Old days

The basic shot here is one I took with available light (what little there was of it) in a shed on an old abandoned farm. I've always liked the composition and the vague and dark atmosphere, but felt it needed a bit more, so I added the heavy horse to provide balance, history and context.

Before and after

One of the many things I like about working with Photoshop is the fact that you can explore various options and directions. Here are a couple of images from last week, based on the photo at the top. The number of interpretations that can be done from any given photo is limited only by the imagination.                        

                         

              

Aunt Doris

Here's another one in my rocking horse series. This one is titled "Childhood Treasures". The first version  featured a different and slightly older girl. At one of my pre-Christmas shows, a customer (friend of Ed who made the rocking horse) asked if I could insert an old family photo of Aunt Doris instead of the child I had in the original. She brought me the image you see here, and I am totally in love with Aunt Doris. The photo is over one hundred years old, still in excellent condition. Aunt Doris has such a look of sweet optimism and hopefulness that this is now my preferred version of this image. 

Recent work

This is one of my newest photomontage images. Don't yet have a good title for it, but with luck that will come. 

Rocking horse

My friend Ed does amazing hand-carved rocking horses of various sizes. I've designed a line of complementary wall pieces featuring his work. This is one of several I have done to date. Ed, his rocking horses, and some of my images are currently at the Calgary Art Market. We both have booths of our own at the Sundog show in Saskatoon the first weekend of December. 

Whippet

I do quite a bit of dog photography for clients, but don't often get around to using them in my artwork. I've been creating rusty paper for other art uses, and was happy with how this whippet blended in to the paper.

Dark Angels

This image is a special one for me for several reasons. First and most basic is that it features my gelding Alpac and my beloved crows. Secondly, this was a milestone image for applying my  Photoshop skills, as it was the first photomontage I was finally able to do after much time and effort trying to learn the basics. I credit the Mural Mosaic Cadeau du Cheval project for giving me the impetus to do this piece, as it is part of the massive horse mural. You can see the  mural here  . My image can be seen in the bottom row, 6th from the left. This image was created in 2008. I've come a long way since then, but this one will always hold a place in my heart.