Laundry Day in Saissaic

Driving through the French village of Saissaic we stopped by the side of the road to take pictures and were enchanted by the these linens hanging on the line to dry.

Below is the original photograph. It has been cropped and edited to add more flowers, and to change the color of the yellow roses to pink.

Next, I brought the photograph into Corel Painter X3 and began painting. Below is a sample of the painted work in progress. I rather like this loose stage and might re-work the painting to a more abstract, loose look.

Finally, the finished piece - painted with five different brushes - texture added and signed.

If you would like to see my work on a daily basis, as well as other projects I undertake, please follow me on Facebook at tART - Photography and Art by Terry Rowe,  https://www.facebook.com/tarrowe. If you'd like to purchase a print of any of my images please contact me or visit my website, http://terry-rowe.artistwebsites.com/.  

A Work in Progress

Southern Maryland Barns is a digital hand painted work in progress.

This piece started with a photograph I took early this spring in southern Maryland. I was driving to a memorial service when I saw the light slanting across the fields and outlining the barns. I did a u-turn, pulled over, and got a couple of shots off. I wasn't happy with the big tree in the way and all the power lines, but I loved the light and hoped that I could do something with the photograph someday.

The original photograph

I brought the photograph into Adobe Photoshop (raw file) - removed the power lines, swapped out the sky, and bumped up the saturation. Since I knew I'd be using the base of the photograph as a painting I wasn't too concerned about being absolutely clean in my removal of objects. The edge of the tree line, where it meets the sky, is particularly sloppy. I'm still debating the sky though. I might go back and paint a second version with a "milder" sky.

The edited version

I pulled the edited photograph in to Corel Painter and began painting. I wanted the tree gone - so I painted it out and painted the rest of the 2nd barn into the scene. I've still got work to do, but I'm enjoying the process.

Southern Maryland Barns, the work in progress

If you would like to see my work on a daily basis, as well as other projects I undertake, please follow me on Facebook at tART - Photography and Art by Terry Rowe,  https://www.facebook.com/tarrowe. If you'd like to purchase a print of any of my images please contact me or visit my website, http://terry-rowe.artistwebsites.com/. 

Exploring Digital Painting

As an artist I explore many avenues of expression - always searching, experimenting, exploring different techniques and methods to create the vision I have in mind.

My main tool for expressing my vision is a camera, and the photographs I take are often just the base of the final piece of work I present. I use the digital darkroom to modify my photographs, to tranform the image I captured into the vision I have in mind.

What follows is an example of what I do with a photograph. This is an image I took of a blooming red Camelia, surrounded by snow from a recent storm. The red flower in the snow was striking, but it also reminded me of all the color that will come with warmer weather in the spring.

Here is the original photograph.

I took this image into the digital darkroom, Adobe Photoshop, and made modifications. I used different brushes to paint in the colors of spring, layering shades of the flower's own warm red into the background. All together the working file had ten layers of enhancements and painted effects. Finally, I cropped the image into a square shape.

This image is the result.

I was looking to create a glowing picture of the beauty found in winter, and the promise of more color to come in the spring. The original image and the painted image are both beautiful, and I know some will prefer one over the other. The end result, the painted image, is the image I envisioned when I began creating.