A Pink Rose. Days 19 and 20. Art. Collage. Montage. Photography.
Four blue hydrangeas.
Six pink squares. Five golden triangles.
And a square and archway of multi-coloured threads.
All hidden under Gold. And now hydrangeas, feathers and a shell.
~Ally.
Third Seven Day Covenant.
I have worked with many traditional art modalities: drawing, painting, printmaking, collage, sculpture and photography. And at this stage of my Art Journey I'm seeing a lot of relevant relationships and connections with mediums converging within my art-making practice. ~Ally.
In the first two weeks of my Covenant to make an artwork, or do something that contributes to the making of an artwork and share it at Steemit every day, I developed a small series of Eco-collages. ~Ally.
For my third Seven-Day Covenant, I have been working on a single piece: A Pink Rose that incorporates some of the elements that appeared in my Eco-collage: Pink Rose. Day 15
My New Covenant.
I'm changing one of the precepts of my covenant to make a new artwork or work towards producing one and to share it every day for seven days.
Because the time may not always be available over the weekend for me to share my work, my new covenant is to still make a new artwork or work towards it every day, including Saturday and Sunday: But if time is short, I'll wait until Monday before sharing the weekend pieces .
A Pink Rose.
This next version of A Pink Rose was virtually complete on Sunday night. However, I wasn't totally happy with it. I could see what it needed but also knew it would take another day to make the changes.
The rose has now become part of the background and I'd like to show you the stages that to my mind, have given this version of A Pink Rose far more subtlety and intrigue.
The Process so far.
- A photocopy of one of my photographs was transferred onto watercolor paper.
- Six squares were painted in a light wash of Opera Rose.
Stretching and a Second Wash.
This work is only very small, measuring 120 x 120 mms. It was only intended as an 'experiment' to see if a watercolour wash would be transparent over a photo-transferred image. And so now at least I know that's possible.
Usually, watercolour paper is stretched before painting on it. But being an 'experiment' I hadn't stretched this piece. However, the buckling was already bugging me and I decided to do another 'experiment' ~ Stretch the paper that already had a photo-transferred image and some ever-so-faintly painted squares on it.
AND IT WORKED.
The photo-transferred image stayed intact as did the six painted squares.
If you'd like to know how I stretched the watercolour paper, it's explained HERE.
I made the second wash a little denser and added a touch of Cerulean Blue to the Opera Rose to give just a hint of violet. I also varied the wateriness, so that all the squares have slightly different gradings.
Underneath the Gold.
- Squiggly lines were finely painted forming a square around the pink rose.
- Blue hydrangeas were painted on the top and bottom and each side of the pink rose.
- Gold triangles were painted in an arch over the top of the pink rose.
- Everything was lightened with water.
- The entire background was then painted over with Gouache Gold. Only the faint pencil marks of the squares and hydrangeas remained visible.
The pink rose was now far more integrated with the background giving me a 'new' place to begin again with.
My New Starting Point.
Montage.
On Friday I played with a few montage ideas using Photoshop and this image was one of the outcomes. The rose, feathers and shell merge into one another, so at this stage, there still isn't a 'dynamic' foreground/background relationship.
Adding Hydrangea Flowers.
Originally I painted blue hydrangeas over the middle squares and over the top and bottom of the rose. The colour didn't seem to work so well. So this time I decided to use dry and neutrally coloured hydrangeas so they would blend into both the pink of the rose and the gold background.
The image I selected to extract the hydrangeas ~ And hints of everlasting flowers ~ Was one of my ephemeral art pieces: Purple Heart.
Rose and Hydrangea Flowers.
Hydrangea flowers and yellow everlastings were merged into the rose and gold background, providing an old world painting quality to the background now.
Six squares with Feathers.
I like to play with contrasts (Organic with geometric: Soft and sharp) and I came back to the original idea of adding six squares: These squares slightly larger now so that the original lines became the edges of the green-tinted inner square. I used a very soft green as a contrast to the pink.
Still a novice, experimenting with Photoshop, I used tools I've never used before: Like colour overlay, emboss and bevel edges. It was pretty slow going: Learning all the time. Especially learning to Save.
Six images of feathers were then blended into the six squares.
Feathers.
These are the photographs that were used: A single duck feather in rotation. I wanted to produce a feeling of movement around the pink rose. They move clockwise on the actual piece.
Further cohesiveness of the background.
Experimented with adding one of the layers used in the previous stage: A Pink Rose. Day 18. Adding suggestions of other feathers.
Spiral Shell.
This spiral shell had also been extracted from Purple Heart and was one of the layers in the previous stage: A Pink Rose. Day 18. only now instead of being blended with the whole it was brightened back to its natural colour, which had the desired effect of bringing it to the foreground.
This was as far as I could go with the image on Sunday night. I was really pleased with how it was progressing and I could see quite clearly what was needed to complete it. The feathers needed more definition.
Final version of A Pink Rose.
Before being added to its square, each of the feathers had to be isolated from its original white background. Which virtually took all day.
However, if you look at the two images: Sunday's final image and then today's final image, I hope you'll see the incredible difference that sharpening the feathers has made to this artwork now?
Working with Photoshop can be tediously labour intensive, but while I'm blending images of different sizes, shapes and colours a host of other design ideas flow. Tomorrow being my last day of my third 'Seven Day Covenant' I'll probably play with a few variations of A Pink Rose: Before settling on just one that I will then paint.
A creative who is learning to trust the mystery of what will be.
A spirit that is willing to fly into new creative realms and share the journey. ~Ally.
SONY Mark2 A7.
Posted from Earth ♥︎ Sand ♥︎ Water ♥︎ Ice with SteemPress : http://www.allyinspirit.info/2019/05/06/a-pink-rose-days-19-and-20-art-montage-photography/
This piece has really taken a journey and I'm glad to have followed it through its transformations, Ally ! The deep colours and the detailing of the feathers and the shell... are such beautiful elements that deliver a delicate and symbolic nature of your "Pink Rose" !
I look at this piece and I feel as if I am descending in my inner eye, a sensation of being submerged and being at peace...
Wonderful work, Ally <3
Thanks ever so much Spider. Yes, it's been quite a journey. It's exciting to reflect upon when I first started with just the rose, only a week ago, and wasn't sure about what it needed. And then how the gold came because I wasn't happy with the blue hydrageas.
The symbols of the rose and feather together have been pivotal in my artwork for the last four years now ~ And I know that's what I need to paint, but again I haven't known how or where to start. So many ideas ~ But harnessing THE ones that are calling.
Working with collage and now montage is showing me the way forward. I love working in this way where different modalities bounce off and around each other.
It makes me SO happy to read your comment:
As it's all about how do we come to know love and peace? ♥︎♥︎⚖️♥︎♥︎
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Thanks so much. I really enjoy being part of Power House Creatives @steemitbloggers. Such a dynamic group of people. ♥︎♥︎⚖️♥︎♥︎
I am not an artist ...but the first look of it and I said wow...👌 True artist simply make wonders with their touch. Loved t
It 👍
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Thank you ever so much @steemflow. As it was coming together I had the same response. There were times that I felt this piece is simply not working the way I had envisaged. But that can be the wonderful thing about making 'art' ~ You never know where it will take you next.
I loved your response ~ It's the dream that so many artists have that someone can look at their work and just say 'wow' like that. ♥︎♥︎⚖️♥︎♥︎
How amazing a piece of pink rose can be transformed into so many arts!
Thanks ever so much Joel. Have always loved working in series where one idea leads to another. Forces you to go deeper. ♥︎♥︎⚖️♥︎♥︎
I get what you mean.
I love just how much texture there is in this piece. Loved watching the development over the last few days. Thanks for sharing.
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I'm so pleased to know that you've been following the process @holoz0r and it's a pleasure to share this piece now with you.
At the moment I'm feeling so thankful that I pressed forward after falling into a few mires. However, I think the mires are the places I'll have to return to again and again to keep reaching the unexpected.
The texture created by merging elements into the gold paint has inspired me to continue working with gold ~ Wondering how far I can go with it now. ♥︎♥︎⚖️♥︎♥︎
The hardest part with any piece of work is knowing when to call it done. Sometimes, a single stroke more can make it feel like failure.
Others aren't as close to the work, and won't see it that way.
As creatives, we remain our own critics.
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Exactly. Very much so. And while appreciating positive responses and occasional knocks, it's imperative for an artist to be discerning about his/her own work. ♥︎♥︎⚖️♥︎♥︎
This piece has an interesting combinations, I like the colour tone of the base.
Thanks so much @roselifecoach. Yes, the gold tones and textures changed everything. ♥︎♥︎⚖️♥︎♥︎