The Art Journal
10 Seconds to A Yellow Artwork
The 10 seconds nature offers me to make a digital work and how nature reveals the work
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Nature in Surrealism
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="2500"] The Nature of Dali 3, Middle Harbour, Sydney Australia August 11 2017 9.06am [/caption] As my work evolves photographing the images nature creates for me during my kayaking journeys, the more I sense the influence on my work of the 20th Century Surrealists and their concept of automatic drawing as a means of exploring our subconscious. The Belgian born artist André Masson, considered the founder of the practice of automatic drawing, proposed that by allowing the hand of the artist to flow “randomly”: across the paper, applying chance and accident to the construction of an image, this would, to a large extent, free the artist of a rational control over the image-making. More interestingly, he believed this process could be attributed to the work of the subconscious which would otherwise be repressed. During the 1920s when automatic drawing was at its peak, artists who were influenced by and practiced automatic drawing included Joan Miró, Salvador Dalí, Jean Arp and André Breton. It has been suggested Pablo Picasso used the automatic drawing techniques in his 1960’ series of lithographs and etchings. Masson’s method was to throw sand and glue onto a canvas, making oil paintings around the shapes that formed. This method of image making strongly reflects my own. The difference being my canvas is the still surface of the morning waters of Middle Harbour, Sydney Australia, my tools - my camera and my kayak. The angle of the sun beaming light onto the water surface forms the shapes – reflections created by nature. Just like Masson’s tossing of the sand onto the canvas, these shapes form serendipitously. Similar to the “automatic” method of the Surrealists, I shape the images by cropping or straightening them seeking to create an abstraction my subconscious can connect with aesthetically. When this connection occurs, I am able to attribute some meaning to the shape enabling me to give the work a name. Importantly though, I do not photoshop the images in any way. My images have existed in reality and I am nothing more than a facilitator of the aesthetics of nature. As my work developed around with these moments in nature, the more I was reminded of the Surrealists. If the process of automatic drawing had its roots in the subconscious as Masson posited, could it be possible the genesis for the work of the subconscious lies in nature’s reflection? This thought seems to be the basis of the thinking behind questions I often receive from viewers. Regularly I am asked if these images are paintings. What are they? What am I seeing? Like the Surrealists, I want the viewers to form their own opinions of the work. Let their subconscious speak! [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="250"] This article was originally printed in the Paris Edition of the Milan Interior Design Publication G&G Magazine January 2018 [/caption]
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the Making of the Yellow Masked Mast
A short film on the making of the Yellow Masked Mast, one of the images featured in my August - September exhibition, Yellow - The Exhibition, explores how I create the work.
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My Art Studio
A short film on my art studio and how my art is created. Some might call it surprising!!
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A Groove or A Rut - My Photographic Journal 6
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1200"] The Best New Shot - Staring Into The Rut [/caption] I am disappointed with my artistic efforts over the last 8 kayaks spread across February. I have shot 442 images and have nothing much at all to show for it. The weather has been against me, unseasonable westerly winds blowing across the water creating choppy surface conditions on several occasions. I have been experimenting with cameras and settings again and this has been unsettling, too. I have shot with the Sony RX100 MK111 using aperture default mode at f11 and by setting the speed 1/250 to see what would happen. Results were only fair and the constraint with the focal length of the lens requiring me to paddle deep into the reflection continues to be problematic. Likewise I set the Canon at f9 and 1/125 on separate occasions. The outcomes have been disappointing. Blurred backgrounds and out of focus across the entire image has been the predominant results. I need sharpness across the entire image. I also found myself chasing the shot. There are three boats that offer great reflections every day and so I seek them out looking for a result. The effect of taking my eye off the serendipitous opportunities focusing instead on the destination of known opportunities means I have been less observant to what's in the moment in front of me and I have paddled past opportunities. I need to settle back gently into the meditation on the water I found when I first started seeing these images. Is this possible I ask myself? Have I passed the point of the epiphany that enabled me to see the creative possibilities for the Drawings on Water series. Have I now entered a calculated photographic arts skilled based process removing much of the serendipity and improvisation underpinning the original concept. Am I developing a specific photographic style that I need to dive deeply and further into to find all the creative possibilities? Twyla Tharp, the American choreographer and author of the Creative Habit, has written about being in a groove when you are working creatively at your peak, when you recognize you are in a flow producing your best creative works. The downside of a groove she suggests is a rut. Where you become repetitive, repeating the same creative process only to produce more work of the same. I am not sure where I am at the moment on this continuum. I need to sit in these times of creative uncertainty to await an answer. Commercially, the money-art game with the Drawings On Water series is only just beginning!! The Art Journal RSS
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My Photographic Journal 5
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Water on Tinnie - Serendipitous Shot of the Day [/caption] I like the compactness and swiftness of response from the Sony. The zoom lens is 24mm to 70mm compared to the Canon zoom of 24mm - 100mm. This means the Sony reacts quicker and is more easily controllable whilst I am kayaking into the image. I am going to keep shooting with this lens for a while to see if I can get the variety of images at different focal lengths that the Canon offers with its extra 30mm in zoom functionality. I set the aperture at f8 and like the Canon the colour seems to blow out ie it is paler than when I am using f5.6. When I am using this aperture setting there appears a general blurriness in the sharpness of the edges of the image. I am trying it at f6.3 next kayak. The Sony Mekon Case viewfinder is not as user-friendly as the Canon Mekon Case so I need to work harder by pulling my head down onto the camera whilst sitting in the kayak to get theframing right. However, when I get the framing right, the shooting response is smoother so I get good supply of images. I need to focus on the viewfinder and the framing on the next kayak. The Art Journal RSS
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My Photographic Journal 4
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Peach Country - The January 2016 5 star shot [/caption] I got my five star money shot to-day - the first one for 2016 , 1 out 1101 pictures taken over the month of January. There are some 4 star shots I am still working on. However, this is the first image that as soon as I downloaded it, I knew would be a five star exhibition piece. Photographic serendipity happens like that and that is why I remain enthused by this project. I never know what I am going to get until I download. I have got the shutter button down with the Canon whilst still shooting on f8 setting. There was almost no forced saving or turning off functionality disruption to-day. The secret is I turn the camera off after each series of shots and start up again once I have lined up the next image location. The test for me to-day was on lining the kayak up far enough away from the image to slow the movement of the kayak down, to visualize the shot, frame and then zoom in and out as I move. I haven't got this under control. Where to line up to get the best shot is still at the moment based on serendipity - although I am hoping to be able to replace serendipity with approximation to describe this process shortly. Control of the zoom is cumbersome and difficult in this situation. I panic in my haste to try to smoothly control the speed of the zoom to set the frame parameters and I don't have a second chance. Once I have entered the shooting zone, the water surface remains relatively still if I have lined the kayak up reasonably well around the semi- visualized image. However, the camera doesn't have a fast enough zoom on the lens to make quick adjustments when the kayaking is drifting near and through the image around 1 or 1.5kms The result is uncertainty with the outcome of the shot, hence serendipity. This I think will remain a constant tension. Maybe I need to learn to live with this constraint with both cameras. Comparison between the Sony RX100 Mk3 camera that doesn’t have as long a zoom lens and the Canonis the next frontier I want to understand. To-day has however forced me to think about what content I am likely to get as a result of this constraint, to re-think how I can expand the potential image content repertoire. The Art Journal RSS
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My Photographic Journal 3
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1200"] A Water Mining Environment - The Shot of the Day [/caption] To-day is a good example of photographic serendipity. It exemplifies how hard it is to create great images every trip. The weather was fine with blue sky. The water surface was relatively still and shiny oily silver so a good day to shoot. However, to-days shot of the day is the best among a mediocre option of three out of 68 shots taken. Part of my creative challenge here is to understand why that is. Pleasingly the Canon GX7 on f8 has resulted in more consistent foreground and background focus ie better depth of field. So I am happy with that. I am beginning to understand how the autofocus operates on the move. It seems I can take three shots sequentially whilst the kayak is moving before the viewfinder goes black, shows "#busy" and starts saving. The saving process takes about 2 seconds and by that time I have moved beyond the best position to take the shots. The skill I need to develop is to line the kayak up to get the speed right going into the shot. I am continuously moving into a moving image as opposed to a shot being framed around a still scene. I am using the rear viewfinder more effectively when focusing. The Mekon Canon Waterproof Case appears to have been designed so the viewfinder section on the rear is clear plastic whilst the remainder of the area on the rear of the case has a roughed up plastic surface. This allows a better view from the camera's viewfinder whilst somehow the roughed up surface encasing the case's viewfinder absorbs light and reflection. It means I can actually see what I am framing sometimes. I am going to continue with the Canon for the next couple of kayaks. The Art Journal RSS
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My Photographic Journal 2
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="5265"] A Clear Blue Day - Today's serendipitious shot [/caption] I am struggling with the focus on the water at the moment. Today I used the Canon GX7 at f5.6 with its longer zoom lens than the Sony to get closer to the reflections rather than sitting on top of them. The result - The close up is generally blurred like the depth of field. There are occasional shots with some degree of sharpness in the centre of the frame. However, generally, I did not find photo serendipity to-day. The autofocus takes too much time to set properly before shooting when I am moving. I am travelling between 1 or 1.5kms as I approach the image so there is quite deliberate movement required to approach the reflection. Stopping is not an option as using the paddle to stop creates ripples and generally disturbs the water surface. Focusing the camera manually in this situation is just too complicated. This review http://www.cnet.com/au/products/canon-powershot-g7-x/ confirms my suspicions that the Canon G7X has problems in all the areas in which I am experiencing difficulties So I have now adjusted the aperture to f/8, turned on the continuous autofocus and will see what happens on the next kayak.. The Art Journal RSS
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My Photographic Journal 1
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="5471"] The Attack of Red - To-day's Best Efforts at Serendipity [/caption] Today I begin a journal based on my creative thinking whilst I am kayaking and attempting to create art. The journal's content is philosophical and technical, reflecting on my creative struggle in the moment in a constantly changing and moving environment. In the first instance, I am trying to learn what the best camera is for the shots I want to take. I am not a camera technician. I have no real interest in the technical functionality of a camera. I am only interested in the content of the images as they appear to me whilst I am kayaking and what the best instruments are available to capture that content. I did some basic research on types of cameras after several years of struggle with an iPhone 5 only to discover the jpeg photo files on an iPhone are not big enough to blow up to 1 meter size proportions. Research revealed high end compact cameras, small enough to handle easily and quickly on a kayak offer good options. Reviews revealed Canon G7X and Sony RX100 Mark111 were best in class for my application and I acquired one of each. Now I am learning how I can get the best image with the limitations these tools have. When you are taking shots of the water surface - several things to consider. How fast the tide and the kayak are travelling, how close can I get to the image I see with my eye and what will the camera do to get that image for me. There are three ways of looking at photography says professional photographer Anthony McKee. 1) Staged technically - camera, lens, lighting etc fully prepared and constructed for the shot. 2) A frame and shoot approach where the camera can be adjusted manually. But the scene itself is fixed and constant. 3) Serendipity - point, shoot and see what comes out. This is my mode. So what do I need for serendipity to occur. This is what I am exploring this month in the journal. The Art Journal RSS
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