It's a good day to . . .

. . . be seductive, sensuous, mysterious!

Photographed on a wall in San Diego. ©Carol Leigh

It's a good day to . . .

. . . remember a time in Hawaii. It was a very botanical trip! ©Carol Leigh

Favorite images on Flickr . . .

I'm relatively new to Flickr . . . well, not "new" since I've been there awhile, but new in that I've just begun uploading images on a semi-regular basis. What I like about Flickr is that I can look at other people's work and add selected images to my "favorites" category. The pictures range from paintings to collage to photography. If you'd like to take a peek to see what others are creating that I've found particularly appealing, here's the link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/80859324@N00/favorites/

If you find an artist you like, click their name, which will take you their photostream and you can explore more of their work.

Are YOU on Flickr? If so, please feel free to post a link to your Flickr site here in the "comments" field.

Carol "still on vacation" Leigh

It's a good day to . . .

. . . go on vacation! We're off on an adventure but we'll be back soon. I've got a few posts set on "auto load" that will show up here while we're gone, otherwise, we're outta here!

Car show season . . .

Car show season's coming up and I can't wait! It's a real rush to see what I can find, extracting various elements, creating simple compositions based on color, line, design, and a swoosh of reflective chrome. These are a few from last year, prepped last week. Will you be out there, too, shooting these luscious vehicles? Yee haw! ©Carol Leigh

More fishing boat details

A quick stop at the fishing boats yesterday morning, with bright overcast skies, calm waters, and quiet. As usual, I concentrate on details, simple lines, and design. ©Carol Leigh

Latest work: "Paint, Ink, and Torn Papers"

Last year, while walking around the historic district of Orange, California, I photographed some torn papers and graffiti on a wall. I've combined them in various ways to create what you see here. I like them very much for their abstract, almost Asian look, for their muted colors, for their textured, subdued qualities. I'm also liking the square format. I realize they won't be to everyone's tastes, but this morning I am one happy and contented photographer! ©Carol Leigh

Latest work: "Two Swimming"

This all began with a number 2 that I photographed in North Carolina. I then added bits and pieces of other photographs to end up with this. ©Carol Leigh

Latest work: "Eyes On Seven"

Original size: 10" x 30". Click to enlarge. ©Carol Leigh

This was supposed to be a photo of fishing nets

Yesterday morning it was drizzly and overcast, perfect for photographing colorful fishing nets. But wouldn't you know it? I stepped out of the car and three minutes later it was bright and sunny and no way was this conducive to the types of photos I had in mind. So I bypassed the nets, instead looking for texture and abstract patterns on metal containers, on fishing boat equipment, etc. Ten minutes later I was done.

Looking at my resulting photos, there was one in particular of paint and shadows on galvanized aluminum with a sort of subliminal "N" in the design. So I looked at my collection of letters and selected an "N" I'd photographed on the side of a truck a number of years ago. That's all I need sometimes, a background and a letter or number, and I'm off, adding colors, other photos of scratches, peeling paint, ink stains, and more until I'm finally done. It's not a quick process (most of the time). I worked on this a couple of hours yesterday and then got up at 2 this morning to finish it off. It's now 4 a.m. The photo has been uploaded to Fine Art America, is here in this blog, and it's also a part of my Flickr site, where I've got a small gallery of letters that you can see here if you wish: http://www.flickr.com/photos/80859324@N00/sets/72157629024525949/

And now, maybe I should go back to bed . . .

©Carol Leigh

Latest work: "Cerro Pedernal"

Georgia O'Keefe's "mountain," which she painted so beautifully many times over. This is my own photograph, reworked to enhance the landscape's existing texture and to create more texture in the sky. I like the overall simplicity of the scene and how the square format really puts emphasis on the mountain's form.

Prints available at Fine Art America here: http://carol-leigh.artistwebsites.com/products/cerro-pedernal-carol-leigh-art-print.html

©Carol Leigh

Fishing boat details

This morning Chris and I went over to the fishing boats. Perfect weather! It was sunny, around 57 degrees, no wind yet, and a fair number of boats in port. I decided to use the bright sunlight to my advantage, incorporating dark, strong shadows in some of my shots. Others, taken on the shady side of the boats, are flatter, no shadows intruding into the frame.

I love finding and photographing details such as these, looking at the boats strictly for abstract compositions, noticing lines and designs, creating extremely structured images, relying on texture as well to add a bit of interest here and there. Hope you enjoy seeing these because I was absolutely trippin' doing the photography!

©Carol Leigh

Latest work: "Egyptian Skies"

This piece, created with handpainted papers, paint, and postage stamps, makes me think of the brown tones of the Egyptian landscape combined with dusty blue skies. (Click to enlarge.)

Available as a print from Fine Art America here: http://fineartamerica.com/featured/egyptian-skies-carol-leigh.html

Latest work: "Star Chart Faded"

Here I combined my photos of book covers, Japanese writing, paint marks on paper, letters, maps, and more. ©Carol Leigh

It's a good day to . . .

. . . enjoy the sunshine!

It's been a very pretty spring on the Oregon coast. The rhododendrons were huge and puffy and colorful, and then they were gone. Poof! But California poppies are popping, lupine is imminent, and tall opium poppies are on the verge of showing their purple and red colors. It's summer now (which normally lasts two or three weeks around here), and it's time to enjoy the light, the colors, the warmth.

Wishing YOU light, color, and warmth.

P.S. I've got a gallery of these sorts of flower images here: http://carol-leigh.artistwebsites.com/art/all/flowers+-+outrageous+colors/all

©Carol Leigh

Latest work: "Rust Collection"

I have so many photos of rusted fishing boats that I decided to combine a few for this small series. Who knew that old fishing boats could look so vibrant? ©Carol Leigh

Prints available at Fine Art America. http://carol-leigh.artistwebsites.com/

Birthday celebration . . .

Chris asked if I'd like to go spend time at my favorite boatyard on my birthday and OF COURSE! Hoo ha! So last week, in between raindrops, we did, and here are three images I particularly like, all taken of texture on the sides of boats. No better present than to spend time with him, have lunch alongside a river, and then shoot boat scrapings! Yup, we're I'm weird. ©Carol Leigh