A Portrait

Image © PeteM2020

As I saw this scene unfold, my mind went to a painting by Jeffrey Smart. He was commissioned to paint a portrait of Clive James, however, Smart insisted that he didn’t do portraits. The commission was eventually accepted and a marvellous portrait was produced. Like my photograph, a tiny image of Clive James is set in a large urban scene – yet with Smart’s talent, the likeness is unmistakably true. What a wonderful skill.

Follow this link to view the painting:

 http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/276.1992/

The following is an extract from an ABC 7:30 Report: 27/06/2006
Clive James' artful journey
Reporter: Scott Bevan

CLIVE JAMES: This is Jeffrey Smart's justly famous portrait of Clive James. And if you look very, very, carefully. Portrait of Clive James? Surely, it's a portrait of a wall. Look very, very carefully and there I am.


SCOTT BEVAN: To the artist, size, particularly of a yellow wall isn't everything.

JEFFERY SMART, ARTIST: Despite all that, 90% of the area, the one more important thing is that little thing, that is bigger than a postage stamp, not as big as a postage stamp, as big of my little finger, of Clive. And that is much more important, isn't it? Not because it is Clive, but because it's a human face. 



SCOTT BEVAN: Still the subject was expecting something bigger when he sat for his friend.

CLIVE JAMES: He had problems with my ears apparently. One is higher on my head than the other. Of course my eyes are vanishingly small. He told me about this while painting me. It wasn't very flattering. The result was terrific and it hangs on my wall in Cambridge and I thought he would go away and do a big portrait with my head that big. When I got to Sydney this was already hanging here and I realised that I'd shrunk. I had become the incredible shrinking man. But it is...that's me alright and I'm very, very proud to be in it.

Girls, girls, girls!

Image © PeteM2020

Fotoholics MUPC, the Melbourne University photography club recently had a “photograph girls” day – I think the outing was called something else, but photographing girls was what it boiled down to.

A bunch of semi-professional models strutted their stuff with a group of eager photographers swarming around them. A fun day out – met some like minded people and even got a couple of OK shots.

To hone my web skills, I have made a web page with some of the images from the day. The page looks OK in all browsers except some versions of Internet Explorer – no surprises there.

Like to have a look? Just click here.

Hiatus

Time to revive the blog – back to image making and a bit of playing with code again. I have been skirting around the topic for some time with plenty of experiments, but little to show for the efforts.

Did quite a bit of analogue (wet chemistry) B&W in my youth. Enjoyable, time consuming and messy!  Now, with the advent of Photoshop filters to emulate the “film look”, it’s become a lot faster and easier. But is it the same “look and feel”?

I will argue it’s not – or maybe that’s just a nostalgic notion!

“A Clean Sheet” Kodak Tri-X 400 emulation © PeteM2020

Saprophytic Confabulations

Image © PeteM2020

Mushrooming was a part of my childhood’s annual autumn ritual; foraging being integral to the genetic makeup of most Scandinavians and East Europeans. For a few brief weeks, the fungi were eagerly sought, hunted and consumed in large quantities. 


Despite the purported magical properties and olfactory delights of those musky smelling specimens, they never fired off any of my culinary or poetic synapses. For me the memories are instead of fire in the belly and the painful production of large quantities of methane and related gasses. Darwin may have had an explanation for this anomaly!

Pappus

Image © PeteM2020

Whilst rummaging through the undergrowth (see previous blog entry) I found this beauty - a Dandelion seed head.  Photographed up close and personal it reveals some fascinating structures – mix in some Photoshop trickery and quite a surreal image is the result.

Petals and sepals

Backlit petals have a certain magical quality – but you most often have to lie on the ground to catch it!  Worth the effort though. 

Image © PeteM2020

Whilst working on the image in PS, I was uncertain of how much to retain of the striations on the sepals. But, heck, it’s a flower picture after all, so some reality has to be retained – or does it?  

Office Fodder "R" Us

Played about in Photoshop and After Effects making my contribution to the "Dandenong Nocturnal - Car Park" project. I didn't spend any time on sound effects, as I believe there won't be any speakers at the projection venue. Here is my first attempt:-