ARTIST TO ARTIST | ACRYLIC TECHNIQUES | ART NEWS | ALL POSTS

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Bad Photos Add Inspiration

A good painter and friend of mine, Ines Kramer, told me she likes to take bad photographs. She actually plans a few long distance trips each year just to take them. I thought she was just being self effacing, until I realized the full impact of what she was saying. Ines uses the photos in her work, by photoshopping them, cutting them up and collaging them onto a surface as an underpainting, and then adds paint on top sometimes obliterating the images, often changing their shape, color, etc. She said that if the photographs are too good she doesn’t feel as free to change them. A good photo keeps her from adding her own ideas, while a bad photo just asks to be changed, rearranged, and given personality. Another artist friend of mine, Martha Kennedy, paints beautiful landscapes with (as she puts it) “mouth-watering colors”. She showed me her photographs she uses as reference. They are really downright BAD! I mean, these are photos with no contrast that look like the camera missed the boat on light exposure. These are the ones I would throw away. The difference between her paintings and the original photo are so vast that it’s hard to even imagine a connection. When I look at her work, the colors are truly “mouth-watering”. (By the way, even Martha’s car is painted a mouth-watering apricot – very cool). I was just pondering these strange methods from my friends, as I spent the last two days in my studio going through piles of photographs I had taken over the years, to get some new ideas. One of my favorite things to do is to take some time to look at images and recrop in new ways. I have a scissors nearby and cut up parts of photos that I shot, and combine them with other parts of other photos – sort of mixing up images to create some new ideas. I kept gravitating towards the beautiful photos. Photos from the Bosque del Apache, a bird reserve in New Mexico, with gorgeous sunsets, skies and mountains – just bursting with beautiful color palettes. I only went for the GOOD photos. But while painting from them, it’s a bit more difficult to change what already works so well. I find myself in a “copy” mode – instead of using the skimpy weak references, like my buddies, which beg for more. I see that when there’s something missing in the photo, it just begs us to add our own inspiration.

Labels:

2 Comments:

Blogger Heather, paperfollies.typepad.com said...

thanks for sharing these inspirations...i like the idea of cutting and mixing photos, the real thing, not the photoshop ones. there's something about getting stuff in one's hands!
xo

September 3, 2008 at 6:28 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Nancy!
I'm overjoyed that I landed here from a web search. As a professional artist who also believes in the healing power of art, that is my main focus for creating.

Your friend's idea of using bad/blurred photos is one that I heard of a few years ago from one of our speakers at an art guild mtg. It's a terrific way to free up one's imagination and be inspired as you point out.

As I imagine that "mouth-watering" apricot set of wheels, I will bookmark you and return. (I removed my blogs of "this and that" and just began a new mainly "art only" blog early this morning.)

I did pop into your professional website, too. mmmmmmm!

Artistically,
Lynne {**}

September 19, 2008 at 8:41 AM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home