Prayer flags . . . a happy accident

Some of my more popular images is a series of prayer flags I made. I didn’t set out to make prayer flags, however; I was just playing with some of my photos in the computer and they began to appear.

Here’s how I describe them on Fine Art America:
 
As I was creating these images, they began looking more and more like weathered and worn prayer flags, so I followed my intuition and made an entire series of them, adding my own scrawled calligraphy in the center of each one.

I don’t even remember now what photos I combined to create the prayer flag look, but however it happened, it was a surprisingly joyful result.

These are three of the more popular ones I made (a customer bought these three as a set earlier this year), as well as a link to one of my two prayer flag galleries:

https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/carol-leigh.html?tab=artworkgalleries&artworkgalleryid=369546

Images copyright ©2019 Carol Leigh

Recent addition to FAA: "Mourning Dove in the Morning"

Most of my montages are photography-based, to which I then add torn, hand-painted papers, Japanese calligraphy, maybe some circles, etc. until something begins coming together for me.

And that's what happened here.

I photographed this mourning dove, who was dozing in a tree, on a foggy morning in southern California. The tree shape was great; the bird was a bonus. 



The final result, to me, looks like something that’s been in a scrapbook for a long time, has maybe suffered water damage, other papers have stuck to it and have been pulled away, leaving traces behind, etc.

To see more detail, to see what this picture looks enlarged, here’s the link: https://carol-leigh.pixels.com/featured/mourning-dove-in-the-morning-carol-leigh.html

As always, thank you for looking at what I make.

Image Copyright ©2019 Carol Leigh

Most-Visited Pictures This Week . . .

Every week Fine Art America sends me a variety of information, including what were my most-visited pictures the previous week.

Here are three examples of what people were looking at . . .

The "Santa Fe Crows" image has been a particularly popular one over the years, and is a particular favorite of mine as well. Here's the link to the original at Fine Art America: https://fineartamerica.com/featured/santa-fe-crows-carol-leigh.html

The next one, "Papers," I described this way:

"An ink-stained book cover, hand-painted rice paper, torn papers from an old Japanese book, gold foil and more comprise this collage."

The link to the original: https://fineartamerica.com/featured/papers-carol-leigh.html

And finally, a mixed-media piece called "From Books." (This was part of a large sale last month, 48 images, all revolving around my collages containing postage stamps. Forty-eight all at once! Woo hoo!)

My description for this picture on Fine Art America is:

"As is typical, I have photographed some of my physical collages, some stamps, torn papers, pages from old books, boat reflections, ink stains, and more to put this photomontage together. It's a fun, never-ending, always-changing process."

The link to the original:  https://fineartamerica.com/featured/from-books-carol-leigh.html

As always, thank you for looking at my work.

All images copyright ©2019 Carol Leigh

Small pleasures . . . Naranjo

On August 5th, 2012, I posted a photo to my blog that I had taken in Santa Fe at the farmers' market.

Although I rarely photograph people, I liked the look on the face of this man as he watched his wife arrange flowers.

A couple days later,  I received an e-mail from the man's son. His father had passed away in December. He saw his father's photo on my blog, liked the colors, and wanted to purchase a print.

The easiest and most cost-effective way for me to do this was to upload the photograph to Fine Art America. That way he could select the size/price/format he wanted and would quickly receive the photos. And if other members of his family wanted prints, that could be easily accomplished. And that's what happened.

I don't mean for this to be an ad for Fine Art America. What I really want to say is that I'm pleased I created something that had meaning for someone else.

And now, when I return to the Santa Fe Farmers' Market, it will no longer be just a fun place to photograph, but will have an especial poignance for me, remembering the look on the man's face, standing next to his wife, surrounded by flowers.

Here's the link to my blog post: http://carolleigh.blogspot.com/2012/08/national-farmers-market-week.html

And here's the link to FAA so you can see how it's presented to the customer: http://fineartamerica.com/featured/naranjo-carol-leigh.html

Small pleasures . . .

Image copyright ©2012-2019 Carol Leigh

Working in series . . . Red and Blue

Back in 2015 I put together a series of 11 images, all having the same components, with different compositions.

It behooves us artists to work this way whenever possible since it encourages clients, especially interior designers, to purchase numerous images that "go together" rather a picture here, a picture there.

The components are some of my hand-painted papers as well as the Enso circles that I drew.

Incorporating colors of bright red and soft blue, they have a rather Asian look to them. They can also be hung sideways or even upside-down if you wish.

Here are four of them. All 11 of them are in a single gallery at Fine Art America / Pixels. If you'd like to see them all, as well as the details, here's the link to the gallery: https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/carol-leigh.html?tab=artworkgalleries&artworkgalleryid=599081

As always, thanks for looking.

Images ©2019 Carol Leigh