Chris Fedderson — MacroFine Musings [This post is an elaboration on the fifth, and last, point I made in my post of November 10, 2015 Five ways to raise your photo IQ (Interest Quotient)] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ “There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.” — Ansel Adams Often at art shows, I get into conversations with patrons about what it is that I see in an image, what I visualize, what makes a “good” photograph, how does one know when a shot will be a good one… etc. There is no easy answer, only you can answer that, and only for you. If there were an easy answer, every car company would have a Mustang and no car company would ever have an Edsel. While you are addressing this question of good-ness, of course you need to heed all the techy-stuff: Is it focused? Is it well-composed? Is it printed well, or show on the monitor well? Is the color correct? Etc. After these things are satisfied, good-ness lies entirely in the eye of the beholder — be that you or your viewer. And obviously, never will we all agree about this for any particular image. In determining good-ness, I feel a good place to start is to ask whether this image has a sufficient “hook”. By “hook” I don’t mean a gimmick or a superficial visual element about which, after the first look, you might say, “Seen that. Done that. Move on, now”. But rather, a hook is the reason the image exists. It is the soul of the image. The emotion, feeling, or message of the image. It is the essence of the image, which will be re-seen, re-lived, and re-felt anew, with each viewing. A hook can be just about anything. It could be the subject (Aunt Millie with her new niece); it can be an element within the image (unusual lighting or juxtaposition); it might be the more mysterious feeling or emotion it elicits. You decide what the hook is, but remember that for each viewer, the hook may be different.
OK, here’s another Ansel Adams quotation: “There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer”. After all, we each bring our own set of life experiences and memories to the viewing and those ~different~ elements are what determine our individual take-away. Thank You for visiting, — Chris P.s. Think about the various hooks in your images. How might they each, or the general concept directing them, be strengthened? Do they inspire concepts for other hooks? How might you capture this hook-concept; what imagery might facilitate that? Comment about your unique hooks — we’ll talk about them and compare notes.
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Chris Fedderson — MacroFine Musings ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ “ . . . landscapes are a genre explored by many artists, so if you’re going to stand out, you have to do it really well – and these are landscapes on the highest level.” — [art show] Jurors' comments about Ms. Gillmann’s work (Oct 2014) I recently had an opportunity to view the Best of the Best — at a print signing hosted by Kathleen Best Gillman, a landscape and plein air painter from Burke, Virginia. Working in oils, acrylics, or pastels, she portrays scenes of tranquility, harmony, peace, purity, and grace. We purchased one of her works titled Glacial Moraine which reminded us of scenes we have vsited in the high Sierras in California and in the Cascades in Oregon; two places we really look forward to visiting again. Kathleen Best Gillmann is a member of the Workhouse Associate Artists, as am I, and she recently agreed to let me interview her for this post to my blog. I had not interviewed anyone before, and had thought it would be so simple — you ask them stuff and they tell you stuff, just like every other conversation you’ve ever had, right? Well, you tell me how well I did after you read this, my first blog-speriment in interviewing… Q. What is “en plein air” painting? A. Simply stated, plein air painting is painting (or drawing) outdoors; the focus of the activity being the outdoors – landscape, sky, plant life. Q. The plein air painter will sit —literally— within her subject and paint what she sees before her. Do you ever paint from your imagination — portraying images from your visualizations in your mind’s eye? A. Since I have so much training and experience in drawing and painting from life, I find it difficult to paint or draw exclusively from my imagination. I had one teacher at the Art League School who gave us an exercise: first, look at the model for 5 minutes. Next the model leaves and you draw what you remember for 5 minutes. It was not impossible, but it was a challenge — a good one. This is an exercise in drawing from memory. Occasionally, I paint or draw from my imagination. I think what we carry around in our heads — our imagination and visual memory — does effect what we put on canvas or paper. Q. Do plein air painters finish a piece in one sitting or do you come back to a scene for additional sessions? A. These days there are plein air events where a painter is expected to complete something very rapidly. Plein air painting almost demands that the artist work quickly or return to the location at the same time of day for several days or weeks in a row. Typically plein air painting results in smaller works that are painted in one sitting. Some artists sell these directly. Others use them as studies for larger studio works. Some plein air artists work large and complete large works in one sitting. It all depends on the artist’s skill, experience, and intentions. Q. You’ve worked with several painting mediums — oils, acrylic, pastels — which do you find to be the most rewarding to your Inner Artist? A. It doesn’t matter which medium I use, all can be satisfying to my inner artist. When I am planning a work of art, my intuition often leads me to a particular medium. I sometimes do a particular composition in 2 or 3 media for the experience of working in several media and because I may want to see what the differences are, aesthetically. Q. If you had no obstacles, where or what in the world would you want to visit and paint? A. I seek out the amazing wherever I am. Sometimes the amazing is climbing in a shrub in my own backyard — a chipmunk. Sometimes I seek it out by driving up a mountain — Pike’s Peak, Colorado Springs, CO or to McCall, ID on Lake Payette or climbing up to the “Hanging Lake” not far from Glenwood Springs, CO. I’ve visited a lot of locations: many U.S. states, some of eastern Canada, many countries in Europe and South America. My bucket list of countries to visit includes Poland, England, Ireland, and Sweden because these people are my ancestors. I have an interest in seeing the Mediterranean — especially Greece and Italy —Japan, South Africa, more of South America, Israel, and some of the waterfalls and lakes in Africa. Q. At the print signing you recently hosted, we saw your two cats, Snizzle and Fritz (what are their real names?). What is their contribution to your art — besides cat hair stuck to the work? A. My cats, Feldspar and Galena, come into my studio usually with a demand — scratch my back, cuddle me, feed me, or let me out. So they provide constructive painting breaks or unwelcome interruptions. One time years ago, Galena decided to jump up onto my open palette. This created quite a commotion and messy feet and fortunately hasn’t happened since. I think we both learned a lesson. Well, it seems Kathleen has her work cut out for her visiting, and painting, all those intriguing places! In the meantime, she is going to be the Featured Artist for March at the Associate Artist’s gallery in Building 9 of the Workhouse Art Center. Come see a fine collection of her work, titled Atmosphere, and visit the work of all our fine, Fine Artists. The Workhouse offers many opportunities for you to expand your plein air experiences. We, the Associate Artists, are hosting a plein air session during the Workhouse-wide SpringFest, April 30th. Also, the Workhouse hosts a zillion classes all year long in all sorts of pursuits! For a downloadable PDF listing all these opportunities, go to the Workhouse website and in the ‘Classes’ tab click on ‘View Current Catalog’. Remember what they say: The eARTh without ART is just ‘eh’. Thank You for visiting, — Chris P.s. What is your favorite mode d’art? How did you come to favor this particular method or medium? What would you like to try that you haven’t yet? Tell us all about it in the comments — let’s compare notes. Chris Fedderson — MacroFine Musings Kathy Lawler, Guest Blogger ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It's about that time of year in our household when we are wishing winter was on its way out. Our thoughts are turning to spending time out doors in the sun where we can go on photo safaris to see spring in all its glory. But since we aren’t quite there yet we did the next best thing, brought a little spring home and went to work in the studio. It seems this time of year orchids are for sale just about everywhere. Turns out that orchids, according to the Rainforest Alliance, are the largest plant family in the entire world and there are over 25,000 different species of orchids – no wonder they're everywhere! Orchids have also been the flower we have never before dared to buy, only admiring from afar, for certainly growing them would be way beyond our abilities. But we took the plunge – we now have one – only 24,999 to go! We found this very photogenic variety, Phalaenopsis [fay~len~OP~sis] and we were told it was easy to grow. After getting two beautiful plants home we looked up the care and feeding of these lovelies. According to Missouri Botanical Garden site: “It serves as an excellent houseplant as long as basic growing conditions can be met. Best sites are on east window sills, but plants also grow well on well-shaded south or west sills, with growing conditions that include (a) temperatures at 72-85 degrees F in daytime and above 60 degrees F at night (a temperature drop to 55 degrees F at night in fall helps initiate flower spikes), (b) significant humidity (50-60 % - set pot on moist gravel tray with the base of the pot NOT standing in water and mist in morning), (c) bright light but no direct sun, (d) good air movement (ceiling fan is ideal), and (d) a potting mix of coarse fir bark or orchid bark mix that facilitates circulation of air and water. Plants will tolerate some brief temperature extremes, but temperatures in excess of 95 degrees F or below 55 degrees F should be avoided. Water thoroughly with tepid water in mornings only.” … OH REALLY!!!! It goes on and on from here! No wonder the name starts with the sound Phal (fail). Good news for all of us is that there are a number of beautiful orchids shows going on right now and we can visit and admire all sorts of varieties to our hearts content and not feel the least bit compelled to take home a living plant. The other great news is that you can visit the Workhouse Art Center in Lorton in March (March 9th through April 3rd) to see Chris’ excellent and unusual photos of orchids. These require no feeding or maintenance and will bring even more enjoyment to your home than the real (really hard to care for) thing. As you can see we had a great time in the studio trying new approaches to photographing orchids by raiding the cupboard for props and accentuating the natural beauty that is ... The Orchid.
Doesn’t mean we aren’t still waiting for spring. Thank You for visiting, — Kathy P.s. Have you tried to keep Orchids? How did you succeed? What's your favorite variety? Let us know in the comments how you overcame any problems... we'll compare techniques. And do be sure to come see Chris' Orchid Ovation show along with all the great Artwork on exhibit by the other great Associate Artists at the Workhouse, building 9. Chris Fedderson — MacroFine Musings ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I recently joined the Workhouse Art Center in Lorton, Virginia. To paraphrase the mission statement: The Workhouse Arts Center will provide “a unique arts center that provides visual and performing arts, arts education, and entertainment for the community at large”. Why “Workhouse”? The facility was built in the early part of the 20th century as a prison/workhouse for Washington DC’s non-violent criminals. Included in the prison population were “criminal” members of the National Women’s Party, incarcerated for picketing the White House campaigning for women’s voting rights. So the facility continues its life as a workhouse… this time as an art-Workhouse. The Workhouse hosts scads of special events, programs, classes, lectures, etc., throughout the year together with our monthly Open House, Second Saturday, with many Gallery/Studios hosting individual programs. On a more day-to-day level, the Workhouse currently houses approximately 60 visual artists, working in a variety of mediums, many creating their work in on-site studios located in the former prison blocks, all re-designed and remodeled to accommodate each specific medium. These studios are open for you to visit, to watch the artists creating, and to purchase original artwork directly from the creating artist! Each building also hosts a retail gallery of its own where you may purchase original Works Of Art by the Artists on site. We have artists creating in glass, ceramics, painting, batik, photography, mixed media, fiber, performing arts, and movement (Pilates and Yoga) to name a few. The group I’m a member of are the Associate Artists. We don’t have studio spaces on-site — we produce our art elsewhere — but we have a gallery on-site in Building 9 where we host ever-changing, month-long exhibits of our members’ work. In addition, we also host extended exhibitions of a dozen or so pieces, all created by one of our members as a Featured Artist. With these more extensive exhibits, you can really get a feel for the Artist’s personal perspective. One of the things we do in our gallery on Second Saturdays is hold the People’s Choice Awards. We invite all of our guests to vote for their favorite piece of Art in our gallery. In January (2016) Nancy Hannans won first place, and in a tie for second place with Kathy Strauss was Yours Truly for my image Nature’s Fireworks. Our members create mostly in 2-D (painting, photography, batik, etc.), but we also show some 3-D fiber arts, notecards, and jewelry, and we also offer very affordable matted print reproductions of many of our art pieces.
If you live in Northern Virginia, or are planning to visit, make a point to come visit the Workhouse. Visit the Workhouse Prison Museum on-site for a fascinating — and sobering — glimpse into a bit of our local history and backstory. Then, visit the Associate Artists’ gallery in Building 9, along with all the other working galleries in the other buildings, and come away with a special bit of original art you were able to purchase directly from the Artist/Creator. Thank You for visiting, — Chris P.s. What experience from your recent visit to the Workhouse did you find particularly illuminating, interesting, inspiring, poignant, sobering, informative, fascinating, thought-provoking, inspirational, intriguing, motivating… Share and we will all benefit from your insight. |
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About Chris
I am a Virginia-based photographer and gather my images while hiking in parks and natural areas here at home and in the locations I travel to. I also love to visit arboretums and botanic gardens to find unusual and exotic subjects. Archives
March 2017
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