Art+Nature=Bliss

#thesmallthings

Posted by Azra Momin on Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Crystal Forest

These pics don't capture it at all, but it was magical today.

All the trees were draped in crystals, 

and the sun came out for a bit set them all ablaze.

I only had my iPod, and it died in about a minute,

plus I was in a parking lot, not out in the woods

(which I could see at a distance and they were GLORIOUS)

but it was still very pretty!

The first one is a puddle :)

The Little Things...

For Birgitta, in gratitude.

Simple pleasures

I find it amazing that the most ordinary things can inspire us

to pause and reflect, and marvel. 

I was trying to sort out some of my photographs into anything

that might resemble a sane grouping

of a crazy variety of images

(probably an impossible task not worth the attempt)

 and found these....

Taken at night in yellow light...

A mellow light...

Our old chandelier and a vase from WalMart

with a plastic orchid stuck in it...

(I told you about the ordinary things!)

But I remember it was wonderful to take these pictures.

Hope you find some extraordinary

in your ordinary today!

Fall In The Water

Observation:

The breeze sounds different in Fall.

Theory:
It must be because of the leaves being a different texture and feel.

Fact:

Fall is magical even in its reflections,

even when you can't hear the breeze, only see its results.

 

If the leaves are falling in your part of the world,

take a moment to marvel at it all...

Making (Dubious) Connections

I suddenly have five books to illustrate.  Yes, FIVE. 

Party!!!...not :)

So to get me warmed up to the task, I must play with something else altogether, of course, hee hee.

This is a lamp post down the street we used to live on. 

Black and white, and one wild color.

Got your creative juices flowing too?



Urban Decay

I've recently taken some pics here and there of buildings and structures which I've yet to share (my next post, perhaps? And in this same decade, I hope!).

Anyway, I was reminded of some amazing photography I'd come across a while ago of beautiful, ethereal urban decay.  These images are infused with a tragic beauty, and I'm glad a quick Google search yielded them again....

All these rooms were obviously filled with character to begin with, but in the throes of death they have become sublime.

Sven Fennema

Sven Fennema

 

ScallopHolden.com

unkreatives.deviantart.com

A bunch of different photographers, 

more here.

Mmmm....Roses!

I don't know what color roses I like better than white ones.  Actually I love all flowers in white.  DaddyBoy surprised me with six lovely white stems yesterday!  I guess better than white roses is getting white roses for no reason at all! 

YUM!

So I took a bunch of pics, and then I had to do something with them,

of course.

Here's one:

And another:

Wonder if I should list all the 'play' pics in my shop at all...

In any case, what a sweet way to take a break!

Sold A Photograph!

And then it got picked for a treasury, the very next day.

Coincidence?

Anyway, I'm just so happy someone liked my amateurish photography enough to buy it!  The original was 8x10, but she requested a custom listing of 5x5.  Fortunately, it looks good in both formats.

It's a geranium leaf from a potted plant in out patio last summer, just after some rain.

Patio Flowers - Two Ways

Green

Leaves are one of my favorite things to photograph, partly for their infinite variety of shape, and partly for their range of color.

Some green ones:

There are more than 2000 shades of green in nature - amazing but true!

Fine Art Photos

The latest listings in my shop are not paintings, but photographs that I've taken but never thought about selling.  But these are pretty nice for the shop, I thought, so I've listed the first three, and hope to put the others up soon too. 

(Listing Genie, where are you??)

Bangles from a trip to India earlier this year.

Foxgloves in our patio, long gone of course...

Geranium leaf from one of my four geranium pots.  This was right after I had watered them.  That leaf texture looks so much like suede!

Rose of Sharon, also from the patio.  They are purple actually, not this deep pink that I made them.

And dreamy white flowers from a tree by the lake.  The stamens are actually yellow, not pink, and I added those fuzzy yellow blobs as well.

White Flowers - Two Views

I've been away for almost a week, but I do have work to show for it!  just haven't gotten around to getting it up online, which is what I should be doing instead of playing around with yet more pics from my camera!

How color changes the mood of the same image!

Stay tuned for more color!

A Few Small Treasures (we ate the rest)

We have a little patio.  And in our little patio we have two little(ish) planters.  And in those two planters?  Oh - tomatoes, both roma and beefsteak, and peppers (banana and jalapeno) and squash (yes, squash...which is actually, um, quite squashed in there, and we have one in each planter) and weirdest of all, a purple cabbage, which I didn't realize until recently it was one, and now I can't figure out if it's done and ready.  Or not?

I really like the idea of kitchen gardens, but I also have the uncanny ability to kill a plant by looking at it.  So when my dad, who was visiting two years ago, wanted to get me some plants I really wasn't very enthused.  He still went ahead and bought us a whole bunch of flowering plants, some of which were annuals, so when they eventually died I wasn't wracked with guilt.  Some were perennial, like a little silvery shrub thingy, and another plant called Autumn Joy (if I'm not mistaken), as well as a lovely honeysuckle, that were kind enough to survive on me and COME BACK THIS YEAR!  We already had a few pretty mature bushes of Rose of Sharon, so the patio did look very nice when everything was blooming.  Plus we get hanging baskets each year filled with assorted blooms, and little pots of geranium, and well, yes, it looks very pretty.

But this year when my parents visited my dad got adventurous and got us the afore-mentioned greenery for the two planters that had been sitting around with only soil in them.  And now the tomatoes are hanging in bunches, and the peppers seem to be endless!  There's a basil plant too, bought especially at my request, coz I loved the idea of eating a panini sandwich with fresh mozzarella, tomoatoes and basil (yum!), but this basil plant doesn't seem to know when to stop.  It's just getting bigger and bigger, and I think I'll have to hand out bunches of basil to all the neighbors soon.

So not only did I succeed in not killing them, they are thriving! 

OK, enough talk.  Look at our latest pickings!  And notice the bite marks on the tomato?  Thank you, Mr. Fuzzy, our friendly neighborhood squirrel.  It's going in the guacamole anyway, so there.