Fluid Limbs

Underwater1A double exposure (the figure), water reflections and merged layers. You have to learn how to swim in all this rain…

© Karen McRae, 2013

Long Days and Tall Grass

Untitled_MapleFly(Untitled. Oil, graphite and Conté on Mylar)

It’s the first day of summer here and it feels like a true summer day with gently swaying grasses in the sunshine and strange insects in the garden.

Swaying-Grasses-1

Swaying-Grasses-2[The first image is a painting/drawing in progress (I never know whether to call my pieces paintings or drawings – I guess they are both) and the other two images are photographs made with camera movement.]

© Karen McRae, 2013

The Birds and the Bees …

PollenPond1When I was out taking pictures this morning I came across this swirling water composition created by pollen grains on the surface of a little lake. As the breeze pushed the pollen grains along the lily pads made a graceful interception.

There were lots of little insects working away at pollinating the nearby flowers and in turn many birds on the hunt for insects!
Bee

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Beetle
dragonfly
YellowWarbler
Moth
dragonfly2

RedWingedBlackbird_Female
A quick post in honour of World Environment Day (A little late in the day but my to-do lists seem to be longer than the days).

© Karen McRae, 2013

The Dunes

TheDunes1

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TheDunes4

TheDunes5

TheDunes2This is one of my favourite places. There is a little sliver of Lake Ontario in the first image, and the sand and dunes you see here are part of the worlds largest freshwater sandbar. I remember clearly the first time I put my feet in this sand. It was the summer I was 16. That’s a while ago.

© Karen McRae, 2013

This Side of Winter

LastYearsBlooms

LastYearsBlooms2

LastYearsBlooms4These are the last of the little seedheads from my garden that I have been documenting through the seasons. Somehow a few of them survived the weight of winter relatively intact. I had left them in the garden so I could photograph them on this side of winter.

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LastYearsBlooms7These little remnants of flowers have been through many transitions over the last few months. They have been frosted, covered in freezing rain, and buried under snow.
I have photographed them in different light where they have taken on the colours of what is around them. I haven’t edited the photographs much at all, the tones you see in each set are from the surrounding growth .

You can see the beginning of the series here, here, here, and here.

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LastYearsBlooms6

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© Karen McRae, 2013