Tag Archives: elements

Show Pub Brave

Show Pub Brave  by Phil Slattery
Show Pub Brave
by Phil Slattery

Another work created using Photoshop Elements 2.0, but instead of using a photograph from a Renaissance Faire, I used a photograph of a alleyway in Japan (either in Tokyo or Yokosuka).  The woman’s silhouette I created using a photo of a statue, while her face is created from public domain image that I reversed horizontally and to which I made a few other alterations.   I like the atmosphere that it transmits to the viewer: very moody and ominous.   I feel about it as Van Gogh felt about one of his paintings of billiard tables in a bar and which Kirk Douglas (as Van Gogh) said in the movie “Lust for Life”:   “I tried to show a place where a man can ruin himself, go mad, or commit a crime.”

Dancing through Hell

Dancing through Hell by Phil Slattery
Dancing through Hell
by Phil Slattery

Another work created by using a photograph of a Danse Macabre from a Renaissance Faire and Photoshop Elements 2.0.  I tinkered with the photo until what you see here emerged.  I named it for the first impression that popped into my mind.

Death Calls the Tune

Death Calls the Tune by Phil Slattery
Death Calls the Tune
by Phil Slattery

I created this using Photoshop Elements 2.0 several years ago using a photo I took of a violinist in a Danse Macabre at a Renaissance Faire.

Distance

Distance by Phil Slattery
Distance
by Phil Slattery

 

This came from a photo of a mannequin in San Diego I took about 1995 with a 35mm camera.  At the time I wanted to catch a mood of distance between people, not necessarily lovers, but between people who had some connection be it relatives, lovers, friends whatever. Some years later after I bought Photoshop Elements 2.0, it was one of the first photos I toyed with when exploring Photoshop.  I wanted still to capture that feeling of distance and toyed with several features until I produced this. The various subtleties of gray and white and the odd browns and greens add to the feeling along with the mottled look (like a very grainy photo) and, of course, the vacant, hollow eyes and the neutral feeling from the lips combine to make this a quite poignant work.

Wave and Sun

Wave and Sun
Wave and Sun

This has always been one of my favorites, though I am not certain why.  I painted this several years back (2009? 2010?) when I lived on the Gulf Coast at Corpus Christi, TX.  I do not recall how I came up with the idea.  Somehow it comes to mind that I was at Bob Hall Pier on North Padre Island when it occurred to me to have a wave with its crest pointing to the sun.  The sea and sky of course would be blue and the sun as a large yellow dot would draw the viewer’s attention to it along with the crest of the wave.   The sun would have to be off-center of course.  I made the texture of the wave by stringing light blue paint up and down in curves to shape the wave.  Now that I am thinking of it, it seems that a lot of the challenge in composition to me has been to draw the viewer’s eye around the canvas.  In my abstracts I try to do this by putting small spots of dabs of color against contrasting backgrounds.  For example, if I had a mostly dark blue abstract, I might put a dab of bright yellow paint in one corner and a bit of bright orange in another, and so forth, if I thought the viewer’s eye needed to go to that spot to keep the eye moving.   Anyway, that should be the subject for another post dealing with abstracts instead of something more realistic like this wave and sun.

Thoughts?  Comments?