I'm home from my week away with a couple of artist friends. We were in Maine for an 'image collecting' trip, to fill our cameras, our sketchbooks, and our empty inspirational wells for the winter ahead. It was a first trip to Maine for all of us. I came home with close to 1,000 pictures in my camera, so am going through them slowly to see what's there. It is helping me re-live the trip. So- what does an artist look for and see on a trip away from home? Well, probably a lot of what non-artists see, plus maybe quite a lot more. This became apparent to me when I saw how fascinated people were by what we took photos of. Also, we could all three take pictures in the same area, and even of the same things, but they all looked very different, each taking on the vision of the artist who collected the image to work from, as we all have our own preferences.
On the day we left, we flew over western Colorado and eastern Utah, making our first connection in Salt Lake City. The flight was an early morning one, and the sun was just coming up, hitting the mountain ridges from one side and making the barren high desert look like sprawling dragons resting below us.
Our next stop, with a long five hour layover, was JFK in New York City. By the time we ate dinner (or was it lunch - we seemed to only have one real meal a day on this trip), the sun was setting over the city. The sky was incredible, with criss-crossed contrails and back-lit clouds, and planes coming and going as the sun went. I got this shot of a food service worker loading a plane, which my husband says looks like an airline ad. I will probably paint it eventually.
And can someone tell me which bridge is in the background of this shot?
On that first day, I also took a lot of other people shots, as I love painting people. By the time we got to Portland, Maine, it was dark and we had to find our cabin in the deep Maine woods. By the way, Maine, do you know what road signs are and how to use them? I can show you a number of places where they would be really helpful! So no more photos that day, and it was well into the next day by the time we located the cabin and got settled in.
It is good to be home. Booker has grown a ton in the past week! He thinks my bags smell wonderful, as they were filled with shells and beach rocks.
(Needless to say, all images are mine - which means I'd prefer you not use them without asking for permission. And they've not been PhotoShopped --- yet.)
4 comments:
Amazing Utah shots! It is spectacular seeing those mountains isn't it. Glad to see you back and blogging. Did any moose come up for a friendly shot or two? Hope so!
Road signs...you want road signs. LOL, ha, Maine and VT for that matter seem to have left those sorts of things out of the budget, or it could be a typical NE attitude that they prefer not to be found. ;-)
I'm impressed with the shots from the airplane. I've never thought about that - Thanks! I love the idea of going on the trip for image inspiration. That's a great idea! I've also discovered a blogsite where a fiber artist is practicing taking visuals. I think she started with photographs from a trip. Anyway - it's ar:
http://dailyvisuals.blogspot.com
My husband and I are planning a trip soon and I've decided that we each need our own camera - just because of the difference in what we each see. It likely will look like two completely different trips!
CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THE MAINE PHOTOS! Wish I could have been there--it's been a couple of years since the last Maine trip for us (whine). You must have just had a fantastic time.
Tommye
I love Maine. It is the closest feeling I can find to being in England. And St Augustine and its old buildings comes close. I want to move to Maine. The light there is fantastic. I want to visit Owl Island in Maine. We have only been to Maine once. My husband hates having to go through any part of New York. I guess flying is the way to go. We drove there.
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