Stood on the deck of the ferry to Tasmania, I took this photo of part of the superstructure. The ship is the Spirit Of Tasmania, on its way from Melbourne (Geelong) to Devonport. The air vents and shadows cast were worth a photograph. This part is known as the as the Boat Deck. Fast forward twelve years, I decided to use it in a collage. I had to distort the image a bit to create a uniform presentation. Another photo from Australia is a picture I took of the winding derrick at Kalgoorie. It is at the Museum Of The Goldfields. One of many photographs I took (also see ‘Out Of The Blue’ picture), I thought it would contrast with the background. I have bent the structure a bit and gave it the shadows to compliment the scene. A very strong image.
Swirling Swans
Walking along the seafront at Yarmouth on the North Coast Path, there are some cafes that had closed for the end of the summer season. One of them was the Beach Terrace Tea Rooms. Like most of them, the business’s sell buckets and spades etc. I noticed by the Tea Rooms bins a discarded display frame looking quite sculptural. Made of thin white metal hoops and horizontal rods, it was a tiered frame for which (I thought) was designed to stack beachballs, one on top of another, about 120cm tall. I wish I could show you the original photograph….but hope you get the idea, badly explained! I isolated the background and looked for something incongruous to place it against. I immediately came across a photo I took of some swans by the Rushcutters Pub. I cropped the image and put the frame on top. I started distorting and squashing it (the frame). I duplicated the frame and distorted that too. I reduced the opacity and applied a couple of filters to the swan picture. The result was quite startling. I had no preconceived idea and surprised myself. It’s in the Figurative category because I couldn’t think where else to put it.
Dying In The Kerb
I was given a bunch of tulips as a present for my birthday. They came from Jane; it was a first for me! They looked quite good in the glass jug, but as in life….they started to droop and die. It was at that point I photographed the dramatic arrangement. Walking up Ten Bell Lane to the junction at Pottergate and Cow Hill, I noticed the road markings that had been worn away. The cobblestones seemed to emerge from the paint. I took a few photos. I have montaged two photographs together, not quite convincingly, but credible.I put the flowers into the picture and they seemed to fit very well. The whole image ‘works’ and there is some ‘movement’ too. I was very satisfied with the result.
Jigsaw Harmony
There’s not much to say about this picture. It is a montage of three different photos of the skylight windows at the top of the inner walls and below the ceiling. Of course the photos have been turned vertically. This is Chantry Place near Chapelfield on St. Stephens St. As you can see I have melded the three by distorting, stretching and adjusting the contrast and colour balance. There was a bit of chopping and adding bits too. One can recognise the three elements – I just wanted to smooth them together to create a whole flowing image, like a jigsaw.
Eight Sheets To The Wind
When I see something that I consider to be outstanding or photogenic, I will take a few photos and ask questions later…So it is with these fitted bed sheets that were drying on the washing line in the bright sunshine. The photographs I took remained in my photo library in the computer for six months. Returning to them, I looked for a landscape to put them in. I tried a few options and eventually settled for this picture of Cromer Pier. I liked the tyre tracks that had been created by the tractors pulling the fishing boats to the water. I arranged the sheets in size and position and tried to get them to follow the curve of the tracks. I distorted, turned and arranged the sheets to arrive at what I considered a flowing composition.
The Mirror, Barometer And The Blister Strips
Two friends had recently bought a house, and I helped them decorating all the rooms before they moved in. This is the front living room. Above the fireplace were the shadows left by what was obviously an oval shaped mirror. Also there was what we jokingly called a banjo, but of course it can only have been a Barometer. I stretched the image; one can tell by the shape of the fire grate. I had a picture that I had done previously but not used of the blister strips. I had arranged them on a piece of silver foil and took a few photographs. Looking for something to replace the view through the window, I tried a few images and put the strip picture in, and it fitted perfectly, looking incongruous and surreal. Finally I wanted something else to balance the composition. I thought of the drinking glass (pills…water…) which is of course not relatively sized. It took me some time and effort to make the glass transparent and credible.
Lufy 2
Here is Betty and her cat Lufy. Betty is in the back room of her new home before any furniture had been moved in. Lufy (not to size!) is in the upstairs bedroom: not really, he was photographed in the old house… I have of course joined the two rooms and distorted them to create some ‘movement’ and compositional integrity (?). It is a very simple idea and the picture seems to work very well. I did flip the image horizontally from the original because I thought it ‘read’ much better.
Three King Lane (Redo) 2
I have just found the original collage that I did with Pritstick and end-prints onto card, back in 1992! I eventually photographed it on transparency and scanned it into the computer. I edited the electronic file in 2019, hence the (Redo) in the title. Now I have re re-edited the image and included it on the website. Three King Lane is a pedestrian alleyway that runs down from Pottergate to St. Margaret’s Church on St. Benedicts St. Back in 1992 the lane had be refurbished with brickwork and manhole covers (can I say MAN hole?) – there were lots of them so photographed and collaged. Not all the covers made it onto the final piece.
Untitled No.67
This is the Nave of Westminster Abbey, with its fabulous vaulted ceiling. I had to be blasphemous and introduce a car vacuum cleaner from a petrol station. At least I cut away the ribbed hose pipe and nozzle from the rest of the free standing facility. I was experimenting with a picture to put with it. I liked the combination. The colours and curves seemed to blend. I tilted the pipe to fit into the scenario, and you might notice where the pipe disappears into the recessed hole into what was the working component of the self service unit, but becomes an extension of the ceiling.
Mess Technology
This is another picture that I have re-edited. Originally completed in 2016, there was something about it that I didn’t like. Since I have ‘tweeked it’, think it has become much stronger visually. I gave that title because of the two technologies, i.e. the steam train wheel and the copper pipes, with the electric sockets and charger wires; it looked a mess! ( not mass). The background is a view looking down into a tub of margarine/butter, with the distinctive knife mark indentations. I thought the image had ‘movement ‘ and was interesting and bold.