AROUND THE YARD: February Snow!

This past weekend the most beautiful snowstorm hit the Pacific Northwest. It approached slowly, with no attendant winds, no wet gloppy flakes, no power outages, no trees down. Nope. Just soft, dry, slow-falling snowflakes. Slow, but constant. And we awoke to pristine, footprint-free, acres of snow. Well, there were a few footprints where a couple of deer had walked through, but that just added to the charm.

Low temperatures froze the water in the rain chain. I stood warm and dry on the front porch and simply admired the view.

Looking out the back windows, there was nothing but beautiful trees (and a few rhododendrons), all covered with snow. So pretty.

And then I focused on just two tree trunks, one seemingly wearing a snowy skirt, for sheer simplicity.

All photos shot with a cellphone.

©Copyright 2021 Carol Leigh

 

Giving care and remaining sane . . .

When someone you love needs your care, of course you help. To make their situation as good as it can be. No question.

In my case, it means suddenly doing things I've not done with any regularity (if at all) in the past 30+ years.

Things he was better at than I, things he enjoyed doing (grocery shopping, for instance) that I loathed.

And it also means being less selfish, being more other-directed. A novel concept for me.

I am getting better at it. Step by small step. One task at a time.

My big achievements this past week? Cooking meals.

In a previous life I cooked a lot. Was decent at it. Until I married someone who managed restaurants and loved to cook. It became easy to take a back seat. Good food magically appeared.

Poor guy. Now I'm in charge of grocery shopping, food prep, and cleanup.

I call him from the grocery store. "Where's the pesto we like?" Or "I can't find Hunt's canned tomatoes. Is Signature brand okay?" 

And he knows. And I learn. 

So here are the ingredients I prepped for a quiche last week. (Broccoli, onions, zucchini, multicolored new potatoes, mushrooms, etc.) And he allegedly liked it. A few too many veggies for his taste, but there's a new sheriff in town (me), and these things are gonna happen!

Photo copyright ©2021 Carol Leigh

This makes me happy!

I sell prints of my work through Fine Art America/Pixels and usually never know who purchases my pictures. I get announcements from FAA letting me know what's just sold, the size, and the city/state in which the buyers lives. So when a buyer leaves feedback like this, it's always welcome, giving me a small connection with an actual person as well as insight regarding what they liked.

Here's a screenshot I took of these two reviews that were posted on FAA a couple days ago.

 If the print is too small for you to read, here's what each one said:

"When I saw this piece, I fell in love with it and knew it was 'the piece' I was looking for, to add to my kitchen wall. It's so beautiful and I will be back for more of Carol's work. (I purchased two already!) Thank you"

"Beautiful work! I love it! It goes so perfectly with a few other pieces on my wall. I love the look and feel of the wood, as well. I'm for sure a new fan of Carol Leigh! Thank you!"

Here are the links to these two images on FAA, which can be seen in high resolution.

"Burnt Orange Collage"
"Seasonal Shift"

As an artist, it doesn't get much better than this! Woo hoo!

Images copyright ©2021 Carol Leigh

Recent Work: "Digging for Gold"

 I've certainly got a circle motif going, don't I? Not only do I find them appealing, but in this case the colors are just wonderful. Ahhhhh . . .

©Copyright 2020 Carol Leigh

Artist's block . . .

Artistically, I'm stuck. I know it seems I'm always creating, and I've made a huge body of work, but every once in a while it all seems to slam into a wall. Everything appears uninspired.

I keep on, however, trying to break through and make something different. Something good. 

But mostly it's all just crap.
Like these pictures.

Eventually it will pass and all will be well. But right now? Nope! As you can see. (But I do believe there are possibilities with the sea lion . . .)

Images copyright © Carol Leigh

Recent work: "Fenced In"

When I first began putting this picture together, I liked the blue/ochre complementary color combination, the cold/warm contrast. To hold those elements together, I opted for the rich darker blue stripe along with a touch of salmon and yellow. The abstract round form of a watch face then holds everything together and marks time.

Around the world we are watching the seasons change, the days change, the colors change — as though through a porthole on a ship. And off in the distance a rising colorful “sun” awaits. None too soon.

"Fenced In" photomontage.
Copyright ©2020 Carol Leigh

 

Recent work: "Yellow Enso Sun"

The months have all run together this year. Does it seem that way to you, too? Although I continue to make new work, darned if I know when I did it (unless I check the picture's data). Here's one -- created in September or thereabouts -- that has a rather circular theme. More circles to follow (fair warning!).

 

Yellow Enso Sun, created with hand-painted papers and a circle drawn with sumi ink.

Around the island . . .

A few months ago I went over to Fort Casey to continue with my ongoing project of photographing the buildings, concentrating (obviously) on the smaller details, the textured walls, the signs of weathering and age. These are three iPhone images I particularly like.

Pictures ©Copyright 2020 Carol Leigh

 

It's a good day . . .

It's a good day to be on Whidbey Island, sitting in the car, watching the raindrops form on the windshield, waiting for Chris to finish getting a haircut. Ahhhh!

Image copyright ©2020 Carol Leigh

Positive Feedback . . .

Fine Art America posts random reviews from their buyers and I take a look at them regularly -- to see what products are consistently good, what buyers might be complaining about, and to see if any of my pictures that people bought made them happy.

This is one that made me VERY happy! Apparently my picture, taken from a ship in Alaska's Inside Passage, was one of four that she purchased recently from FAA. I'm pleased that my photo, done in black and white, was a part of the mix.

She took a picture of the four photos in place on her wall, which was also wonderful to see. When someone buys my art on FAA, I rarely know who it was nor how they liked the image. Loved seeing that this person liked it enough to put it on her wall.

 

Experimenting: Color or Black and White? Full-frame or Square Format?

Original photo, full-frame.

Last month we took the ferry to Port Townsend. It felt weird not getting out of the car and not being on deck during the ride, but it still felt good just to be out, you know?


I took a couple of photos of buildings at the boat yard. Why? I found the way they intersected stark and interesting. 

[Currently I'm having trouble with Blogger putting photographs where I want them to be. The other three photos are at the bottom of this post. Grrrrr.]

Back home, I began a bit of post-processing and wondered how they'd look in black and white. If what I liked about the scene was its starkness and simplicity, maybe the color is too much. And the shapes are so strong, perhaps black and white would emphasize those shapes.

And then, I turned each one into a square. Why? To simplify the composition and to emphasize the shapes and how they overlap even more.

Although I love color, I found it distracting. And square versus full-frame? The wide horizontal look emphasizes movement as your eye follows one building over to another. The square format is rather static because your eye hits the picture and then just stays there, but to me it makes the subject matter seem more important.

My final decision? The simplified square B&W version, followed closely by the B&W full-frame format.

But most of all, it felt good getting outside, going somewhere different, and using my digital SLR camera rather than resorting to the iPhone. Ahhhhh . . .

All images copyright ©2020 Carol Leigh

Square version of original photo.

Full-frame, black and white.

Square, black and white.

 

Recent Work: "Time Out"

When I go back and see the art I've made, there are some pieces in particular that I'm especially fond of, and this is one.

I made it in March of this year, as the pandemic was gaining traction. We didn't know what to expect, we were isolating ourselves, and time stood still, became meaningless.

So this mixed-media picture began with a big circle, a circle which is a photograph of a watch face. With no hands. There are some watch face bezels, hand-painted papers, and metal tags in the mix as well.

The colors are both bold and strong, bright and subtle. The vertical elements within the frame contrast wonderfully with the big circle. 

I made a square version as well as a full-frame vertical, and it looks good both ways. Because I sell my work online at Fine Art America/Pixels, this gives my buyers flexibility -- flexibility in format and in price. Sometimes a square works better in a certain location than does a vertical picture. 

Click here to see this picture in high resolution at Fine Art America. And, as always, thank you for looking at my work.

Images copyright ©2020 Carol Leigh

 

Around the yard . . .

It's been a particularly good year for seeing pileated woodpeckers (actually, perhaps in part because we installed a suet feeder on the back deck -- duh!) and they are still around! (I took this photo the first week of August.)

The birds are pretty big, with a wingspan of slightly less than 3 feet. But they're relatively small when compared with a raven (4.9 feet) or a bald eagle (7.5 feet).

The juveniles (like the one on the left) wait impatiently to be fed and, while waiting, pound their beaks (bills?) on the wooden railing, chipping off chunks (giant splinters) on the back side. 

Nature. Gotta love it.

Image ©Carol Leigh, 2020
 

Beauty in simplicity . . .

 It's a good time of year to wander around outside and find lovely things on the ground, little jewels of beauty that most people will never notice.

So when I saw this leaf, I thought of it as a gift, a little story about the changing seasons, our changing lives, and the passing of time.

 Copyright ©2020 Carol Leigh

RECENTLY MADE . . . A ZINE!

A month or so ago I made a little book, a "zine." It was fun to do and I envision making more. I have another in progress but, with my ever-shortening attention span, I've begun doing other things. But let me show you this book, my first. I kind of like how it turned out, even though I really was clueless about what I was doing at the time.

The zine was done on one side of a piece of paper, folded, cut once, then folded again.

One piece of paper, folded, with a little piece of abstract art in each section. Then you cut into one side, refold, and that's it! There are lots of instructions for doing this online, so I won't go into that here.

So then I figured I needed a pouch, a pocket, to keep my zine "safe." So here you go. A little glue, a button, and done! A fun project for these weird times.

All images Copyright ©2020 by Carol Leigh.

What I'm Working On ...

 

WHAT I’M WORKING ON . . .

This is a three-panel, two-sided, stand-up collage. It’s folded like an accordion book, but “book” is way overstated for what this is!

I lived in Japan for one year as a pre-teen. I visited Japan for 10 days in 2014 (when I was much, much older). That’s my entire physical connection with the country. But about 15 years ago, Japan kept popping up in my head, and then began appearing regularly in my art. Here’s the latest piece I’ve made that incorporates my memories, my collections, and the flea market that is my brain.

The first two photos show you the front and back (or are they the back and the front?) of the collage, and then two pictures showing you the details on two of the six panels.

What are all the items in the collage? Well, antique Japanese papers, hand-stained and hand-painted papers, pages from vintage Japanese books, Japanese ledger pages, my own photographs, vintage Japanese postage stamps from my collection, my own “faux calligraphy” scribbled onto papers using sumi ink, signature “chops” from a collection of Japanese hanko, and more.

There’s so much going on in this collage that it’s not exactly the “less is more” minimalistic, wabi sabi look one would expect of Japanese art, is it? But it’s quite representative of me and all my fleeting visual experiences and the constant “oh, look at this!” moments I’ve had in the country.

And it was Nietsche who said, “No artist tolerates reality.” Who am I to argue with him?!

 

©Copyright 2020 Carol Leigh

AROUND THE HOUSE . . .

Because we're "isolating in residence," I spend a lot of time just wandering around the house with the iPhone, looking for things to shoot. Sunlight coming through the skylight over the stairwell looked pretty good, so I created a few simple compositions, liking the overall monochromatic look with just a bit of blue here and there. Lots of angles, too, to play with.

Copyright ©2020 Carol Leigh

 

Around the yard . . . A cavorting deer!

These are terrible photos in that they're out of focus, not sharp. I was shooting through a dirty window at an animal that was at a distance. BUT THE EXPERIENCE WAS SO COOL!

I am walking past the living room window when I see the white buck. I pick up the camera that's sitting nearby, pre-set to f/5, ISO 800, underexposed by 2/3 stop. I take a few shots . . . am getting ready to change my settings when all of a sudden this guy has a major testosterone surge and begins zooming around, jumping into the air, suddenly stopping, posing, then kicking up his heels. (There's a doe in the middle of some bushes just out of frame to the left, which I believe is what instigated this adolescent behavior.)

As quickly as his cavorting begins, it's over.

And while he goes off to have a cigarette, I take a look at my shots and my heart sinks at their softness.

A white deer to me is exciting. And then to have a white deer do all THIS is bananas. So of course I had to share it with you even though it is far from my best work. I apologize. But the deer was cavorting! Hoo ha! ©2020 Carol Leigh

Around the yard -- downy woodpecker

A little downy woodpecker waiting his turn at the suet feeder. What you DON’T see is him slowly sliding down the slick metal shepherd’s hook. Woodpecker toes just aren’t made for clinging to slippery metal things!

©2020 Carol Leigh

Not one, but TWO white deer . . .

Five days ago, "our" white deer (born May 2019, attacked by coyote -- probably -- mid-July 2019) visited our property. You can see the scar there on his right haunch (and when's the last time you used the word "haunch?") which in this picture doesn't look like it's totally healed. Bad lighting, so you can't see it as well as you might.

He's also noticeably a guy -- see the nubbins where antlers will eventually emerge?

He wasn't accompanied by Mom this visit, which is unusual. I try to read nothing into it.

And then this morning, in MUCH better light, we see a different white deer, this one with lovely velvety antlers.

And do you see how overcast light works much better than bright, harsh sunlight for photos? (Not always, but at least a LOT of the time...)

So this is today's wildlife report. All photographed from the dining room window using a 35mm DSLR (with a cropped sensor) and a 70-200mm lens.

Copyright ©2020 Carol Leigh