The Wonderful Word for This Wednesday is ‘Cell Phone’

We all have them these days.  I don’t even have to tell you not to leave home without it, as I know you probably don’t even go to the bathroom with it!  Am I right?

The other day my son and I drove my mom to the train station to head home after a delightful visit.  We pulled up right in front and my son jumped out and got her suitcase out of the back of the car for her (shout out to him for being a gentleman without even being asked!) and there before us was this beautiful array of color:

I gave my momma a hug and made sure she got in the building and told my son I’d be a minute, these tulips were just showin’ off and begging me to capture their beauty.  I obliged.  I set to work capturing different angles and different compositions, and even using different settings on my iPhone.  Now I realize that this is no Don Paulson Photography (my dad is a very successful nature photographer in case you didn’t know…), it’s a LONG way from it, but I’d like to think I captured some good shots for a lay person!

I mean, take a look at those water droplets!  This little photo session just brought me so much joy.  Here’s one of my favorites:

Furthermore, we were at the Pike Place Market a week or so ago and I got this beauty:

You can’t feel sad whilst looking at these beauties, I dare you!! (now I know at least one of you will take this challenge and try to prove me wrong, but you get the point).  Those colors!  The beauty!  I can hardly take it.

Get to the ART part Kim!

You might be wondering to yourself , “Why is Kim going on about photos?  She is into art, not photos, right?”.  Well, I do like to dabble in taking really cool pics like my dad, AND photography is art, but you are right, I love getting my hands into paints and a myriad of other things to make art.  So without further ado…..

Creative Play #1

I chose one of these to use as a reference photo and played art.  I totally got into the zone!  When you use your own photography as inspiration, I don’t have to worry about taking anyone else’s ideas.  The idea was mine from the moment I pulled my cell phone out and decided how to capture a pic of these beauties.

This first piece is a watercolor/Stabilo Pencil/gesso piece.  I started out thinking I was just going to paint the photo in watercolor but when I got done I actually HATED it.

After a nice lunch, I started getting out some other supplies like my Stabilo All Pencil and some gesso (an acrylic primer of sorts) and tried out something totally different right over my watercolor that I hated.

Sometimes I like to do a ‘messy’ rendition of something without trying to make it exactly like the photo (sort of childlike).  This technique helps me get rid of the perfectionism.  It was fun, but I’m not loving the end result, but I’m going to show you anyway because it is all part of the creative process!

Now you can see that’s not fantastic art, but it led to this next piece which I loved.

Creative Play #2

Being unsatisfied, I decided to forgo the watercolor and break out one my square canvases and my acrylic paints.  I sketched a quick outline of the flowers from the photo on my canvas and then began painting.

When you paint from a picture reference, you get to make decisions about what you want to include and not include.  For instance, I decided not to include the red tulip that was directly behind the main bendy flower as I thought it distracted from her.  I also decided to leave out that black area right below the main flower and fill it in with greenery.  There were several other changes I made as I painted the image, can you find them?

Actually, now that I see it in a photograph, I can see some things I’ll fix….wait!  What was I saying about that perfectionism?!  Gah!

Anyway!  This creative play was so much fun – all because I brought my cell phone on an errand and looked for beauty.  It’s Spring and there are a LOT of flowers out there showing off!  Play with your cell phone camera and pretend you are a photographer if anyone asks.  Then,  try your hand at drawing from one of them or painting!

Okay friends, GO FORTH, bring your cell phone out, capture some beauty, and then GO CREATE!

Kimberly Snider, Virtuoso, signing off

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