NatureFootstep ...Catching Light

Each New Year is a gift because at my age, there are no guarantees ... wishing you all a year of fun, relaxation and accomplishment, be it great or be it small ... Enjoy!. 

 Welcome to 2015!

NF Winged

 Oh that it were warm enough for the butterflies to fly and the flowers to bloom ... but, as it is not, I have delved into my files (as suggested by our hostess) and came up with a picture that makes me wish Spring was more than just a passing thought.

Hope you are somewhere warm and cozy ...

Mandarin Orange Monday

For those of you who prefer the realist paintings ... I give you an orange flower.

But, I can't ignore the possibilities of what an orange flower can become in the mind of the artist ...

It is the fun of experimenting with filters, blends, cropping and light ... and sometimes textures, (but not today :)

I do love abstract art ... 

And I especially love Lori's technique of layering ...

Happy MOM to all of you ...

Mandarin Orange Monday

Lori is right ... busy week(s) and it was my intention, even before I read her post, to keep it simple this week.  Only I have been really drastic ... I cut it down to one picture :(  I picked a simple flower (which is beautiful and orange in it's on right) and turned it into a pencil drawing.  From their I added colors, textures, filters, layers (at this point, it ceased to be simple)and I finally reached a point where I either decided I was happy with it, or was thinking, enough! ... you decide :)

Happy MOM to everyone :)

Photo Art Friday

 

The first group of pictures were done with only the pdpa textures and filters ...

 

 

 

 

Then Bonnie said ... "you can use  your photo's" so that changed my whole approach.  It did, however, hinder my ability to create abstract ... I seem to need to lean toward realism, when reality is involved.  I am still working on being able to stretch my imagination in this direction :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mandarin Orange Monday

http://www.lorikart.com/2013/03/mandarin-monday-31.html 

 

 

Happy MOM ... I missed you and your meme last week Lori ... glad you are back to routine ... that is a healthy start to moving through the grieving process.  You remain in my thoughts ...

This was a picture of a piece of lace that I colored with orange then added the sunflowers for a focal point.  Each is only subtly different from the other.

This is my favorite.  I really enjoyed creating "Sir Chicken".  He is, in real life, a less ornate metal sculpture that is sitting in the feed store where I buy my bird seed.  I couldn't pass him up.  Kudos to the artist ...

Mandarin Orange Monday

 

The gorgeous wings of the Monarch Butterfly was my starting point this week.  As art goes, this is already magnificent ... I can't improve on Mother Nature, but I can dabble with her idea's.   I made use of the Clone stamp to expand the picture in different places.  Then I added  pdpa Just Peachy Texture at 50%.  What I did next, I didn't even know I could do ... I used the clone stamp to pull the wing up through the texture layer.  That was as much as I wanted to do ... for me this was a finished product except to play with framing.  I have a preference in the framing ... do you?

 In contrast with nature my next picture is a book on a man made wall shelf.  Very different in effect.  I tweaked the photo with PSE then used the Poster Edge Filter.  I started to frame it with the orange background and found I liked it best with just an orange edging.  So that is what I did. 

 

The last picture I ran across while looking for something for Photo Art Friday.  I actually used this tree on that meme, but I had applied it to this picture with the swans flying.  It, once again, is a different approach to Mandarin Orange Art though because I did it so long ago, I am unsure of what I used to get the effects.

That's all Folks, as the saying goes ...

Mandarin Orange

 

 

I an runnng behind because I was gone for four days, but wanted to put something up for Mandarin Orange Monday ... on Tuesday :(   Just a quicky ... hope you enjoy :)

 

 

 

 

 

Macro Monday

Macro Monday