Smudgy Clouds and Art Conventions

Sometimes real life looks kind of fake. Or it would if you tried to paint it. Lurid pink, purple and orange sunsets. Up close detail of tree bark. 

Or this morning's low hanging clouds over Toronto. They look like poor use of the Photoshop smudge tool. 

When painting, we sometimes stick to conventions based on viewer expectation instead of what nature actually looks like. It's rooted in the same impulse that children use when always picking blue for colouring skies even though in they may just as often be grey. 

Snails of Spring

Calvin has been meeting some of the ants and snails in the neighbourhood.

Edit: Here's a fun tweet I received in response to the post!

@flyingtrilobite Nice! Great pics of interesting Cepaea hortensis invaders from Europe.

— BJLS (@BiolJLinnSoc) April 19, 2013

@flyingtrilobite Looking again, they probably C. nemoralis because of dark lips! Also both 5-banded yellow morph; 2nd has all bands fused.

— BJLS (@BiolJLinnSoc) April 20, 2013

Little Landscape Photos

I'm no photographer but I've been having fun playing around with these little photographic details. They're from my recent vacation. Using Instagram and Photoshop Express on my iPhone.

These are the types of things I'm thinking about while exploring ideas do a big painting in the works.