Symbolism

During 2020 and most of 2021, my artist wife Lin and I spent most of our time at home on our farm. We were still creating in our respective studio spaces, but had much more free time. Most of the 7+ acres of land we have is meadow, wetland, and woods, that we let grow wild. Our show schedule keeps us very busy but during this time we were able to walk the acres regularly. As we explored the thickets and the tall grasses, we discovered a variety of natural treasures – snake skins, turtle shells, downed bird nests, deer bones, interesting rocks and feathers. It began to become a collection.

With all of this free time to work in the studio, I started thinking about still-life photography — not something I typically do. I started with flowers and grasses that Lin had dried, then moved on to more animate subjects. I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to say with these remnants, so I just allow myself to create instinctively. Ultimately, I became drawn to an antlered deer skull, a nest with three eggs, and a turtle shell. The arrangement happened quickly, I tried not to overthink it.

I liked the result, but wasn’t satisfied that it conveyed what I wanted. Or maybe, I just didn’t know why I made the image, so I just let it be. Fast forward a year and I started to look at the image again and realized something about it I missed earlier. The three elements in the image – nest, turtle shell, and deer skull, all are symbolic of protection, safety, guardianship. The nest protects the eggs, the shell protects the turtle, and the antlers protect the deer. Subconsciously, was I looking for the reassurance that life would get back to normal? There’s multiple interpretations of this arrangement of objects.

Esthetically, I was still struggling with the image. I tend to equate symbolism with mythology, and mythology with historic images. So I decided to give the image the feeling of an old sepia toned glass plate photograph. I found this rendering satisfying and after several weeks of “sitting” on it, was happy to go ahead and print it. I’ve titled it – The Guardian.

Red Wing

I recently asked friends of mine to list questions they had about the artistic process. One of the questions asked was why do I work in my chosen medium and not another. What is it about the medium of photography that has kept me so engaged for over 40 years? The image that I have titled Red Wing is very much pertinent to the answer. For me, being able to create in the moment when my emotions are running highest is very important. I appreciate the rush I get when I observe something extraordinary. To most fully experience something remarkable, I need to engage with it in real time. I can achieve that engagement uniquely through the medium of Photography.

This image was made recently in a wooded section on our farm.  It was a cloudy afternoon. I saw the flock through my studio window and almost just chose to observe. Then a rather desperate urge came upon me to engage. I’ve been working in a rather impulsive way recently, just grabbing gear and going. I knew which lens I wanted to use, which camera body to attach it to, and that time was fleeting. I also knew these birds would not like me approaching them. I began adjusting settings as I worked my way closer and when in position, my gut instinct took over.

This is a very significant image for me. It is an image that defines the kind of work I have come to make over the last five years, and especially within the last couple.

This image is part of my “100 Series” and will be limited to 100 prints in all sizes. Prints are already available at my gallery online – HERE.

Lots of Snow this Year…..

It’s still winter, even though we hit 72F yesterday. In fact this whole winter has been crazy mild. We’ve had way above average temps, and very little snow — except in the form of geese! Several times in the last few weeks large flocks of these magnificent birds have dropped into the fields behind our farm. It has been such a wonderful display. Big, white birds flying in unison, sometimes against the dark hillside made for an exhilarating experience.

Over the last five years, most of my work has been done on our farm. The arrival of the Snow Geese has added a new element to my series done right here on our 7 1/2 acres. Although I have done several series on large flocks of blackbirds, the snow geese afforded me the opportunity to create an interesting contrast. I composed this piece to emphasize a strong yin and yang relationship — with white geese against the dark hillside balancing the dark trees against the light sky. It is important too that some of the white geese cross the dark trees which creates a unifying element in the image.

I am offering this image as a Limited Edition print as part of my “100” Series. Only 100 prints will be made across all sizes. Order it now on my website here.

 

Artistic Growth

Artistic growth. It is not something planned, it happens organically as experience and knowledge are gained. When I first started working with a camera, my primary intent was to record what I saw. It was a rather literal representation that guided my purpose.  I’ve been working with a camera for 40 years though and have long understood that photography is not just a literal medium. It is a selective, abstracting, very plastic medium when so desired.

When one looks at the world with artistic vision, with the need to express feeling, and personal values, the medium of expression is of little relevance. I find myself less interested in the typical photographic renderings based on sublime locations and extraordinary events. If an image elicits a response of “luck”, “right-place, right-time”, or “where did you get that?” I wonder if I am creating something personal enough. While, there are certainly times and places which drive me to make images, I hope that those images are more than recordings. I want them to be about something bigger than the content in the frame.

While any selective process has an element of personal meaning to it, I acknowledge that  my response to an event or place can be guided by a desire to impress others or for financial gain. As an artist who must live off the work he does, I accept that my motivation is from more than one thing. But also, as an artist, I have to create images consistent with what drove me to be a full time artist. Right now, that work is rather different than when I started, and even different than what I was creating 5 years ago. If I were still creating the same pictures that I was 30-40 years ago (or even five years ago), I would be stating that my life and experiences have led me nowhere new, that I have not grown, or changed in any way. And that would not be true.

Much of my new work is done on the 7 1/2 acres of farmland my artist wife and I own, or in my studio within the farmhouse. Here the aesthetic experiences are simple but no less profound. As in other locations where I have worked for many years, I see more deeply with increased submersion. On or near the farm, I have daily, seasonal, and yearly interaction with nature and it is here that my most authentic work is now done.

Home of the Weeping Cherry

I am a big fan of Japanese woodblock prints, especially those relating to nature. The aesthetics of simplicity, muted color, and brilliant use of space (positive and negative), is very pleasing to me. Over the last several years, I have been conscious of my desire to work in a more minimalist style. One way in which I create in that style is with a long telephoto lens. With the narrow perspective and thin depth of field of a long lens I can isolate objects and compress elements within the composition.

This beautiful Weeping Cherry tree is one of my favorite features of our farm property and one which I go to each spring to experience anew. On this overcast April day, I watched a House Finch explore the tree’s bowing branches. The combination of pink flowers and rosy red of the House Finch create a harmonious combination. I composed for a bit of contrasting tonalities in the background and with sufficient negative space on the left to keep the image airy and light.

I like this new piece very much. It represents the direction my work has been heading now for a few years and which I am continuing to build upon. I made the print on a matte paper which maintains the subtlety of tones and softness of the light. It will be introduced this weekend in Timonium, Maryland as I tour with the Sugarloaf Craft Festival.

The finished piece titled House of the Weeping Cherry, is approximately 10×14, double-matted to 16×20 with all acid-free materials, and framed in white with UV-Protective, Reflection-control glass. The Edition is limited to 100 and is part of “The 100” Series, priced at $239.00 framed and $114.00 matted. Both are available at my gallery on-line HERE.

 

Black Bird – “The 100”

Black Bird

I am excited to introduce a new image and a new series. This new series is really a new category of art prints which will represent the majority of work I offer going forward. In this series which I have named “The 100”, prints will be limited to 100 total across all edition sizes. If I print in 1, 2 or 3 edition sizes, the total across all of them will be 100. For this new image, Black Bird, I am introducing it as a 9.75 x 13.75 print matted to 16×20 in an edition of 50. Therefore, all other edition sizes will number a total of 50 prints to reach 100.

Black Bird is an image I made early morning during a snow storm this month (it’s been that kind of spring!). Waking up to the snow, I immediately grabbed my preferred gear for tough weather and started driving the back roads around where I live in north-central Pennsylvania.

For this image I was drawn to the line of the trees and the way the snow was covering the branches almost as if the trees were “leafed-out” with white foliage. To me this piece has the feeling of an infra-red image, it is almost surreal. I keyed in on the small figure of a black bird on the top of the central tree and decided to make it the “center” of interest. The bird animates the image, providing a point of empathy, a vantage point that we can relate to. All wildlife allows this type of connection with a landscape, regardless of how small in the frame they are. It was also because of the small size of the bird in the image that I placed it centrally. The arrangement of trees is best in this configuration as well however. I work by gut instinct, intuitively, so I can react authentically and emotionally to a scene.

I used an Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II with an Olympus 12-100mm lens. This weatherproof gear gives me great confidence to work in extreme conditions. It is small and light weight and feels very comfortable in my hands. The Olympus 12-100mm gives me a great range of compositional options especially when needing to work from a confined range.

Rusty

Rusty, (c) 2017 Paul Grecian

The snow may be fading, but that leaves fields of golden grasses as backgrounds which I like just as much. One of my favorite birds, the Tufted Titmouse, is always an expressive subject. This one in particular has taken on a posture that suggests strength and confidence. The coloration of the feathers on the bird’s flanks is a wonderful compliment to the background grasses against which I composed this image. I’ve titled the piece “Rusty”. I wanted simplicity, but an image that still felt complete. There is certainly a Japanese influence here as well.

Textures too are richly rendered. The branch with it’s lichen and the bird’s feathers are both contemplative elements making the smoother background even more important to me. The print will be introduced as 6.75 x 9.7 inches and double-matted in Spanish White with ArtCare acid-free board for $54.00 ready to be framed. You can see it and my other work at my web site.

 

Kinetic Energy

Snow Cap – (c) 2017 Paul Grecian

As a visual artist working with the medium of photography, I am always aware that I am translating a three-dimensional, moving subject into a two-dimensional, static image. What I try to achieve in my work is a sort of visual tension so that the viewer feels that movement is imminent or even actively occurring in the scene. I convey these feelings in landscape and still-life images partly through the flow of line and geometry. With wildlife subjects, I create images where the animal’s posture is full of kinetic energy. These images suggest, as Mike, who with his wife Debra collects my work, recently wrote to me, “that the life force will drastically change the scene in the next moment.” He continued, “Your pictures seem to capture that essence that no matter how we try to freeze life it continues to move forward….”

It is gratifying when a collector writes me words that affirm I am achieving my desired visual impact.

One of my newest images — Snow Cap — suggests this same kind of “subtle dynamic” as well. The Chickadee here is almost vibrating with energy it feels. These are the types of images that don’t stand still in our minds but relay a sense that the bird is alive in our presence. Having studied animal behavior my whole life from before college through the present, I know birds are a constantly moving power house. In many ways, the images I make are less about them than they are the human struggle in which we all engage. Without projecting our own feelings of empathy onto the bird, we would not feel the way we do about such images.

This image is available as a Limited Edition giclee print for $54. from my website – Here

 

Susquehanna River Winter

Susquehanna – (c) 2017 Paul Grecian

Driving back from a show in Virginia last month, we passed by a section of the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania. It was snowing which made the scene along the river appear to be in a fog. The snow obscured the details of distant hills, and generally gave a soft feeling to the landscape. I made some mental notes about returning under similar conditions with a qualified camera.

After a few more miles I couldn’t stand it any longer and pulled over the first chance I got. I always bring a camera with me to shows in order to make new booth images for future show submissions, and to  do some PR images for web use. So I got out of the van with that “show” camera in hand and figured I would do what I could. The camera is an Olympus Stylus 1, a small sensor camera with a very good lens and full manual control capability. I am a strong believer that strong images are made by artists not cameras, so I worked to create an image that conveyed the feelings I had looking out over the river.

I like the feeling of dimension in this piece. My eye travels first to the island on the left then to the distant island on the right, then toward the middle island and the distant hill. I converted the image to black and white as color was not relevant to my visualization, and added a subtle sepia toning. I think the image has a rather timeless quality to it and am quite happy with it. My 11×14 test print is very pleasing and so this image is available on my website HERE.

 

Why Artists Create

A Ripple, A Blade of Grass

Knowing why we do something can give us insight into what we are doing presently and motivate our choices going forward. I came across one explanation of why artists create the work they do which I find apropos. Artists, it is suggested, create works that help them fill in for something that is missing in their lives. I can see that explanation of motivation being true with certain works I make.  There have been times when I felt the need for more beauty, peacefulness, or simplicity around me. There are many stressors in life, and creating imagery that balances those stressors by emphasizing peace and simplicity seems like a logical explanation. These works then are expressions of that desire.

One piece that I come back to often when feeling a desire to unwind is titled A Ripple, A Blade of Grass. It is an image of grasses reflected in pond water in Acadia National Park . A minimalist image, it really only consists of lines against a monochromatic background. I find it both soothing and engaging though. The simplicity of it is calming, yet there are lines that create triangles (due to the grasses reflection in the water), a shape that imparts a sense of action. Also, the ripples in the water have created zig-zag patterns that serve as visual contrast to the straight lines and add a sense of tension through the implied motion. I applied a sepia tonality to the piece to lower the visual harshness of a stark black and white.

This type of imagery is not easy to make because as a result of it being minimalist, every element that is included becomes more important to the piece. Finding the right balance in a minimalist work is part of the challenge however, and for that I am often working from a gut feeling.