Montpelier

I took these pictures during a recent trip to Virginia with Gudny Campbell. The motivation for the trip was our special exhibit in the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival. We left Hampton and wandered around visiting Jamestown, Williamsburg, James River plantations, Montecello, and Montpelier and took LOTS of pictures.

The subject of this 12" x 15" wall hanging is Montpelier, once the home of James and Dolley Madison and recently restored to the way it was when they lived there 200 years ago. Although all of the pictures were taken in daylight, I created a moody, night version in response to my Davis Photo Club challenge to bring a black and white photo to the upcoming meeting. Rather than simply converting one of my color pics to B&W, I decided to remove most of the color from one of my favorites and create a night scene with the suggestion of a moon rising behind the gazebo. I added little ragged thumbnails of the other pictures I took of around the edges as (done using the Clone Stamp Tool in Photoshop Elements).

The technique I used to create the border may be one of those that will be included in our new book, Creating with Pixels.

Roots of Steam Punk

Here is my "steam punk" art work. Instead of creating something fanciful and shining, I backed up a bit and made something with parts of photos that I've taken of real bits of very old, steam-driven machines. I created the border with little pieces cut from the collage.

The technique I used to create the border may be one of those that will be included in our new book, Creating with Pixels. This book will be filled with all sorts of new ways to play with Photoshop and Photoshop Elements to create digital art that can be displayed digitally, printed on paper and framed, or printed on fabric, quilted, and embellished.