Complementary Pears

Music score, my painted backgrounds, and the ubiquitous pear. Or two. ©Carol Leigh

African Daisy Experiment

The process continues. ©Carol Leigh

Cosmos Experiment

I'm not sure what I'm doing. (Yeah, like I'm ever sure!) I'm painting my own backgrounds and then seeing how they look behind certain things. And then doing some other stuff, none of which right now is consistent or predictable. Or replicatable. I like the messy, raw, funky look of this piece, as well as the somewhat muted colors. It's been a good day. Calm waters on the Alsea Bay this morning. Interesting photography experiments this afternoon. ©Carol Leigh

Pear Painting

A pear, some handwriting, and a portion of one of my paintings went into this one. Dark? Yup. But there's light at the end of the tunnel. ©Carol Leigh

Pears in Orange and Blue

I've been working on pears for the past week and I like the way these two photos finally came together. The components? Pears on a cabinet in my living room combined with a super close-up macro shot of ice. I swear, I could do this every day and come up with something different every time. For a person with an incredibly short attention span, this is a perfect art medium! ©Carol Leigh

One Pear

I liked the look of the three pears (below) and so went back to take a "portrait" of just one. I gave it the same treatment as I did the previous trio, and added subtle handwriting to the wall to give it even more texture. ©Carol Leigh

Yaquina Bay Three

I'm the most grateful recipient of a lot of cool stuff lately. My neighbor Juanita is cleaning out her attic and is getting rid of a lot of (to her) junk. I snagged a few nautical charts and have begun photographing bits and pieces of them to include in photomontages. I used a 3 from a railroad car, color and design from the side of a fishing boat, plus a photo of the nautical chart (of Yaquina Bay, just north of us) to create this piece. There is no end to the possibilities. And as I learn more about Photoshop, the possibilities increase exponentially. ©Carol Leigh

License Two

Ron up the street found a couple of old license plates yesterday and wondered if I'd like to photograph them. Well, duh! Of COURSE! So I zoomed in on this number 2, added a photo of one of my paintings, some rivets from the Alsea Bay Bridge, and a few other things and ta da! ©Carol Leigh

Cinnamon Blue Pears

Sometimes thing come together so well and so fluidly that you second-guess what you've done. But I'm loving how these pears look so good in these rich colors of blue and burnt sienna. You can see the original photo here, in my "daily photo" blog. ©Carol Leigh

The Wheel in the Sky Keeps on Turning

I found the crow feather on the beach this morning and purposely photographed it to be used in a photomontage. Same thing with the crow flying past — also photographed today specifically for this piece. I added a photo of a crack in the cement of my garage floor, an out-of-focus shot of sun and rain in Santa Fe, New Mexico, texture from the side of a fishing boat, and more. I love this piece. Love it. So much so that it brings tears to my eyes. May you all receive so much pleasure from whatever you do, whatever you create. ©Carol Leigh

Three O'Clock

Here I combined a railroad car, the side of a fishing boat, clock hands and watch faces. Amazing. I'm often asked to teach this technique, but since it entails a lot of sitting and staring, a lot of trial and error, an incredible knowledge of what photos I have and where to access them, and since my Photoshop skills are a combination of total ignorance and moments of surprising skill, teaching this would be difficult. ©Carol Leigh

In Time

I'm not sure how I feel about this one. Think I'll let it clang around in my head a bit before I decide! ©Carol Leigh

Maybe it's time to stop . . .

Perhaps the time has come to put the clock parts away for awhile and look for something new. And then, in time, the clock parts may appear once again, like a phoenix from the ashes . . . Ashes . . . I wonder what would happen if I put a clock face in the smoldering ashes of the fireplace for a bit? Hmmm . . . Time will tell. Anyway, here's a square form of the watch face as well as the original. ©Carol Leigh

Clock Shadows

Clock gears, a clock face, an 1841 receipt, and a little watercolor sketch I did of a winged bug all come together in this piece. ©Carol Leigh

Twenty-Five or -Six to Four

When I was creating this photomontage, I made two at the same time, each one emphasizing a different set of colors. I put different clock hands on the blue one, but after staring at it for a day, decided I liked the original hands better and so this piece and the previous one now look pretty much identical regarding the "parts placement;" it's the colors and the feel that are completely different. ©Carol Leigh

Does anybody really know what time it is?

The possibilities are endless, and I'm endlessly creating these things. I'm beginning to wonder why, other than I just have to. Various clock parts come together well in this piece and the warm tones are especially appealing. I also like the contrast between the hard, linear shapes and the more softly rounded ones. ©Carol Leigh

Urban Streets

Squares, circles, clock gears, and the number "2" from an old train car . . . ©Carol Leigh

Leaf on Copper

Chris brought home some copper that had a great patina, so I photographed it and combined it with a photo of a leaf as well as some Japanese writing. ©Carol Leigh

Construct

I love this color scheme -- ochre, cinnamon, ultramarine blue. The colors come from an old car, a bridge, and drawings on a wall. ©Carol Leigh

Metal Daisy

What a good day for photography. In addition to photographing clock gears, I went to the local garden center, photographed a daisy, and then combined it with metal, scratches, different filters, and came up with this image, sort of a yin-yang, metal-organic image which I like. ©Carol Leigh

Winter Leaf

I found and photographed the leaf while walking around the block. What looks like peeling bark is part of a metal sign I photographed in Newport. I then combined some asphalt and some scratches to create this simple wintry image. Love it. ©Carol Leigh

Raven brings light to darkness

According to a Pacific Northwest Native American story, Raven brought the sun, moon, stars, and fresh water to a dark world. I created an appropriate background using three different photographs and on it placed my Raven. ©Carol Leigh

Tidal Flats

©Carol Leigh

Old Growth

©Carol Leigh

Time Shift

This and "Barriers" (below) are my two current favorites. ©Carol Leigh

Alphabetical A

A combination of an "A" from a railroad car, an old tin ceiling tile, and a series of old-fashioned letters make up this soft and weathered-looking piece. ©Carol Leigh

Three Silver Hearts

Images from Chimayo, New Mexico and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. ©Carol Leigh

Juanita Wheels

From my "Parts is Parts" class, I've used the letter "A" from my neighbor's mailbox. I combined it with wheels and canvas and ta da! ©Carol Leigh

Barriers

©Carol Leigh

Ottis

I began conducting a "Parts is Parts" class this week where we're all encouraged to take one subject and create 10 decent photos of it. I'm photographing my neighbor's mailbox, which is rusty and weathered and full of letters and texture. I'm not creating any photomontages for the class, but I had to do one for myself. At least one. And there may be more before the class is over . . . ©Carol Leigh

Bold Tee

My word for the day today is BOLD. This is my beginning. ©Carol Leigh

Time

©Carol Leigh

Childhood

When everything was a treasure. ©Carol Leigh

Time in San Miguel

I combined a photo I took of a decorative iron scroll with a cracked and colorful wall and then added some Roman numerals. It's funny where ideas come from. I saw (or thought I saw) an illustration with Roman numerals all over it. Turns out they were letters, but the "Roman numerals" concept stuck. I made a note to begin including them into my photomontages and here's the first one. I cannot believe how much I love this stuff. ©Carol Leigh

Oil can #3

Yesterday I purchased a new (well, it's old) oil can -- my current obsession. Here I've combined it with gauze, an old ceiling tin, a wooden box, and cardboard. I then played with Channel Mixer in Photoshop and added some shadowing. Do I know what I'm doing? Um, no . . . But I'm finding incredible delight in my ignorance. Remember when you were a child and everything was possible and time stood still? This be that. ©Carol Leigh

Cracked Sunflower

A crack in my garage floor and a sunflower. ©Carol Leigh

Snowy Tree

On my walk around the block this morning I photographed the bare branches of a birch tree against the sky, knowing that I would use it sometime in a photomontage. I didn't expect to be using it so soon! This is a combination of four different photographs taken along the coast, here in my neighorhood, and in Mexico. This has been a really, really good morning. ©Carol Leigh

Below the Ice

Rock hearts appear trapped under ice, created by using a piece of scratched metal. ©Carol Leigh

Oregon Coast

Canvas from an old printing press, trees from Yachats, and a crow photographed this morning on the beach in Seal Rock come together in this photomontage that has a sort of dark and spooky look. The photomontage was finished a month or so ago — all I needed was the bird, who I finally found this morning. ©Carol Leigh

The D Teem

I began working on this piece last June. And it's now so old I don't remember where I got the various elements. The letter "D" is part of a rusty old sign peeling away from an even rustier metal background. The Teem advertisement came from (I believe) a nursery in San Diego. The rest? A complete mystery! I like the warm tones, the monochromatic look, and the overall grunge. ©Carol Leigh

Twilight Trees

During a walk around the block, I photographed these trees against a cloudy sky. I then added part of a mural I photographed in Florence, some stars, and created a reflection. In one of my online classes I have a lesson/assignment called "Walk Around the Block." Photographers moan and groan that there's nothing interesting on their block. The point is to look and to see. You can always find SOMETHING! In that one walk around the block the other day, I've now created three decent photographs -- one of the letter "R," another involving the number "2" I found on a telephone pole (below), and now these trees. ©Carol Leigh

French Blue Two

Sometimes these things just come together so easily. I was thinking about an old algebra book and how I'd scanned some of its pages. Aha! Combine it with some cool texturey stuff! But I couldn't find my algebra photos -- they must be in the other computer and I didn't want to start mucking around with all that. I then found a page of French handwriting from 1892. I combined that with some rust and a number "2" I photographed yesterday on a telephone pole. And voila! I love this photomontage. And I believe I have three more versions of it waiting in the wings for me to finalize. How long did this one take to create? Just a few hours (most of which consisted of sitting and staring and thinking). Once I begin selling prints again, this one definitely will be in the mix. Just a quick thought . . . How often do YOU get really excited about what you've created? Doesn't matter if it's a photograph, a cake, a child, or a painting. Creation and the wonderful SURPRISE of creation -- what a fantastic high. Have a great day. ©Carol Leigh

Totem Cat

I photographed a board covered with peeling paint and staples and combined it with a photo I took in Santa Fe of an ersatz totem pole. I then added some paint and bits of a weathered door, also shot in Santa Fe. ©Carol Leigh

Fire on the River

Trees on a riverbank combine with trees photographed at sunset in this strange photomontage. ©Carol Leigh

Waterfire Two

A number "2" from a railroad car in Santa Fe, a close-up of a Chinese cabinet taken in Portland, Oregon, and the reflection of sky and orange lights in a stream in Breckenridge, Colorado come together in this fire-like interpretation. A few blue strings running across the top and it's complete. ©Carol Leigh

Alsea Tree

A tree I photographed this afternoon at the Port of Alsea looks great with some illumination behind it. ©Carol Leigh

Bare Branches

After a day of high (75mph) winds and a lot of rain (3"), I doubt there's a leaf on a tree anywhere this morning. I put together this photomontage of a bare tree on the Oregon coast and a couple of different pieces of rusty metal to represent the last 24 hours. Happy New Year?! ©Carol Leigh