Month: Aug 2022

The Dirt Road #1 – Summer (2022)

A recent trip back home saw me exploring new landscapes, one being a road covered in quick sand like mud, my usual companion prince – our golden lab now pretty much fully blind and with arthritis creeping in decided to abandon me and wobble back home, I can’t blame him, as this particular area of shrub where these photos were taken is pretty hazardous. Even with my lanky legs up to the knee in my wellies the shite was still pretty close to spilling in over the top. I’m glad I continued as the greenery of this solemn place creating untouched tunnels of overgrowth.

Chawan #3

A third and final set of textures created in response to this weeks Chawans Kick About. I definitely prefer the lighter more milky variations of these experiments, but none the less I wanted to experiment and create darker tones to reflect some other Chawans I used as reference with more terra cotta and midnight blues throughout.

Chawan #2

A second set of textures deriving from a plethora of sources inspired by the glazed finishes of the tea drinking vessel – Chawans. I would love to have a proper whirl of pottery at some stage, the last feeble attempts being gaudy ashtrays in primary school for chain smoking aunties and uncles. The feel and smell of the clay as well as the amazing coloured intricacies that can be produced from barrel or smoke firing is definitely one for the creative bucket list!

Chawan #1

The decorative tea drinking vessels – Chawans are this weeks kick about over on Red’s Kingdom. I was instantly drawn to the textures of these gorgeous Chawans, I can only imagine the craftsmanship that goes into creating those intricate glazes. I am a bit of a hunter gatherer of textures myself and enjoy capturing the small things that make something whole so I decided to cherry pick from the mountain of textures I have stored in a number of hard drives and superimpose them in a way that might look like some of those details that make up Chawans. Some textures in there include; dirt, mold, water, rust, snow, moss, plants, and a hefty amount of ice. It is always a pleasure creating in this way as there is always a heir of mystery as I never know how they will turn out.

Mirage #2

A second set of images created for this weeks kick about over on Red’s Kingdom inspired by the paintings of Augustus Osbourne Lamplough. Creating these images uses a few different methods of mixing different mediums, First the images of the initial landscapes were captured on camera, then they were transformed in the edit by adding more yellows and browns to the already parched landscape, finally adding multiples of different shapes on top of each other with low opacities to emulate the layered effects of Lamplough’s watercolour paintings. 

Mirage #1

This weeks kick about over on Red’s Kingdom is the paintings of Augustus Osbourne Lamplough. When I recently came back to London after experiencing the greens of Ireland I was taken aback with how brown and muddy the earth felt, the grass crispy under my feet, the leaves and flowers with burnt liver spots. The world was well and truly scorching alive with a wave of heat that follows your every move. Sweating, I set out with my camera in the sweltering heat to explore the torrid areas and capture similar landscapes to Lamplough’s work, the park near my house where I run every day being the main jumping off point, coupled with the coloured slats, trucks and caravans in the midst of setting-up shop for a funfair. I wanted to explore taking the photos that step further – upping the exaggeration by adding a plethora of different shapes hinting at some civilisation in the distance. But is it nothing more than a mirage?