My Creative Images - April 2019

M e t v IImages ae My CCreative Promoting Digital Photo Artistry

www.mycreativeimages.com April 2019

Editor’s notes This month sees the introduction of new artists to the magazine and the return of some regular contributors. The artwork presented here for your viewing pleasure ranges from the abstract, to the painterly photograph.

The cover art is titled “Watch the Waves� and was created by the talented Bernie Tuffs, make sure to check out her website along with the web pages and social media pages of all the other artists in this months magazine

Contents Barbro Paulsson 4 Samantha Wells 6 Bernie Tuffs 8 David Walker 12 The David Walker Interview 14 Vivien Capper 18 Claude Trew 20 Kristin Couch 22 Dawn Spears 24 Chris Jack Wright 26 Norma Slack 28 Susan Jones 30 Alison Bailey 32 Andrea Amos-Sebestyen 34 James Hurley 36 Support the magazine 38 An example of photo digital art created

by James Hurley

Stop reading this and turn the page and dive into the artwork from a group of very talented contemporary artists.

PS you can now purchase a copy of this magazine and enjoy the artwork every day rather than just online.

All images in this publication are sourced / created by the artists, unless otherwise stated on their websites or social media pages and as such must not be copied or sold without the express consent of the artist.

This publication is created and owned by James Hurley, Šwww.mycreativeimages.com 2019. Please feel free to share the magazine but do not make changes to any of the content.

MyCreativeImages.com - Promoting Digital Artists

Barbro Paulsson My background is in theatre and film. I have been working with photography and exhibiting my photographs since the late 70’s. My images are available in private and public collections in Sweden and internationally. They have also been published in collections, newspapers and magazines, as well as used for album covers, book illustrations and author portraits.

2018 Grand Winner (Gold) Street and Animals, Street Photo Awards 2009 Photographers Forum, Colour Finalist 2009 IPA, Honourable Mention, Fine Art Nude The following images were part of the exhibition mentioned in the February issue. To see more artwork on my website: http://www.bpaul.eu

Red Japanese Lampshades

Red Wall

Bulbs

Samantha Wells

Hi, my name is Sam, and I live on a lovely little island in the U.K. called the Isle of Wight. I’m not good with words, images are my thing. So this will be short and sweet.

I started with photography 4 years ago. Then 2 years ago I found 3D art which I am totally addicted to as it gives me so much more freedom to make any art I can imagine. I tend to flit from one technique/ subject to another as I find new and exciting ways to enhance my art work. I pour everything I have into each and every image I create.

Facebook is my preferred social platform: https://www.facebook.com/SamanthaWellsFineArt/ I would love to see you there, and I hope you will enjoy my art work and stay with me on my art journey.

Beauty Born

Lily

Rose

Bernie Tuffs Hello! I’m Bernie and I live in the little seaside town of Margate and having lived here all my life, I couldn’t live anywhere else now! I’m continually inspired by the scenery here, with skies and light that so excited famous artist J. W. Turner, who said of this area, “…the skies over Thanet are the loveliest in all Europe”.

Apparently, a love of the sea stayed with him all his life and I can well understand that!

Painting with light holds a real attraction for me - the gentle light that is still strong enough to dispel darkness.

I’ve always been arty, progressing from childhood sketching, through gouache and then oil painting, then paper crafting and scrapbooking which led me to digital scrapbooking and finally to Sebastian Michaels and Photo Artistry. Now I feel I’m home and am having so much fun with my art!

If you would like to see some more of my art visit: https://artboja.com/art/utucc4/

Respect

Eternity Beckons

Hever Castle

Windy Day in Margate

April Showers

David Walker This month’s PhotoArt is a series of images based on Central London. It is surprising how a photograph can be turned into something quite different.

I have a gallery exhibition at Shenstone Library (which has a delightful coffee shop) for the month of April 2019. Opening hours are Tuesday and Friday 9am to 5pm and Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday 9am to 1pm. I will have 23 new pieces of art on display, as well as 5 collaborations with local artist Ann Slim.

I would love you to take the opportunity to visit! I will not be present for whole event, if you want to meet email me and we can arrange a day and time davidwalker.1@me.com Location Details Shenstone Community Library, Main Street, Shenstone, Staffordshire, WS14 0NF 01543 480915

Picadilly Circus

London Eye at night

Trafalgar Square from the National Gallery

Tower Bridge at Night

The David Walker Interview

by VivienJane

My C r eative Imag e s – B e h in d t h e sce n es

This month it is a pleasure to interview one of our wonderful artists David Walker who is based in the small village of Yoxall in Staffordshire. He classes himself as a PhotoArtist, defining the genre as the production of art from his own photography whilst maintaining a realistic level of the realism of the subject. David’s artwork is best described in his own words: “My work is, in the main, a mix of landscapes, seascapes and cityscapes all produced from my own photographs. I also produce quite an eclectic mix of other images, drawn from a growing library of over 150,000 photographs I have taken over the years, including wild life and flora.”

The style and variety of his photography and artwork is just amazing. In this month’s issue he is going to share some of his creative processes with us and tell us about his upcoming exhibitions.

First of all, I’m sure our readers would love to find out more about your upcoming exhibitions.

Exhibitions are an important part of an artist’s development. It gives you the chance to receive feedback from your potential clients. It is true that art for its own sake is important to any artist, but traditionally even the most celebrated artists relied on producing what their customers demanded not necessarily what they deemed “proper art”. As PhotoArt is new genre there is little enthusiasm from the traditional galleries for something new! One can understand this as they equate PhotoArt with he mass production of popular posters, and cannot see beyond this belief.

After many attempts to have art displayed in a gallery I soon realised that the impetus must be down to me. I seriously displayed for the first time at the Curborough Festival of Artists in 2018. The feedback was worth the investment in time and money.

This year’s main exhibition will be for the whole of the month of April at Shenstone Library (just south of Lichfield, Staffordshire) which has a custom built art gallery as part its coffee shop. The gallery managers at Shenstone have no preconceived ideas as to what constitutes “art” so they happily adopted my PhotoArt concept. There is room for about 50 pieces of art so I am participating in a joint exhibition with Ann Slim, one of my collaborators.

The Yoxall Art Group also has permanent exhibitions at Barton-under-Needwood Library, The Cock Inn at Henbury and The Foresters at Yoxall. My PhotoArt is on show at all these venues and I have a permanent One Man Exhibition at the Blythe Brewery Tap Room at The Junction, Stretton.

Do you consider yourself to be more a photographer or a photo artist?

If we go back to my early days as a PhotoArtist I determined that PhotoArt was an adjunct to photography so decided to place my main emphasis on photography. How wrong I was, I found the attitude of both judges and too many of the photographers quite disappointing.

They were unable to move forward with new technology and adopted a head in the sand approach to development of the photographic art form.

I decided to join the Yoxall Art Group and surprisingly they expressed a completely different mindset. The members, the visiting teaching artists and visitors are always complimentary about the work I produce.

Some of course still see PhotoArt as not “real art” but in the main they accept the genre. The visiting professional artists are extremely supportive and give great encouragement.

You learn so much working with other artists for a few hours each week.

Techniques can be understood in more detail and adopted into the PhotoArt sometimes with ease, others with a lot of trial and error.

One area of fellow artists and customer feedback was that the PhotoArt produced on canvas did not exhibit the same “feeling” as traditionally produced canvasses. Working with the Art Group, I developed the

concept of embellishment of the PhotoArt by either highlighting parts of the work or simply adding a clear acrylic layer to give the colours greater depth and enhance perspective (perhaps emulation the “varnishing” process used by artists over the centuries?). I am careful to advise that my works are computer generated, I would hate to mislead a customer.

When and how did you first become interested in photography and PhotoArt?

My interest in photography dates back over 50 years to my school days, and I entered the world of photography more fully after my retirement. My career was as the Managing Director of a Medical Device company, a far cry from the less scientific approach used in my art.

The move to PhotoArt took place over 5 years ago, I was already playing with the concepts in evolving my photography and I discovered the Awake distance learning programme from the United States. Since then I have evolved a work flow that enables me to produce my art, sometimes quite quickly, other times over a much longer period!

Have you been influenced by other artists both past or present?

I am strongly influenced by the French Impressionist School, but also love the more traditional English artists such as Constable, Turner and Gainsborough.

Art is in the mind of the artist and the influences of these great artists has a distinct effect on my own works. I am not moved by religious art nor art based on fantasy, although I enjoy some of the more modern and abstract genres.

Can you tell us a bit about your creative process and where you get your inspiration and ideas from?

Inspiration starts well before the photograph, I am continually looking for scenes which I know will produce interesting art. Often, even after taking an inspired photograph, only a part of the overall image is used.

I may have my camera with me for the day and not take a single image, but on another day I will take a lot of images. Is this based on inspiration? I cannot answer that, but I do know that a good day will give me lots of future work and a bad day (yes, you do take some photos even then!) will give me images that just fill my hard drive and are never converted to PhotoArt. I always try and stay in the “here and now”, I am not inspired by fantasy. My work is based on good photography so I do not spend hours and hours making slight adjustments to the ambient light. I do use several methods to enhance light in my art, but do so only to emphasise part of the image.

Could you tell us a little about the equipment and software you use and which item is indispensable in your studio?

I have always used an iMac 27inch for my PhotoArt and have recently upgraded to the 27 inch iMac Pro which is Apple’s highest specification (and probably most expensive!) computer. I find smaller screens more difficult to work with. Having worked with iMacs for over 12 years cannot bear the inconsistencies of Windows based operating systems.

I have an iPad Pro and an iPhone both of which I experiment with from time to time, mainly when travelling.

For PhotoArt software I use the Adobe Creative Cloud photography package (Photoshop & Lightroom), Topaz Labs, Auto FX and many other small programs.

For photographic software I used the Blake Rudis Zone System Express and Palette Effects program add-ons to Photoshop which enables me to develop the photograph to the highest possible standard before moving into PhotoArt mode. Both of Blake’s programs are can be used on final PhotoArt projects as well, once your mindset has been extended. I sincerely believe that the original photograph need to be produced to the highest standard before starting the PhotoArt work flow. Blake’s tutorials are really detailed and informative and he uses the mantra “Tone, Colour and Artistic Effects” which really helps me to establish a consistent workflow for firstly my photography and then my PhotoArt. Blake really pushes the concept of Artist-Photographer (or Photographer-Artist!) and in my mind is a leading light in the “new era” of digital

photography…his degree was in Fine Art so he can wear both hats with ease.

Two new additions from Topaz Labs are particularly interesting AI Clear and AI Sharp. They both use artificial intelligence to help create better quality photographs indeed help achieve best in class in the terms of clarity, focus and sharpness. This seems incongruent when the PhotoArt work flow reverses some of this work, but the emphasis on detail allows you to bring detail back into the final work as and when you want it.

What’s the next step in your artistic life?

To carry on in the same vein. Every true artist, since time immemorial, has evolved their own identity. That identity may change over time, as indeed has mine since my early forays into PhotoArt but I believe such changes are best achieved by a slow development of techniques and a professional approach to your works. I cannot predict where I will end up, but I am sure that it will make me a happier and a better person!

What would your advice be to an aspiring photographer/digital photo artist?

Work on your profession, any meaningful development of YOUR art is achieved by sheer hard work and determination. I look with sadness at some of the work produced on the Awake Facebook pages, people merely emulate the work of others rather than evolve their own standard. Then the other emulators on the site just congratulate people for doing the same thing, often ignoring work that moves into new realms!

Be clear on your own direction, work hard at it, do not depend on feelings of warmth from artists who just emulate other people or feel comfortable with your style. If you are independent in your work and determined to go forward in your own right you will arrive there in the end…but more importantly you will be happy…and you will have created a meaningful artistic place in your life.

As you can see, David puts a lot of time and passion into his projects and artwork and produces some wonderful art.

For more information contact David by Email davidwalker.1@me.com

Mara Dawn

Whitley Bay

Pulling into Weybourne.

Vivien Capper Hello my name’s Vivien and I’m from the beautiful county of Kent, England though currently living and working near Rome in delightful Italy with its exciting, lively way of life and vibrant colours and designs.

I started out as an artist in 1982 developing Indian ink artwork of a variety of subjects especially figurative artwork and abstract floral designs, then progressed into creative photography and digital artistry thanks to Sebastian Michael’s amazing courses at ‘Photoshop Artistry’ and the advanced course ‘Awake’.

My inspiration is drawn from my love of nature, figurative artwork and Italian design using many textures, patterns and colours.

I’m thrilled to have some of my artwork in various publications including: Living the Photo Artistic Life, My Creative Images and have had various artworks mentioned in the Shift Art Challenge.

If you would like to see more of my art: https://artboja.com/art/6bn7zq/

Lady on the swing

The Book of Flowers

Lady in pink

Lady in Black

Claude Trew I am a retired lady who is a keen photographer and I belong to a local camera club.

However, while I enjoy entering the competitions organised by the club, I feel that the style of photographs that are most successful in club competitions is inhibiting my creative output.

I am following some online courses to try to improve the artist in me. So far I have enjoyed every course I have done and hope to share my work with a bigger audience. This is an ongoing process.

Under Attack

By Moon Light

Kestrel watching me

Kristin Couch Hi, my name is Kristin Couch I’m originally from Iceland but now living in Sweden. I’m a photographer and digital artist, my work ranges from Interior photography, through portraits, street life and digital compositions.

You can find more of my work on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/stinacc/ or connect with me on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/stinacc

Eris

Past Present Future Fantasy

When in Wonderland

Dawn Spears I have been producing art in various forms for over 30 years. I have worked in many different media, from watercolour to ink, graphite, and coloured pencil.

More recently I have turned to photography and digital art and used these skills to branch out into book covers as well. I absolutely love coming up with ideas to do authors’ words justice.

Every one of my book covers are original art pieces. I create them using a mixture of my own photographs and artwork which I blend with my own 3D renders. I try to avoid the use of stock images, meaning my buyers can be 100% assured that their book cover is completely and utterly unique.

You can view all my book covers at: https://selfpubbookcovers.com/ DawnyDawny

Where did you go to?

For bespoke work I can be contacted through my website: https://www.dawnydawny.com/ A small selection of my fine art pieces are available at: www. artboja.com/art/nav633/

Road Trip

Fractals

Medusa

Jack the Ripper

Winterblack

Chris Jack Wright My name is Chris Jack Wright. I’m a self-taught writer, living in SW London and working at a local university. I live for my free time wherein I create poems, songs, artwork and children’s and adult stories.

With various collaborators, I’ve had a song, called Jamaica’s Daughter, played for former Jamaican Prime Minister, Portia Simpson-Miller, for which I was interviewed on Jamaican radio.

Additionally, I have recently had a children’s book, Magenta’s New Friend, published in China and I’m looking for a UK publisher/agent for other material I have.

When I have time, I’m teaching myself photography, though the road is long and rocky and I’ve a lot to learn. I absolutely love working in Photoshop and am indebted to Sebastian Michaels for creating the AWAKE course, truly engaging.

You can contact me by email: pop.song@icloud.com See more of my artwork on my website: https://artboja.com/search.php?q=Chris+jack+wright

Jazz

Venice

Pentax Relax

Norma Slack I am a digital artist, writer and poet from beautiful Northern Ireland. I currently live in County Down, within sight of the majestic Mourne Mountains.

I have been an enthusiastic photographer for many years but it was only when I discovered digital art that I finally felt able to create images that reflected both my emotions and vision.

Every day I work towards improving my skills within the fascinating world of the digital workspace. For me it’s a place of magic, a place where I can give free reign to my imagination and create the type of art I feel connected to.

About eighteen months ago I began to combine my new digital skills with my poetry and have recently published my first illustrated poetry book, Thunder In My Soul: a collection of illustrated poems.

The book is now available at Amazon. It is a project I feel a strong emotional connection to and has been a labour of love. A free sample, along with a selection of my art, can be viewed on my website.

You will also find me on Instagram @artbynormasue or on my website: https://www.normasue.com/

On Graften Street

Temple Bar

On The Periphery Of Life

Susan Jones My name is Susan Jones. I live a short train ride from London and love to spend time up there with my sister and our cameras.

I love studio photography with models dressed up, and having fun playing with the images in Photoshop.

My new ambition is take the models on to the street and start doing shoots on location.

You can see more of my work here: https://artboja.com/art/3e60mz/

View

Into the light

Alison Bailey I am a hobby photographer and multi media artist from North West England.

I am retired and am now able to spend my time doing the things I enjoy. I love being able to go to nature reserves as it gives me both peace and also photo opportunities.

I am part of the living the photoartistic life community and will be learning about photoart forever! I am branching out into multi media art too so that I can use more of my own resources and maybe even be able to provide resources for other people.

Most of all though I am having fun living my life as I want to.

You can check out my web site at: https://estamoondesigns. wordpress.com There are links to other social media sites on there too.

Andrea Amos-Sebestyen Andrea is a Hungarian born artist living in the middle of a National Park in Sussex, England, and working under the name of Andie Amos PhotograPics. She is a digital/photo artist and photographer.

Creating some form of art was always in the core of her being. She graduated as a silver and gold smith and had worked for numerous high-profile clients, like the Vatican and the Hungarian Mint, however she felt unfulfilled. Having always been enchanted by the magic of theatre, history, and fairy-tales, she went on to study historical costume design.

She found photography 4 years ago and with it her path led her to the College of Richard Collyer, and subsequently to Photoshop Artistry, and to Awake- an elite group of digital artists.

She is now in the lucky position where her creative endeavours and knowledge are starting to be recognised, and she is getting bookings for various photographic works, digital art and design projects.

Her work has been published online, and printed in ‘Living the Photoartistic Life’ and the Brazilian ‘GSP Magazine’. One of her images was nominated for the UA award by the highly esteemed French Art Magazine, ‘Universe d’ Artistes and some other images came as a first runner up and also as the winner of the Shiftart Challenge (January 2019).

She has found herself being approached to create unique bespoke images for clients using their portrait photographs (and their friends, or family members) to be blended into a specifically created scene.

She enjoys this type of work very much, so if you have anything in mind don’t hesitate to approach her.

Her website is currently under construction but some of her works can be seen and bought on ArtBoja : https://artboja.com/art/mcf2yj/ She can also be found on Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/AndieAmosPhotograPics

Living on the edge

Poppy Awakens

James Hurley

A starting point As its title suggests, photo digital art has its foundations in photography. The final piece of work being based on or inspired by a photograph or series of photos.

Is it art or a photograph?

For me its both, a photograph is something I take on my phone or using a point and shoot camera in auto mode.

A photograph becomes a piece of art when I take time composing the image in the view finder, then tweaking the settings in manual mode until I achieve the desired look in camera. Alternatively, a photo becomes art when I manipulate it in Photoshop, adding blurs, textures, colours or combining it with other photographs.

All the artwork shown here started out as a photograph I took during March this year, each of them have had subtle tweaks in Photoshop. You decide, is it a photograph or art? There is no right or wrong answer, each of us has a view and I’m just grateful that you have taken the time to stop on these two pages and look at my artwork.

More about me As a photo digital artist my customers come from two distinct groups, those that want a portrait photograph taken and then blended into a scene and those that want some unique artwork to decorate their home or office. Both have one thing in common, they are looking for something different, something created specially for them, something that they can be proud to hang on their wall and show off on their social media pages, such as the example shown on the inside cover of this magazine.

If that sounds like you then get in contact with me, let’s chat about what you are looking for and see if we can create something special just for you.

Email: James@mycreativeimages.com Website: mycreativeimages.com

Support the growth of the magazine The sole purpose of this magazine is to raise awareness of individual photo digital artists by sharing their work on as many social media platforms as possible. The ultimate goal is to create an online network of photo digital artists with a physical location where I can display their work and help them promote sales. However, I will need some help to do this.

If you love art, you love giving people a helping hand now and then and want to see more photo digital art then connect with me via my website or social media pages and lets see if we can make a difference together.

Help me continue to grow and share the amazing photo digital art featured in the “My Creative Images” magazine with as many people as possible.

Purchase a printed copy of the magazine Simply visit: https/www.mycreativeimages.com/product/buy_a_copy_of_the_magazine/ If you want to support the magazine please visit the “Support the growth of the magazine” page on my website: www.mycreativeimages.com/help-the-magazine-grow

For copies of the previous issues of this magazine please visit: https://issuu.com/mycreativeimages

M e t v IImages ae My CCreative Promoting Digital Photo Artistry