An almost etching. I keep coming back to this photograph; adding layers, shifting colours. It intrigues me for some reason, and it bothers me too. I can’t quite put my finger on it. If an image wants your attention what are you to do?
This is what we’ve agreed upon, this photograph and I. For now. Maybe it will leave me alone for a while but I feel like it’s trying to show me something…
[An image made from two photographs, both of which were made from a moving car.]
© Karen McRae, 2013
draw and shoot 
Well, what an interesting dialogue you have going with that image! Thank you for sharing the process. I love the muted colours, the silvery purples and yellowy aqua sky. The superimposed tress make me think also of some trees I’ve seen by Sandra Bartocha.
Thanks, Kat, it’s an odd image but for some reason I keep thinking about it. Maybe it’s a stepping stone to something else?
I’ll have to look up Sandra Bartocha!
Warm and cool! I’m drawn to the delineation between the two. The ‘horizon.’ & While studying this all sorts of shapes leap out at me. A veritable carnival (with masks!).
Ah, I’m not sure what’s going on in there but I sort of like it! : )
A carnival of the shifting season, maybe…
Thanks for your comment., Steven.
Very good, even if it is for now, or ever. Absolutely.
Thanks very much, Bente. I’m glad you find some interest in it too.
wowwww ı just love it…so nice!!!
Thanks very much, I’m happy you like it!
Yes ı love it, really!
Simply gorgeous Karen!
Thanks, Adrian. One that wouldn’t let me go, but I’m not sure why.
not necessary to understand the process in words/language, maybe not even possible, let it develop as long as it requires development, anyway it communicates, and it’s a great and very painterly 😉 image again…
Things are percolating, I guess. I think it can be good when something is unsettling but you don’t know why. Thanks for your great comments, Wolfgang.
It’s the human-like shapes blended in the underbrush. They are calling out; in agony or joy, I cannot tell.
Hopefully not agony, but who can tell.
I also thought it looks like an etching, but a living etching! 🙂 Beautiful, Karen.
Equal parts photograph, painting and etching maybe? Thanks, Marina.
the colors and concept are real to me , but you lay your personality on it which makes it yours forever created nicely.
Hi Bart, thank you. I like the way you phrased that.
Karen, Feeling honored that you are sharing your creative process. Thank you. I am fascinated by your “moving car” images and this one, with your processing is wonderful.
Thanks very much, Jane! I’m honoured that you find my creative process interesting. The moving car images are fun because it can be so arbitrary what you see, and then what you “catch”. I’d like to do some with people in them…
Wonderful textures. I love both the upper and lower mixture and it works fine!
Thanks, Vassilis. I wonder what it would look like printed fairly large with all those fine details.
The colors are gentle, like a pastel, but linear like an etching. Very beautiful Karen!
It seems a mixture of various art forms, I guess. Anyway, its making me think about the painting I’m working on, perhaps shifting my ideas. I’m glad you like it, thank you, Elena!
For all the beautiful color, I find the picture unsettling…even a little disturbing. The smaller tree bent at an odd angle and the suggestion of figures in the bruised purples. It’s a turbulent little wind blowing through these trees…
Yes, that poor broken tree. It adds a tension, I think.
I love your words, J.H., “bruised purples… A turbulent little wind…”
Thanks for your comment.
Karen, there’s a depth and ‘resonance’ to the violet passages in the lower part of the image that I think might be part of what’s working on your mind’s eye with this one. That passage in particular is so utterly painterly – like a complex series of many many oil colour glazes on a canvas. It feels deep and liquid, in contract to the slightly flatter areas in the upper area of the image, Perhaps it’s the tension between the two, or the shift of the light that’s caught you. Beautiful.
Hi Sydney, thanks so much for your insightful comments. I do like the painterly aspects of it, maybe it’s partly because I’m working on a landscape painting at the moment and its a bit of a struggle. Ironically my photography is more painterly than my painting. But I find that interesting. I’ve been thinking about the relationship between the two.
LOVE!
I’m glad you do, Robin, thank you!
I’m not very articulate today, but I like it very much.
Well, I am rarely articulate so you may say whatever you like. Anyway, I do like what you’ve said, Ashley. : ) Thank you.
🙂
ciao! so delicate…lovely.
thebestdressup
Thanks very much!
Sounds like me and my paintings!!!
Lovely photo, and just like you, wish I could put my finger on why it is that something in a painting doesn’t satisfy me and so, I keep tampering with it!
Oh, I relate to that for sure. I think when I’m painting I often don’t push far enough, but when working on photographs you can easily undo what you’ve done so I tend to push it further.
Yes, sometimes things just need extra tinkering!
Another stunning image. Great work.
Hi K.C., thanks for commenting. And a very kind comment it is.
Very dynamic yet calming.
I suppose that’s part of what draws me to it. Thanks for your comment!
Hi Karen
Heres another idea. I looked and looked. I like the image too. It’s like the brown square , the dark brown sticks and the squiggly things are all on a new abstract layer talking with the tree, trees in back of them. Very curious. It’s so great to have a piece that keeps calling you back to look at it. ‘Hey, look at me I’m important. You need to learn from me.’
Carla
Hi Carla, I love your interpretation! : )
There seems to be a a lot going on in there. I’m glad you like it too. I like being drawn into an image and having it stick with me.
Thanks for your comment!
This may well suit one of your mono work-overs Karen.
Yes, I should give that a try! I do like these odd colours though.
It’s got the uncanny beauty, density and mystery of a Max Ernst landscape. I can see why you can’t leave it alone/ it can’t leave you alone.
Hey Richard, that’s an interesting comparison. I haven’t looked at his work for years. Thanks for your great comment.
Sometimes, if something commands your attention too strongly, it is perhaps best to take a few steps back and take a small break. Often, things appear clearer to fresh eyes. Just my 5 cents’ worth…
Well, your 5 cents’ worth is always valued, Alessandro. I agree, fresh eyes see things differently. Thank you.
Like the complexity of the image… and those goblins hovering at the base of the trees…
Is that what those are? It is getting close to Halloween … I suppose they’ll be at my door soon. Thanks! : )
Lovely… hope they come in bewitching form ..:)
the purple ghosts are coming out ready for Halloween 😉
Ha! I’ll keep watch…
I like it very much. It seems to have movement in almost all directions, movement from the wind. So there is a sort of clash, a clang … And that’s good for the soul! It wakes us up, shows us the beauty of chaos, keeps us on our toes, dancing! 🙂 xo
Oh how your comments make me grin, Gigi. : )
Love it! Keep on dancing.
I very much like the idea of agreeing something with an image, that’s something I’ve never considered – thank you for that insight, Karen. Adrian
Well, have you ever had an image be disagreeable, Adrian? Sometimes you have to compromise! : )
I love this too. It has made me go back to some pictures that I took a while ago from a moving car, at dusk, that I nearly discarded, but kept because there was just ‘something’ about them that I liked. Interesting!
Thanks very much, Hedwigia.
Going back to look at photographs you’re not sure about can be interesting. That’s great you are having another look. I know what you mean about that ‘something’ that catches your eye.
The only problem was – I can’t remember when I took them, and couldn’t find them! Still, I got to look at a lot of other pictures I’d forgotten about, which was good.
I’ve just moved to an iMac, and am gradually tagging all my pictures, so hopefully it will be easier to find them in future. At some point, I hope I’ll find those lovely spooky roadside grasses again. 🙂
Maybe it is the coldness, the felt silence, the relative absence of vibration that still waits to be filled by a however small amount of additional warmth? I like it already and I look forward to see what happens to you two.
Hi Karen.
I just started following your blog after reading David’s comment about your creativity. I tend to be pretty straight with my photography so I am really impressed with what you do with your camera and computer. A very happy marriage of the technology. I chose to say hello with this image as I think the idea of combining images from a moving car is pretty cool. I’m looking forward to see what you will do next. 🙂
Hi Steve, thanks for your nice comments, and the blog follow.
Well, I’m glad you think it’s cool – I get some crazy ideas sometimes but there is so much joy in making photographs and finding new ways to look at things. Sometimes with not too much success but I get a lot pleasure from the process. Much of my work is “straight” photograhy, too. I spend a lot of time exploring water and the landscape.
Beautiful! You are a talented artist!
Thank you!
I think your method of tracking is very interesting.
Just like in your “Fall, by the Wayside” post, the three-dimensional quality from the rotation creates an almost magical, layered feeling. Makes me wanna try.
Hi Kenneth, yes sometimes there is a very interesting 3 dimensional effect. I notice it especially when the images are smaller. Thank you.
Let me know if you give it a try!