Thursday Challenge: Garden -

"Brand New Garden Coat"
digital photograph by Mick Mather

"... cultivate the garden for the nose
and the eyes will take care of themselves ..."
- Robert Louis Stevenson

Adrift, again -

"Adrift (Alternate Version)"
manipulated digital photograph by Mick Mather

Although I like this version better, I found it a bit too cold as compared to this version posted at Illustration Friday on February 12th, 2010. As you'll see, the windmill isn't evident in the other image and I thought some of you might enjoy seeing it.

Jane -

"Rediscovering Jane (Before & After Version)"
manipulated digital photograph by Mick Mather
- original photograph by John Mora -

- click on image to view full size -

On the left is the initial cropping of John Mora's photograph and on the right is the end result seen here at MickMathersARTblog.

Shake, shake, shake -

"Salt and Pepper (Original Drawing)"
sketch by Mick Mather

This is the original drawing pulled from one of my sketchbooks that was the basis for the block-relief print seen at MickMathersARTblog. Jump over to have a look if you haven't already seen it.

"COLD STREETS": The Movie -

"'COLD STREETS' - The Movie"
digital collage by Mick Mather
- click on image to view full size -

After getting a delightful comment from hpy for this post at MickMathersARTblog, I decided to go forward and create a movie poster. Get your popcorn and candy, Hélène, the first reel is about to begin!

More BIG sky -

"So Big the Sky I"
digitally manipulated photograph by Mick Mather
- click on image to view full size -

Here's the first manipulated version of the piece posted to Thursday Challenge for this week's theme, big. The other version is posted at MickMathersARTblog if you aren't already aware. I really like both although the pea soup clouds of the storm seem very foreboding and give it a slight edge as regards which one is my favorite, if forced to choose. :)

Stimulus Package II -

"Stimulus Package II (Original Photograph #1)"
digital photograph by Mick Mather

There's a sequel to Seth Apter's project, Disintegration Collaboration, that's due on August 1st. I have plenty of time to come up with something as explained here when I posted the before and after composite of my part of DisCo. As mentioned, one way for me to go is with a series of digital prints based upon photographs of the only bit that was left of Stimulus Package I, this bit of string. I'll be posting a few of the prints at MickMathersARTblog with the first going up on Saturday, May 9th. I took a series of photographs of the string, arranging it in different shapes each time, and I'll post each original here to cross-reference the manipulations as they come out.

B & W version of the original -

"Silverback"
digitally manipulated photograph by Mick Mather
- click image to view full size -

I thought I ought to show a cleaner version of this photograph posted at MickMathersARTblog and Thursday Challenge for the week's theme: windows and doors. As most of you who know me will understand, manipulating photographs is what drives me and that's the one you'll see over there. If there's any interest, let me know and I'll post the original, color version soon.

The Orginal -

"The Secret Shed - Original Photo"
photograph by Mick Mather

Here's the original of "The Secret Shed" that can be found here at MickMathersARTblog. Once again, Blogger software automatically scales and resizes an image that's larger than the available pixel width in this frame of the weblog. Click on image to see it full size.

From the BIG back yard -

"West to East - Original Photograph"

digital photograph by Mick Mather

Here's another original photograph taken in the BIG back yard after a fog bank had worked it's magic on the flora and fauna. I wonder, are spiders, more at - spider webs, fauna? Anyway, the manipulated version of this photo can be seen here at MICKMATHERSARTBLOG.

Land Art Project -

"Sky Box I, Plate 4"
land art sculpture by Mick Mather

While perfect weather was available I went ahead with construction using the foundation shown and documented yesterday. Just as I thought I might, I moved to larger twigs and branches to create this shoulder high, 1-foot square box. With the extra weight, it began to tilt, one corner came undone and more tying, using long grass, was necessary. A twig, as a support between said corner and a lower branch of the huckleberry bush, was also added. It's relatively stable and decidedly complete, but I do expect that the first strong wind will take it apart and that's okay. I actually prefer the original plan, to build Sky Box with wild grain stalks, and I may harvest a basket full before the snow flies and work on a proper weaving of Sky Box II that can be carried out and installed on any fair day that arrives thereafter. I'll be posting other views of Sky Box I at MICKMATHERSARTBLOG as time goes by ... also, some digital studies and manipulations of the original sketch - like this one - will be posted there from time to time. Enjoy.

Land Art Project -

"Kings Court Cube - Aerial Site View"
Live Search Maps, Birds Eye Satellite View

It occurred to me the other day that I ought to have some finality to this series of posts that document the Kings Court Cube land art sculpture project. As promised, I posted a completed documentation photograph at MICKMATHERSARTBLOG so drop in over there and have a peek if you haven't already. This little bit of documentation in the form of a birds eye view, courtesy of my favorite satellite view site, Live Search Maps, is a little bonus that I'd forgotten about. Well, it doesn't really show the work, just the site until these coordinates are updated.

NEW from The Birdhouse Series -

"Birdhouse IX (Alternate Version)"
digitally manipulated drawing by Mick Mather

As mentioned in today's post at MICKMATHERSARTBLOG, I have this alternate version of the latest image in this series. I actually like this one better but, at this point, I feel much more strongly about keeping the series colorful. That may change one day and, for now at least, if you're reading this you were interested enough to get a peek at this one.

NEW from The Birdhouse Series -

"Birdhouse III (Alternate Version)"
digitally manipulated tempera-on-paper painting by Mick Mather

I'm quietly posting this version of "Birdhouse III" that was posted yesterday at MICKMATHERSARTBLOG. You can see the original posted version here.

Old skool -

"The Girls at the Office (Alternate Version)"
digital collage by Mick Mather

As mentioned at MICKMATHERSARTBLOG this is the version that was posted there most of the day. It kept bothering me so I took it down and replaced it with yet another version.

Alternate Version for Illustartion Friday: Fail -

"The Epic Fail"
digital collage by Mick Mather

As mentioned at MICKMATHERSARTBLOG, I had two ideas for this week's Illustration Friday theme of fail. You can see the other version here. With this post, it's the somewhat hilarious idea that failure has a superlative usage, hence the title used. With that in mind, how much more superlative might the epic fail be if there was a magazine that students could avidly research to maximize their minimal efforts! :D

NEW from The Telephone Series -

"Telephone #5"
monotype by Mick Mather

Here's another image from The Telephone Series - "Telephone #20" and a group of thumbnails can be seen here at MICKMATHERSARTBLOG - that was the precursor to The Toast Series. I talk about it here, where you can also see "Toast #7" from that series ... take a peek.

Ahead of the curve -

"No Waitin' G #1"
stressed paper collage by Mick Mather

As I mentioned in this post on Sunday, here's the original stressed paper collage that resulted in that very "op art" image appearing at MICKMATHERSARTBLOG. To begin with, stressing paper is something I've been doing for quite a few years now - both in my painting and in certain collage pieces. For this piece, what I mean by stressing is a step-by-step process that begins with a slick, newspaper advertisement insert. It all begins by wadding the piece up in a ball, opening it, folding and creasing and then balling it up again. Next step is to the sink where the tight ball of paper is soaked and then carefully opened up. The water torture is critical since this sort of paper has close to a 90% clay content and will disintegrate quickly. While still wet, pieces are torn away, laid on a separate sheet of standard, white bond paper, quickly laid about and arranged until the image has been reconstructed. More than one advert can be used - as can be seen in this stressed paper series - although I only used one in this instance. You can also see a larger, manipulated version of this and, at last count, it's been developing into a lot more than the original three I had planned. Stay tuned.

Every photgraph is now a great photograph -

"Cornfield"
photograph by Ann Ballard

This is the original photo by my good friend and poet, Ann Ballard. You can see the manipulated image at MICKMATHERSARTBLOG or at Thursday Challenge. Now that we have such a wide variety of photo editing and manipulating software available, any photograph can be turned into something much more pleasing, hopefully. In my case, photography was always a medium that I was bound and determined to use in a more painterly way ... that ideal is also enhanced with the digital tools we're privileged to be able to access today.

A peek at the first layer -

"Complicated (Original Photograph)"
photograph by Mick Mather

If you were just looking at the finished image at my daily weblog, MICKMATHERSARTBLOG, this is the original photograph of a children's toy that was taken at a dentists office. It's a little bit dark and the process of cropping and resizing leaves a diffused, smoky-looking set of shadows behind. So the color balance was modified, making the image brighter and sharper. The next step was to run it through another filter ...

"Complicated (Alternate Version)"
digitally manipulated photograph by Mick Mather

... the result of that process - running the photograph through a filter - revealed a diamond pattern that was layered over the original photo. This alternate version wasn't completely satisfactory and I decided not to use it. Instead I went with the manipulation at 100% as seen here in the finished piece at MICKMATHERSARTBLOG.