Last month, a small group of fellow artists decided to have an Art Walk where we could display and talk about our favorite images. This being the digital age, we didn’t all fly across the country with our prints and display stands (although it would be nice to meet), we each visited the blogs and commented on what we saw as if we had done so in person. It was such a success that we decided to try again this month. With snow already on the ground outside, I’m glad this is virtual. In my little corner, I displayed my Fall Colors Calendar which is still available for holiday gifts!
First up is Jim Hughes. Jim often writes very thoughtful pieces that are aimed at a wide audience, and this time he has written about the massive changes that are occurring in photography. Not so much with the cameras (although they are developing at quite a pace and the cameras in phones are rapidly improving in parallel), but in processing capabilities. He is thinking about the ease with which skies can be replaced with something more interesting, compositing new objects into a photograph (as I did in this story) and particularly about AI driven image invention systems that draw upon billions of images to create something that matches a text input. His conclusion is that real photography will be of interest because of the originality and authenticity – a bit like a limited edition of print is worth more than an open edition perhaps. He illustrates his article with one of his images that he thinks shows off that approach:
As an interesting contrast, a painter has discovered the joys of creating images that she loves using AI systems. Katrina Gunn is not giving up painting but has written two articles already and one more on the way about her experiments with AI systems and the best way to phrase your requirements to get something that could be considered artistic. So, it isn’t automatic, an artist needs to work at this! I’ll link to the first article in the series here – this one is about her first steps with experimenting with digital art. One early output of this work was a new avatar that she now uses as her identifier in any online discussions:
Her second post is about creating digital art for Christmas scenes for cards and the like and it is fascinating what she has been able to achieve. To my photographer’s eye, they are somewhat lacking in detail in some areas, that I think might be very obvious in a print on the wall, but as a card, they seem pretty good to me. This one looks like a Victorian Christmas street scene:
I do wonder why the car is parked at the end of the street though! You can find this second article about Christmas digital art here.
Interestingly, Katrina and I had a discussion earlier in the year about how my attempts at digital painting based on my photographs made her feel as an artist. This was the article that kicked off the discussion when I had seen one of her paintings of a butterfly and I quickly knocked up one of my own using a photograph and 15 minutes work with Jixipix!
Bob Decker is offering an intriguing, illustrated article to our Art Walk. He recently visited the Crystal Coast, which is Down East in Carteret County in North Carolina. It was only accessible by boat for much of the past history although there is now a bridge, and so life stood still to a large extent and the population has their own accent and ways of speaking – much closer to the English Settlers. And as a sort of English Settler myself, that does sound interesting!
As you can imagine, the lives of many revolve around the sea and Bob gives us some great images of small boats including this impressive black and white shot:
The article about the Emerald Coast is both interesting and well-illustrated with his images of this still remote area.
Bill Swarthout has taken a different approach with many different websites micro-focused on a particular topic, but this article is on his main site. Titled Shooting Tourists can be good for business, he argues that always being on the lookout for people at beauty spots and landmarks who appear to be struggling with their selfies can be a great way of marketing. Just by offering to help them with a nicely framed and composed image of the visitors and the landmark gives them something nice to remember their trip, but it is also a good way to hand over a business card in case they are looking for even better images of that place for their wall.
You will find links to his many other websites on this main page.
Rebecca of Beyond Essential focuses (if that is the right word) on travelling the globe! In her article this month, she focuses on architecture, particularly in Turkey and Greece. Her moody image of the Meteora monastery in Greece built on series of very steep and unclimbable hills is a great illustration for this article:
I’ve always wanted to visit this place as the monastery is on sandstone pillars, some of which rise 1000 feet above the valley with cables used to move materials to these sometimes cloud covered buildings. Fascinating!
Well, that completes my short stroll around the Art Walk. I hope you have a look at some of these artists and see what they have to offer!
