Wednesday, June 18, 2008

That Painterly Look


Very interesting! I had a number of people, I say, a number of people, comment on the painterly quality of my prints. One woman even asked if I took photographs before painting my pictures!

I think there are a few things going on here. For one thing, I’m consciously aware of the photorealist style, so it could certainly be that my compositions echo that particular art movement. And then, the digital captures of my Olympus cameras add to the painterly look by being grain-free and capable of very subtle gradations (if you keep the ISO rating and the enlargements fairly low). Finally, the prints that I’ve been making on the HP 8750 are really nice. The inks give a nice, rich tonality. True, they’re dye-based (instead of pigment) so they will "only" last 100 years. And, of course, the ink is expensive, but that’s true of all inkjet printing ink.

This picture in particular, the hammered metal shingles of the Gold Rush era building serving as a backdrop for the pale blue irises, seemed to elicit the "painted image" respose. I used the Olympus C-8080 digital camera for the shot.

Photo: Irises—Bodie, 2006

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