Fort Worden, after a run there of almost two years.

Today, I put up 26 photographs for display at Bank of America in downtown Sequim.  The show will be up for three months, March through May, and includes a selection of my abstract photos which were posted on this blog in January.

It's sometimes a challenge to get a good print of an image that looks good on-screen. But it's always nice to mat and frame them, and see the finished result.

ice house

This ice house on Sequim Bay was built in the late 1930s.  Boats would get ice here, pick up clams harvested on the bay, and carry the clams on ice to markets in Seattle.

hurricane ridge snags

These snags near the Hurricane Ridge Lodge in Olympic National Park have a lot of character, especially in black-and-white.

on travis spit

This is a view toward Protection Island (visible on the horizon) from Travis Spit, near the mouth of Sequim Bay.

tug peggy foss

I found this working tug tied up in the Port Angeles harbor.

a motion from the floor

The chair entertains a motion from the floor.

BTW, it's either a very small chair or those are very large kittens.

photo with added digital color

path of life

This path is always changing.

forest path

This path is near the Storm King Ranger Station on Lake Crescent, in Olympic National Park.

old tree

This tree is in Olympic National Park near Lake Crescent.

snoozing

It's a good thing to do this time of year.  Especially if there's a patch of sunlight to snooze in.

wpa trees

Here is a sketch of trees in Seattle's Washington Park Arboretum.  I did this one about fifteen years ago.

in the parlor car

The parlor car is a feature of Amtrak's Coast Starlight train.

graphite pencil, digital color

cruise ship chef

He was waiting patiently for a customer at the cafe counter.  I'm sure it wasn't a long wait.

graphite pencil, digital color

at the library

We visited the Port Angeles branch of the county library this morning.  I had a chance to sketch this patron at the computer.

graphite pencil, digital color

at hudson point cafe

I sketched this patron at Port Townsend's Hudson Point Cafe while at breakfast this morning.  See M's blog for a sketch of the breakfast.

graphite pencil, digital color

skyscape

Here is another photo from Vancouver Island, this time with some late afternoon drama near Buttle Lake in Strathcona Provincial Park.

root sculpture

I photographed these roots on Vancouver Island.  I think they look very sculptural.

winter stream

The stream feeds the Quinault River, and runs through the same woods featured in yesterday's post.

more winter woods

These woods are along the Quinault River, northeast of Lake Quinault.

the whole bird

The visiting peacock's little crown was hidden by a foreground leaf in yesterday's photo. You can see it in this one.  About the only things you can't see here are his big feet.