Monday, 11 February 2008

The Grosse Pointe Light, Smudge Painted Lighthouse

I took four of my own photos and put them together into a collage and
then smudge painted them to create a new painting.

The lighthouse picture came from wall paper at Pier Park in the
Ladies' room. There is no Grosse Pointe Light. It's a figment of my
imagination.

6 comments:

Katie J said...

Holy Cow! That's wonderful. Fantastic combination Mary. You must be pleased with it. And I hope you will put it on BP.
SOME OBSERVATIONS:
I know it is a figment of your imagination so is that the reason why the lighthouse is sinking? Maybe I am too practical but I can't see how the lightkeeper can get into it. It is a great composition as it is and hard to see how you could rearrange it, even if you wanted to. Supposedly the lighthouse should be on firm foundations up on that higher ledge to make easy access. But then that wouldn't work would it because you would have to have the lighthouse lower down in the picture on top of the ledge so that it would still overlap the sky and not just be on the same level as the horizon. Then there would not be enough room for the reflection unless the lighthouse itself was much smaller percentage-wise to the rest of the scene. All in all I cannot see how else you could have achieved such a great composition and I suppose you could say it is like that so that it leaves more to the imagination.
The colours are beautiful. I love how you have reflected the sky.
Love the frame. Did you do that with toilet paper? At CPS last week we were shown how to use home made or drawn frames. He did a similar one with a piece of toilet paper with a torn hole in the middle and scanned it in. Your r/h edge though is a bit too straight. Maybe it is just the way the pic has come over. But easy to put right.
Second thoughts you should not put it on BP as people might steal it and print it out. You should cerainly sell it. Most certainly frame it and show it.
I would like it. It would go so well in my new office. I have a pic in front of me that is mostly blue and yellow. It would look great next to that in as big as it would go. Maybe you could send it to me in a big file. I could print it and frame it and try and sell it for you. I could maybe get it shown in the Art Cafe at West Mersea.
Maybe you could join CPS as an overseas member and we could enter your pic in our competitions and beat all the other clubs.

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

WOW! Thanks for all your VERY KIND COMMENTS, Kate.

By the way, I was VERY aware of the sinking lighthouse phenomenon!

But I wasn't sure how to solve the problem! I thought about putting a concrete pad under it, but I thought that would be ugly.

I decided to pretend that it was spring and that the lake levels were higher than normal (I'm picturing this on Lake St. Clair in Michigan) and that normally it is much lower. LOL! I actually did think about it. I'll put the next one on ROCK instead of sand, and then I can feel more secure about it. LOL!

I have it on a different computer and would be happy to send you a bigger file. It's a pretty big file. But I did not make it HUGE sizewise. One thing about smudge paintings is that with a little work, you can make them bigger---right now it has a 4 x 6 aspect ratio--to make an 8 x 10 aspect ratio, I'd have to paint it more on the sides.

It has never been printed as is, though I did make some hasty sympathy and thank you motes out of an earlier version when I wasn't finished yet.

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

I smudge-painted the edges of it. It probably does need more work there.

It's easy but time consuming to do if yr smudge-painting anyway.

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

You are welcome to have it for your new office, but you do so many wonderful things yourself!

Katie J said...

Well I've just taken to this one. Gosh if you do another one with rock foundations you could have a whole series. They would look great in the Art Cafe at West Mersea. It is mostly nautical pictures they have there. I could be your agent!
Remember I have an A3 printer now. Do you think it would go bigger than 8 x 10?

val said...

I'm with you on the amazing lighthouse on the water's edge.... whatever is "odd" I agree it's a great piece of art and hanging it in Kate's art cafe is wonderful... it would be interesting to get somments emailed to you. great job.... so artsy fartsy you are.