Color

Emotional Color - A selective approach to color usage to elicit an emotional response from the viewer.
It's Sunset Beach on the island of Kauai, we waited until the colors were a certain combination, you see photos like this, but once we saw Hawaii, you see anyone can take pictures when the sunsets aer this beautiful. The hardest thing is keeping other tourists out of the picture.
The restaurant there was wonderful. Or maybe it waas the Mai Tai...



Cool Color - A color closer to Blue on the color wheel
Well it is blue and the bird was cool, there were 4 of these, one in each corner of the lobby, the open air lobby, the doors never were closed when we were there. Warm soft breezes and tropical drinks, not a bad place, I hope we can someday return.

Value

Mixed Media - The combination of two or more different media in a single work of Art.

A simple sign art? The National Parks signs are carefully designed, they will be seen by millions of visitors a year, from not just America, but from the rest of the world.

This is a combination of many materials and textures, chosen to represent that the desert itself is not just a monolithic boring slab of sand. The Death Vally sign (May 2005) consists of Steel, Granite and Yellow Pine.



Aerial Perspective - the perspective of less distinct contours and value contrasts as forms recede into the background. Colors appear to be washed out in the distance or to take on the color of the atmosphere.

That made me think of this Death Valley Photo we took, again May 2005:


The mountains seems to just become part of the clouds...

Illusion of Space

From the Illusion of space chapter I chose to represent a few terms:

Juxtaposition - When one image or shape is placed next to or in contrast to another image or shape.
Here the shape in contrast were made for Thanksgiving a couple years ago, she has little to do with travel but when we do, we must get a pig-sitter for our little Penny:





She almost made it under texture, don't you just want to pet her?



Now for Vanishing Point - in linear perspective the point in which parallel ines appear to converge on the horizon line.



This picture was taken June 2005, down by the ocean on the Hearst Castle property, San Simeon, in California, the fence seems to go on until the lines converge....

Texture & Trompe L'oeil

Texture - is the surface quality of objects that appeals to the sense of touch, the tactile sense.

For this I chose a picture we took while at a wonderful hotel, the Grand Hyatt Kauai, when you walk down to the ocean and look back, you see their open air lobby. Cascading down from there is a waterfall and a color and texture waterfall made of beautiful flowers and bushes, amazing, especially when you consider that center opening in back is about 25 feet tall and 40 feet wide.

The leis in front are from a recent wedding ceremony.

Trompe l'oeil - the french term for fooling the eye, often painted as frescos in restaurants to make it look like you are in another place or time. Here I place a picture I took while visiting the Philly Art Museum, it is a painting but the look is very 3D.

The artist is Frans Snyders and it's named Still Life with Terms and a Bust of Ceres.

Cubism

This week's term , from the Shape/Volume chapter, is an art style that takes natural forms and turns them into geometric planes. While my wife loves the natural parks, my favorite place to visit is Walt Disney World (WDW).

The upper photo:

One of the premier hotels there is the Contemporary Resort. They try to incorporate futuristic themes, or at least what people thought the future would be like, at every turn. To show how even nature would be a clean regular shape, they trimmed the trees outside the resort very strictly. This photo was taken from the 4th floor looking out over the parking area, I found it on the DisUnplugged website at: http://www.disunplugged.com/2008/03/05/coming-disneys-contemporary-resort/

The lower photo:

EPCOT is one of the parks in WDW, it is over 500 acres and is split into a World Showcase, holding a mini World's Fair type of representation of various countries, and Future World, which also like a worlds fair showcases the newest in technology. The icon at the entrance to this park again repeats the theme of trees trimmed to very exacting futuristic and geometric shapes.

Ifound this photo on Flickr at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/94973432@N00/2422915683/

Contour

This week the chapter is Lines, the term I chose is Contour - a line used to follow the edges of forms and thus describes their outline. This picture is from our Trip to Hawaii in May 2009, specifically the island of Kauai. We took a slow plane ride around the island. The Western side is the Napali coast. This was where the opening scenes for the movie Jurassic Park was filmed. Seriously cragged coast. In this picture the surf has just slammed into the coastline and shows its outline with a natural contour line.

Progressive Rhythm

This week, the term I've chosen to show is Progressive Rhythm - the Repetition of shape that changes in a regular pattern. For this I've chosen a picture we took while in San Francisco in June 2005. We stood in Alamo Square and got this shot. Alamo square is a park and it is very steep, not the ideal place to go to in a wheelchair. The Painted Ladies, as they are known all have the same basic architecture. Each neighbor chose a slightly different color and small changes to the trim, or gingerbread, attached to the facade.

Asymmetrical Balance

This week I found two pictures we took that describe Asymmetrical Balance.
The definition of which is: Balance achieved with dissimilar objects that have equal visual weight or equal eye attraction:

Above, Moulton Barn, in Grand Teton National Park. We took this picture in 2004.

I think the Mountains and the Barn share equal eye attraction.

This is a picture of me feeding wild burros, living in Oatman, AZ (on Route 66). They are descendants of burros used by the silver miners, when the silver was gone, the burros were left to fend on their own several decades ago, they were recently protected by a Federal Law. They seem to know this and have full run of the town. The store keepers can't harm them, or even touch them. In order to coerce them back outside their store they will squirt them with a little water from spray bottles. They also sell carrots for $1 a bag to photo hungry tourists. This shot was taken in 2006.

Focal Point

The next term is Focal Point - where emphasis on a certain object draws attention to the piece.

Here a Deer decided to peer into our house, the afternoon sun enhanced the focal point and made her stand out even more.

Scale and Proportion

This week the words are Scale and Proportion, I always thought the Taj Mahal was one of the most beautiful sites in the whole world. It's so perfectly layed out and most symmetrical. But its Scale is not obvious until you put something in the picture with it, here Lady Di sat apparently when she had determined life with Chuck was not going to be a fairy tale. This photo was found on the WordPress.com website.

Symbol and Collage

I would say what most identifies me, would be my love of travel, this collage shows a few of our most recent trips:
Washington DC during the Cherry Festival
A boat cruise with friends near the Coast Guard Station at Long Beach Island,NJ
The Queen Mary 2 in Frenchman's Bay, Bar Harbor ME
The dock at sunset at Fisherman's Village, Punta Gorda, FL
The start of Route 1 in Key West, FL