February 28, 2013

The world is full of poetry… The waves dance to the music of its melodies and sparkle in its brightness.  – James Gates Percival

Focus:  Abstract

I recall seeing an exhibit at the Cherry Creek Arts Festival a few years ago with these amazing over-sized images of rippled water.  My eyes were immediately drawn to the monochromatic color schemes and repetitive patterns.  It wasn’t until I stood within inches of the canvases that I realized I was looking at paintings and not photographs.  The artist had masterfully painted the subtle color variations of each and every wave in painstaking detail and the effect was so realistic it was astonishing.  It was as if the viewer was moved from the imaginary world of a painting to the tangible world of a photograph.

When photographing the wind rippled lake today, I was reminded of those paintings.  However, because my artistic medium is a camera and not a paintbrush, I sought to achieve the exact opposite goal – to take the real and make it appear surreal.