Ad Hoc Art

Saturday, April 17, 2021 (10 days before the fullest appearance of April’s “Pink Moon”)

During this pandemic era I’ve searched for ways to encourage my creative side, hoping to expand my usual ways of imagining and dreaming. I’ve been helped by carrying a camera and photographing whatever seems interesting. I don’t do much with my pictures beyond producing and sharing them on this blog, and occasionally on Facebook.

While looking through past photos, it seems some might have been worthy of a painting on canvas. One afternoon I tried to recreate in oils a photo of a bird perched in a tree with multiple interesting branches. My first version was a total flop. So were second and third attempts. Finally, I realized that the picture’s elements were too complicated for decent reproducing by a novice painter.

I considered art lessons. I’ll mention that watching online paints being mixed and applied is as boring as watching grass grow. These days, in-person learning opportunities are rare, and besides, I’m among those now tending to avoid gatherings.

Suddenly, a light dawned. I’d find things simple to photograph. Say, an item alone or a scene containing simple components. For painting, I could recreate a whole picture or isolate one of its components.

That’s why I focused on a lizard and a rock. I planned for the Western Fence Lizard in today’s header photo to become a painting.

The potential shot was at a distance and its background too isolated for real interest. Here’s a longer look.

It turns out that these pictures actually are pretty good, but maybe too complicated to paint. Closing-in more captured the creature looking straight through distance and back at me.

I’ll not try to create a painting. While there’s a simplicity of subject, there’s also a complexity of mood. Recreating mood challenges mightily a novice painter.

Dear Friends: Visualizing differently and adjusting camera-handling heightens creativity. Diana