Art and Photography Blog

Painting of English Breakfast in the Cotswolds

Here is a 18" x 24" acrylic painting of a typical English breakfast with fried mushrooms, fried tomato, sausage, fried bread, and two eggs sunny side up. There is a lot of grease here. It was served at the Swan Inn in Bibury in the Cotswolds of England.  I am a big fan of English breakfast as it reminds me of the southern breakfasts I grew up with but are quite different at the same time. There are two sources of light. This is the first in a series of breakfast paintings. 

 
 

Please Don't Take My Kodachrome Away!

As Paul Simon sang, “I love to take a photograph. So mama don't take my Kodachrome away.” However, Kodak announced on June 22 that it is discontinuing its venerable Kodachrome line, ending its 74 year run.At the time of its demise, Kodachrome made up less than one percent of Kodak’s already diminished film sales, and only one lab in the world still processed it. However, it still stands as a poignant moment in the history of photography.

I used to use a lot of Kodachrome and still have many slides. Many of the most iconic photographs of the past century were shot using Kodachrome. Now I do digital like every one else and do slide shows online. I need to look into how to convert these slides to digital.

“Kodachrome. 
They give us those nice bright colors. 
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah.” Paul Simon

Painting of Two Tomatoes on a White Cloth

Here is a 16" x 20" acrylic painting of two tomatoes sitting on a white cloth. I just used red, white and blue with a touch of yellow.

 

Revised Painting of Morning Coffee

I spent some more time working on this 24" x 30" acrylic painting of coffee based on photo taken at an outdoor Paris cafe and a similar cup sitting in front of me.  Here is the "final" version.

 

Photos of Lake Massawippi in Quebec's Eastern Townships

Lake Massawippi is located in the Eastern Townships of Quebec near Sherbrooke covered in the last post. Towns around it include Ayer's Cliff, North Hatley, Hatley, Ste-Catherine-de-Hatley, and the Township of Hatley. I have often stayed at the Ripplecove Inn at Ayer’s Cliff. Here are pictures from a recent summer trip, mostly taken around the inn.

Still Life Painting of Two Eggplants on a Red Plate: Two Versions

Here are two 18" x 24" acrylic paintings of two eggplants on a red plate on a white cloth. The top one goes to the detail level. I often start by putting in the base colors ands then adding the details, highlights, shading, etc.  In this case I decided to stop the first on at the flat color level as a "logo" style painting like you might see on a old wooden crate. Then I did another, staring where the bottom one left off. 

 

 
  

Goollery Provides a Web Art Based on Google-related Projects

Goollery is an online gallery of Google-related projects from people around the world. There are a number of categories: Google Brand, Search, Maps, Earth, Image Search Chrome, SketchUp, Translate, Android, and YouTube. Within each category there is a variety of projects. For example, under search I found, a painting project that had the Google search page done in the styles of Miro and van Gogh, as well as several original themes by Valéry Grancher, France.

Under maps, there is Ohio Piano. There are 88 counties in Ohio and 88 keys on a keyboard. With Ohio Piano, the state map is turned into a piano that you can play with two pre-programmed melodies. It is by Andy Woodruff, Cambridge, Massachusetts. There is also British Art From the Tate that allows you to explore locations of paintings within the Tate with Street View depicted in a special selection of Tate artworks. You can discover how urban and rural environments have changed, and the views painted by artists such as Turner and Constable are now lost. It is by www.svmapplets.com.

In another Google maps project. Artist Bill Guffey from Kentucky painted scenes from around the world that he saw with Google Street View. Word Magazine UK created a project where iconic album cover photographs are mapped via Google Maps. I could go on but you get the idea. It contains some very creative work.