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Camera sketches of the emerging landscape before the snow comes back tomorrow. Sigh.
© Karen McRae, 2018
Art
Frost Nouveau
Finding beauty in the cold. I bundled up and took my camera out for a walk but the fresh window frost seemed to hold the most intrigue. It is lovely too, along the river’s edge where the water moves so fast that the cold can’t hold it still. It seems like a good time to make soup!
© Karen McRae, 2017
Craft (Felted Fossil Stones)
Perhaps not the usual photography I post here but I’ve been quite busy making. These are a few of the wet felted ‘fossil stones’ I’ve been working on lately (they also double as pin cushions!). The gastropod and trilobite forms have been needle felted onto the rocks near the end of the wet felting process. Lots of fun to make. : )
© Karen McRae, 2017
Seasonal Rituals
Observing the changes in the landscape. Shifts, slow and subtle, others without restraint. As much as I adore summer it is autumn (and winter) when I most love to make photographs.
© Karen McRae, 2016
Sketching the Spring Landscape
Camera play: Photographs made from a moving car using a ‘point and shoot’ camera (Olympus Tough TG4) and polarized sun glasses as an improvised filter. It’s not very green here yet but we are getting there.
(click on smaller images for a gallery view)
© Karen McRae, 2016
World Water Day 2016 (#Water is Art)
Ice formations made by wind, water and cold on the shores of the Ottawa River (2012). Many of these images were posted previously (in colour) here.
To mark World Water Day, a few images showing how #WaterisArt.
(Click on an image to see the full photograph)
© Karen McRae, 2016
Things To Love About February (2)
Tiny intricate details on a frosted window – it’s very cold at the moment!
© Karen McRae, 2016
Late Summer Swim
These photographs are from a late summer fashion shoot with gorgeous costumes designed and sewn by Vanessa Mayville. These images have been floating around in my mind for few days so I thought I’d post a few.
[Models ~ Vanessa & Avonlea]
© Karen McRae, 2015
‘The Tangled Garden’ *
(click on image for a larger and more detailed view)
*the modern, gritty, winter version.
Which is not at all like the *original Tangled Garden that inspired the title: a painting made almost 100 years ago, all brush strokes and rich autumn colours. The image here is urban: all road salt and gravelly snow at the edges of the concrete city. ‘Painted’ in 1/20th of a second at the press of a button.
But it would be very difficult to create this image again. The landscape and the light change continually. The synthesis of camera movement and car speed would never quite be the same. To me there is something hopeful and lovely about the whole gritty mess; a push and pull between the focused and blurred, between earth and snow. I like, too, how the subtle flecks of gold graze some of the vegetation – the last bit of light before it falls away. And the idea of painting with a camera, and making images that we might not actually see otherwise (but perhaps still feel).
© Karen McRae, 2015
draw and shoot 