Today..200th post...

   Later today I am posting my 200th creative page
 on this blog that I began the
 summer of 2011.  It has grown and evolved, much to my surprise; and from 

what I gather from other bloggers it takes time to build and hone this little world in cyberspace,
 to know just how you want it to look and feel, what it is you want to accomplish and where you want
to take it.  

I can't say I am disappointed.  Where it will lead I cannot say....
it's a little one in the huge world of blogging and there is so much more one can do.  I wanted only to
 share with readers what interests and moves me as a beginning poet, writer, photographer and if
 I have reached anyone and made them smile, or even cry (in a good way) then it has
 been worthwhile.

Until now I do not advertise or adopt other gadgets much...in time I will see...what I feel 

comfortable with in adding to this space.  It's been a great pleasure of mine to meet all the talented
people along the way.  You don't know how happy it has made me to be able to express myself
in this way.   So, so far, so good.....and again, thanks for visiting me here

on the Eyrie Road.

.I am closing with the painting with which I started the, the first
post in July 2011..it's always been a dream of mine to live in such a cottage and it's
 in the same spirit I create here still...

                          Kathy -

                                                                    

More daisies...

A last minute posting for  Flower Art Friday ...more daisies, as I posted one on Photo Art Friday yesterday; but this is an experiment which obviously shows I need more practice with textures.  I just threw this together...far from looking like the other professional photos here...but I like a good critique now and then ;-)

Daisy glow...

For  Photo Art Friday  I chose the daisy with the finer petals that I'm fond of.  They glow at night without a moon out...

Painterly piece of digital art..with quote...

Photo Art Friday

I have been working on this for some time.  Between problems with the old computer and not 

taking many tutorials on texture, going by what I've learned as I've been blogging along here, this is 

what I came up with. The idea began with a quote challenge, but I was not ready.  I first superimposed the image of the woman in Berthe Morisot's impressionistic painting, Reading (1874)  and a gramophone separately onto the scene (which is a view from my back yard looking south across the creek). \

 Using a "painterly finesse" texture of Bonnie's and then a Shakespearean texture, I tried to blend or fade them into one.  I erased the area where I wanted the focus because the various settings of opacity (overlay, multiply, normal,)  that I tried did not give me the desired result.......either too much light, not enough, or loss of lettering. I am using Pixlr only right now since Picnk closed, where I knew how to get the desired effect.   Then, of course, I added a 

favorite quote.  It's  a learning process...but it's fun to see ideas materialize 

on canvas, albeit digital ;-)  BTW, I won't be able to comment on other 'painters' blogs until tomorrow.

500 Years of Female Portraits in Western Art...

Credit for posting to UTube below:


I really have not wanted to use my blog to share as one shares on face book, but this particular video, shared with me via a face book friend, touched the ganglia in the creative side of my brain.  If you have already seen it, I apologize for adding something so popular or mundane (from 2007) to your day. But, if you haven't, I think many will appreciated the art involved in producing it. 


Moreover, perhaps from the viewpoint of a player in a like game of 'Concentration', you might enjoy pairing and identifying the artwork or women with their artists/creators/originators in history.  

I certainly don't have all the answers to such a game or test, nor do I have the time to research each face, but I recognize many..and am sure you are as curious about some, as I am. One could use a pencil and paper to write down as many names one knows, I suppose...;)

Doctored dahlia...

As those of you who have been using picnik.com know,  they are closing shop in April.  Since the premium options are now free I've taken advantage of the opportunity... until I set up photoshop on
a new computer sometime in the not too distant future.

Maybe you remember this downward dog positioned dahlia from last summer..a SOOC shot that drew a lot of compliments.  












Now she has been antiqued and grained with writing and texture for a new look or two...amazing differences, so thought I would re-submit her to Lisa Gordon's Creative Exchange for one more go around. 

Scavenger Hunt Sunday...already

Time flies by when one is housebound...finally, the roads are clear and what is left is the cleaning up of debris from the ice storm.  However I am still needing to to say at  home most of the time,  keeping my foot immobilized for the duration of 6 weeks due to a torn Achilles tendon due to bone spurs on my heel.  Therefore, I have very few new photos...but I have collected several from my stash taken earlier in the year for Scavenger Hunt Sunday, which I started doing because of the fun word prompts.. this week they are:


1.  Sunset...
This was taken in Gearhart, Oregon last year.  I go there several times a year to beach comb, breathe salty air, stay in the Inn there, browse the one antique shop, and for nostalgic reasons.

2.  Black & White...
My mannequin, Milly, who has been dressed in the same lacy white top and straw hat all year and sits on my dresser with a picture of my granny.  This summer she will most likely don a vintage bathing suit, scarf and sunglasses. I was able to use any premium apps yesterday over at Picnik.com as they are closing shop  in April and kindly allowing anyone use their site,  at their leisure, until then.. free of charge.  Here is a little texture.  Then I realized it is more sepia toned and added the more apt black & white photo below that I arranged.  Also, you see a vintage streetcar being used by citizens of Butte, Montana in the 1890's.  The old photo is in my great aunt Bessie's album.



3.  A Day in My Life...Easy one, as my 9 year old grandson was here for the weekend and snapped this picture before we started our game.

4.  Four...as in set of 4:

Part of a project I am working on for the family heritage album/book which I started last summer and have only begun to scratch the surface of.  My grandfather, Ned, his mother Alice below him.  My grandmother Eva fishing and a group gathered together in 1925 or so at a real picnic in Butte, Montana.  My mother was 1 year old.

1.  Colorful:   
A tiny cloisonne box lid close up macro shot...

Scavenger Hunt SundayScavenger Hunt SundayScavenger Hunt Sunday

January Night...

by klr

                         

Whilst we gaze on high

suppose the stories are true

January night

I took these photos one late evening last week when driving home.  Before I added the snow, adjusted the exposure on the branches and made the moon more yellow, I realized how nicely the three look together as a group and the collage turned out better than I thought it would...kind of a coincidence;  and that is the extent of my creativity this week ;-)  Then, someone who saw these photos suggested there might be a story behind them.  I want to thank Jeanne;  this is what I came up with as a result:

    Moonlight is the theme.  Be it light streaming through a stained glass window, moonlight casting shadows on forked tree branches, or the grandeur of a classic yellow moon, which we are privileged to look at most months of the year, they all touch the very light in us that longs to speak back.  In the form of a certain qualified holiness, we respond with admiration and love in the forms of wistful poetry and inspired songs. We long to transcend that magical, invisible stairway to heaven where all life mysteries' answers are given and our souls set free.

     Many a moon (pardon the cliche), I have planted moon flower seeds in my back yard, taking care that nothing disturbs them; and just as often they have not survived.  The white blooms that result glow in the dark of the night, as do other seasonal species with white blossoms.  By placing them in a hanging basket outside a bedroom window, or by an entry door, the vine stemmed flower sends a lovely fragrance indoors.  So this year I hope a moon flower's little light will beam against a night sky..starry or not.


     We have been captured by the moon's powerful haughtiness, as we are grateful and heartened by its kindly phosphorescence as a lamp or lantern to gently guide our way on a path, be it spiritual or actual.  As a beacon in a lighthouse, we have romanticized it to the point that its mantle can make us tremble.  It can be a welcome incandescence in a time of need, or a cue to a proposal.


     So the light of flowers that provide a show in the garden at night will not be as luminous as the moon, but they will inspire us by exuding exquisite scents.  Perhaps it is part of that same childhood moon of fairy tales we remember, and again sparks our wishful thinking.  It's what hastens us to dare say from a small window in a country home nestled in a meadow, or from the rooftop of a city dwelling, "Goodnight, Moon." 


     

Missing photos...and mixed nuts...

Good morning,,,there were funny clouds out yesterday...a weather change around the corner, I think.


For those of you who stop by following a link or if you regularly visit the Eyrie and can't find pictures that go with a post it is because I inadvertently removed them from Google....some of the more technical aspects of having a blog cause me to misplace things or otherwise complicate matters.  I'm good now with the basics ;-)
I intend to re- post all photos but it will take awhile as I do only a couple per day and they are not as easy to find as I would like...thanks for understanding...any photos posted since Nov. 27 are  not effected.

The Christmas tree is going up today; it's the earliest I have ever put it up,  but I am in the mood.  I'll be back with more after the weekend as I have company to tend to.   Again, thanks for your continued support and comments on my blog....there's so much more to say!
BTW, I purchased the pink embroidered tablecloth in Ecuador.
Kathy

Color bursts...

Photo Art Friday ~

For today my best intention was to read a tutorial on texture in photos.  However, I went back to picnik, and played with a few effects with this photo I took SOOC of a pink dahlia (right).

First I added a simple soft border.....then 'puddled' or 'rippled' it for this artsy result:

Then I made a 'waterfall' of pixels and a hypnotic setting for this original  kaleidoscope effect. (Below) For the last one I used black, white and sepia tones and the cross process with color focus at the center for a vintage look:

With the upcoming holiday there will be little time,  but I will have something else to share for that occasion. In the meantime, please visit the other outstanding photos submitted to Pixel Dust Studio this weekend:

                     http://www.pixeldustphotoart.com/

Silver spoons vignette...

Shiny silver spoons

Hints of golden times to be?

Share some light today

For more photos by talented people please visit Lisa Gordon Photography here at:

Thank you for stopping by - Kathy

Bird in wreath...

Depth in wreath is more apparent with sepia and other tones cross highlighted - the texture is really the wreath itself...for me...a step closer to the more complicated texture formats ;-)   Entry for ----

Button , button...

A half full old bottle of buttons...with and without a splash effect...

My Blue Heron...

Since I've lived here on this creek which originates from an underground spring, I've watched  many inhabitants (raccoons, squirrels, many breeds of birds, ducks and geese) with or without binoculars.  Each summer when it is hot with no rain, I am most apt to see the heron arrive for some hunting. I don't notice him until he moves because he blends in so well with the trees, water and rocks.  I love to watch him as he wades cautiously with his daddy-long-leg, skinny legs.  Last summer, however, I saw him fly overhead and heard him call (his voice is more like a bark than a quack of any kind).  I sat in the back yard and studied him for more than an hour.  The binoculars brought him much closer to me.  The sketch I did of him was better than the painting...I tend to over paint...this is too dark, but this is what I observed:

                                                       

by klr

On the high fir bough

spreading wings to the warm sun

stretching his torso,

blue pewter feathers undone

Twisting his long neck

forming letters S, C, Q

Profile of valor

 basking for this rare debut

A soldier at ease
cloaks himself in his own arms

grooming in the breeze,
routine for the avatar

Spying his next meal

he crouches down readying

Legs lift lubberly
casting a slender shadow

Wingspan to envy
he descends with slow drama

 camouflaged by reeds,

he lands knee deep in water 
Hushed statue on guard 

in a split second he snaps
His prey not clever
swam right into his beak trap

A change in weather,
and with a loud thunder clap
ends the private show,
A privilege to behold,
 as he looks my way
he glides into the nether

Vintage suitcases & trunk...pin cushion..

The shadows are played up in the first photo....hidden are the dirty marks of the olde suitcases and trunk. There are a million different ways to "touch up" this single photograph.  Next, the natural light of day with only a flash...pretty plain...        

           

In the first of the bottom two photos, the emphasis is on the play of the light rather than the texture of the tablecloth.  The vintage pincushion at the macro setting and the sepia tone of the second photo causes one to notice more of the detail of the tablcloth.  The shine of the silver is contrasted more against the background but not necessarily brighter.  I don't know which I like better?!

More experimenting to come.....pics of some things around the house....and another poem...later this week...hope you come back for a look.  

Kathy ~

Mary's running shoes...1st Marathon Portland, Ore. 26 miles

We finished the course,

well worn before we started

Discarded at last,

a new pair will carry on

Welcome morning mist,

ribbons of asphalt ahead

Rising with the dawn,

she'll run another marathon

Fleet like Pegasus,

race time cut by one hour

New sneakers propel her

 be they blue, brown or neon,

by klr

           This was easy to assemble...some sepia and inverted colors from picnik.com.  The carpet provided the texture.  Mary provided the subject matter.

Mellow Yellow Monday

Painting of the nails...mother and daughter...

Posted to http://mellowyellowmonday.blogspot.com/

Mellow Yellow Monday

http://mellowyellowmonday.blogspot.com/

Promises of Rain...

by klr

 Seasonal plants sink into

the steamy background

Gold splinters of light bounce off

the estuary

                                                                                                                                                               

                                                                                                           

Drops fall from a mercury lined cloud

Fairy like mushrooms push out

 leafy banks of green

Leaves catch in a wee puddle

Dribbles of rain descending

sounding of spring times 

yet to be

Budding beauties get their bath

The haze in my head is passing,

Time to bake a cake and

have another cup of tea

http://www.lgordonphotography.com/p/creative-exchange.html

The Toast...

 The Toast


by klr

                                                                  painting by Richard Jack

                                              

Whilst they gather by the fire

beneath the glass chandelier

  smoke slips around them

 a gramophone tune rings dear

Wallpaper defines the room

  champagne toasts given 
recalling past holidays

 when stardust fell from heaven

Where once a Parisian
blue scarf waved against her cheek
rests a violet net shawl
and an irised parakeet

On the shelf sits a padlocked gold box

where old tales are kept
   Where once hung a man's corduroy hat
 the black cloak in which she wept

No more anguish from within
she smiles blissfully
and with a slight flair of bravura
  waltzes away audaciously

by John Sargent