M e t v IImages ae My CCreative
Promoting Digital Photo Artistry
www.mycreativeimages.com September - 2019
“Autumn is near” Artwork by James Hurley https://www.JamesHurley.art
Welcome to the Mycreativeimages Magazine Ralph Waldo Emerson. “Every artist was first an amateur” An artist has to start somewhere, find their niche, develop their skills, build a portfolio of work, find their audience. Thomas Merton. “Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” An integral part of the artists journey is finding themselves, of shutting off the noises from the outside world and letting their art take a life of its own, no matter the medium they are using. Some are lucky and they develop quickly, others take longer, exploring different mediums, different ways of displaying their work or presenting it to their audience. All of them have different styles, different work-flows, different things that inspire them
Featured Artists Susan Jones - cover artist 4 Vivien Capper 6 Julie Cowdy 8 The Norma Slack Interview 10 Alison Bailey 14 Claude Trew 16 Suzanne Fitzpatrick 18 Phil Hunter 20 David Walker 22 Bernie Tuffs 24 James Hurley 26 to create. But the one thing they all have is a passion and determination to create and express their feelings and emotions visually or musically. This passion is what separates them from the crowd and makes them shine. Come join me celebrating the work of a group of amazing artists. All of them have one thing in
MyCreativeImages.com - Promoting Digital Artists
common, they create art simply because they love to. Turn the page, and start browsing the photo digital artwork featured in this months magazine. Take some time looking at the fine details and absorb the passion embedded in each piece. See you again next month. James Hurley - Artist/Editor
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, ©www. mycreativeimages.com 2019. Please feel free to share the magazine but do not make changes to any of the content.
Susan Jones - cover artist
https://artboja.com/art/3e60mz/
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.
Cover Artwork
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/ Susan Jones - Blue Dream Model: Laura Gilliver Organiser: Salli Gainsford Workshop Styling / Lighting / Studio: Salli Gainsford Wardrobe: Threadz MUA: Lynee Wells Hair: Serah Eames
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Susan Jones - DeLight Model: Liv Burrows Organiser: Salli Gainsford Workshop Styling / Lighting / Studio: Salli Gainsford Model Wardrobe: Threadz MUA: Lynee Wells Hair: Serah Eames
Susan Jones - Red Riding Hood Model: Liv Burrows Organiser: Salli Gainsford Workshop Styling / Lighting / Studio: Salli Gainsford Model Wardrobe: Threadz MUA: Lynee Wells Hair: Serah Eames
Vivien Capper
https://artboja.com/art/6bn7zq/
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/
Pink Shades 6
Collage Paris
Julie Cowdy
https://www.facebook.com/Julie-CowdyPhotography-640242869458291/
I am a photo artist. I live in NW England and SW France. My work covers many different genres, including narrative and still life, with floral subjects my favourite. Through the post-processing techniques that I have learnt from Sebastian Michaels, I often blend my original images with my painted and photographed textures. I am aiming for a different approach that combines my love of fine art and the lens. I hope the resulting photo artistry offers something multi-layered, both in terms of what people see and how they respond. You can see more on my “Julie Cowdy Photography� page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Julie-Cowdy-Photography-640242869458291/
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The Norma Slack Interview
This month it is a great pleasure to interview Norma Slack from Northern Ireland. Norma is a keen photographer and poet but describes herself foremost as a digital artist, her artwork and poetry is best described in her own words: My current work is a mixture of cityscapes, impressionistic landscapes and word art. My poetry is inspired by personal experiences and emotional responses to events in my life. ……………………………………………………………………………………..
When did you start out on your photographic journey and at what point did you first decide to combine Photo Artistry with your Poetry? I began taking photographs on a regular basis after my children were born, which is over 30 years ago now. Over time I have improved my knowledge of, and ability to use, my camera. My aim is to create images that evoke the emotion I was feeling at the time. My journey towards photo artistry happened over a few years. I was in a very difficult place emotionally trying to come to terms with grief and loss and overwhelmed with caring demands. I needed something to distract my mind. I knew absolutely nothing about Photoshop and as my husband had a copy of Photoshop Elements I decided to look for an online course.
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My Cr e a t i v e I ma g e s – B e h i n d t h e scenes by VivienJane
I was lucky enough to stumble across Sebastian Michaels Photoshop Artistry course. Not only did it distract my mind it opened it up to whole new world of possibilities. That was in January 2016 and the rest, as they say, is history. Before long I joined his Awake group and then Kaizen. I still find it amazing how much I have learnt and grown as an artist since then. The combination of art and poetry happened after I took Sebastian’s ’21 days to creative abundance’ course. I set myself a project and a timeline for completion. Once I commit to something I am very focused and in eighteen months I had enough material for my illustrated poetry book.
Could you tell us a bit more about your style and where you get your inspiration from? My style has been constantly evolving since I began my photo artistry journey. In January of this year I decided to put some time into thinking about what direction I wanted my art to take. There are always so many new techniques to learn in digital art it can become overwhelming. Initially as I was learning the basics of my craft it was natural to follow the styles of the artists who were sharing their skills. I feel this is all part of the learning process. Eventually some developing artists will decide on a style that most resonates with them and concentrate on developing that, others will remain eclectic and work across genres. I wanted to be more focused as I feel it helps my work flow. At this point the only things I was certain of were that I loved impressionistic art and photography, I enjoyed creating abstract cityscapes, I wanted to incorporate imagery from Northern Ireland into my work and I was not drawn to portraiture. As a result of this desire to focus I have completed a course with Eva Polak on impressionistic photography and I have found ways to incorporate my own hand drawn figures into my work by painting and drawing within Photoshop. I have been studying some mixed media tutorials and adapting them to digital use and I have started to create art incorporating my words. I feel I am getting to where I want to be creatively. As for inspiration, I find that comes from numerous places such as other digital artists including
By that I mean writing my book was what I needed at that point in my life, I felt driven to do it. It helped me through a difficult time and I have received messages and emails from people who have purchased it thanking me for writing it, for putting how they are feeling into words. It has helped them too. I can’t tell you how much people taking the time to send such messages has meant to me. It was a very difficult book to write at times, I felt very exposed emotionally which is not how I usually am. But just one of those messages made it all worthwhile and I am grateful for them. My use of words is coming back into my art recently and I will see how that develops over time.
What equipment and software do you prefer and which item is indispensable in your studio? many within Awake, the impressionists, art gallery visits, films, books, personal experiences, nature, the list could go on and on.
Can you tell us a little about your creative process, poetry and illustrated books? I work on some aspect of my art pretty much every day. I am either studying, planning, writing, out taking photographs or at my computer working on my latest piece. My poetry has taken a bit of a back seat this year as I have been concentrating on developing my digital art. I create what feels right for me in any particular moment.
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I work on an Apple MacMini computer with Adobe Photoshop - I love them both. I am not technically minded but luckily my husband is and he tells me that in addition to my internal SSD disk I use two 4TB external disks, one for daily backups and one for off-site backups. My screen is an Asus ProArt 24 inch, and my main input device is a Wacom Intuos pen tablet - which makes digital brush work a lot easier. My main camera is a Sony A68 which I combine with a selection of Sony and Tamron lenses. In recent times I find I am using my Sony rx100 more often, especially since I added a MagFilter attachment which allows me to attach my variable ND filter - this combination allows me to capture the type of impressionistic images I enjoy. Its portability and excellent image quality make it indispensable in my mountain walking adventures - I would highly recommend it.
What’s the next step in your artistic life? I am currently preparing art pieces for a series of craft fairs I will be attending from September. I have been using resin and encaustic wax to complete these pieces, if you would like to know more details about this there is some further information within the news items on my website. I have outline plans for a second book but the ideas are not fully formed yet so it is on the back burner for now. I am planning to walk the Mourne wall in stages over the next year and I am hopeful a series of images will be created from that. I have plans to approach a few local shops to see if they would be interested in some of my art for their stores. I am planning some mixed media pieces and will see how that develops. I am a big advocate of life long learning so I will continue to improve on my current skills and add to them.
create what brings you joy and remember to back your work up daily.
I really need more hours in the day to do all I want to do but whatever happens there will be lots of fun ahead I am sure, I am open to wherever the journey takes me.
Norma puts a lot of passion into her projects and produces some wonderful digital art and poetry. For more information you can contact her at her website : www.normasue.com
What would your advice be to an aspiring photographer/photo artist? Firstly do it for the love of it then practice, practice and practice some more. Don’t compare yourself to others,
Alison Bailey
https://estamoondesigns.wordpress.com
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.
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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.
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Kasidy and fire
The Power of Praying
Fighting Fire with Fire
Suzanne Fitzpatrick
www.suzannefitz.com
Suzanne is a Canadian Photo-artist living in the beautiful county of Cornwall in the UK. The vast majority of her Photo Art is based on her own photographs, some dating back to the 1980’s when she had her own darkroom. She prefers a sepia, vintage style. Her work has been showcased in Toronto, Vancouver, The British Virgin Islands and within the Living the Photo Artistic Life Magazine as well as My Creative Images. Recently, she has been selling Photo Art Cards on Etsy. Currently she is working on her late father’s war memoirs, and many Photo Art projects. The following link will direct you to Etsy, Artboja and Fine Art America where you may order prints or cards: www.suzannefitz.com
Dear sisters
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Portrait of a milk maid
I heard it in the wind
Donkey Dreams
Phil Hunter Hi, my name is Phil, I have been a long time photographer and have these last few years been learning new digital skills to produce images which I feel combine aspects of photography and art. I especially enjoy shooting landscapes, cityscapes, but also am open to leaning new skills/subject matter. Alongside my digital work I also shoot film and teach analogue techniques, mainly lith printing in my home darkroom. Hope you enjoy looking.
Ascension 20
Ikebana Komorebi
London
David Walker
https://artboja.com/art/9zpbui/
An eclectic series of photo art this month. For any artist, the choice of subject is all but endless, the execution of the final work is down to the feeling for that day, the same subject on another day may be represented in an entirely different manner. As a digital artist I often start with a vision of what I want to produce in my mind…however that does not always “come off” and is replaced by another series of visions. The greatest artists of the past often felt this way as evidenced by the number of works that
were overpainted, canvasses being expensive, as they are today. The big advantage for the digital artist is that he can experiment with the only “cost” being the artist’s time. My photography mentor has prevailed on me that I should experiment both in the photography and the photo art. I intend to become more experimental over the coming months…I await the outcome with trepidation! See more artwork on my website: https:// artboja.com/art/9zpbui/
Crosby Beach with Liverpool Docks
The majesty of the horse 22
Not someone to meet in the dark
Cheetah and Cub
Aysgarth Falls
Bernie Tuffs
https://artboja.com/art/utucc4/
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/
Connection 24
Unconditional Love
James Hurley
www.jameshurley.art
James is a photo digital artist that captures landscapes photographs as well as painterly portraits either in the comfort of his home or on location. He is based in Huntingdon, near Cambridge, and has a passion for incorporating his emotions and frustrations into surreal artwork. James is a self-taught photographer who has learnt Photoshop by taking a number of online course hosted by Sebastian Michaels. His work has received a number of awards from the Heaven art gallery in the USA during September and October of 2017, since then he has had artwork appear in a new conceptual virtual art gallery created by Curat10n Open Art and in the My Creative Images magazine. James’s current focus switched from submitting work to gallery’s to further explore and enhance his photography skills and further develop his own photo digital artistic style which incorporates lots of colour and textures. As a photo digital artist his 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 examples shown here. If that sounds like you then get in contact with James, who would be happy to work with you and create something special just for you. Email: James@jameshurley.art
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Website: www.jameshurley.art
Imagination
Escape and BE who you were meant to BE
www.jameshurley.art
To read previous issues of this magazine visit:
https://issuu.com/mycreativeimages
M e t v IImages ae My CCreative Promoting Digital Photo Artistry
