Fire Moon, Tulip Rose, Princesses and Dreaming of Bloshoi

 

 

 

 

Well, a lot has gone on since our last post. September has been the month of fires in central Washington, and that has had a great influence on what I have been doing in particular.

I have taken many photos of the fire, the smoke, and the moon and the sun through smoke infused skies. These efforts have produced some pretty interesting shots some of which were posted on Facebook and some of which went into one of two videos I produced from stills and videos taken from the town of Liberty as the fire was approaching.

One of these videos is a short piece showing the sheer power of the fire as it billowed grey and black clouds up above Table Top Mountain looking very much like a volcano http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ksqfemj6rCw . A portion of this was sped up only to keep the video under 5 minutes. The impact is pretty dramatic though; so much so that I was contacted by storyful.com about granting them permission to use it in some news programs.

The second video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmxPPE-fshI  is on based on stills and video taken the same day as the Table Top Mountain fire video but is showcasing the efforts by the homeowner of the property there in Liberty to protect his home from fire. I got some pretty good shots of his work and the firefighters who were going to use part of his property as a staging area and to place a temporary above ground cistern to hold water for their fire trucks and pumps. Both of these videos can also be seen on the new GoWedia video site for all things related to Central  Washington http://www.gowedia.com/videos/2012/sep/27/liberty-fire-prepararion/

I got some pretty dramatic shots of the fire when it was visible from our own back yard and these were well appreciated as seen on Facebook. The same for shots of the moon shot from our deck and the sun as seen and shot from the middle of the road as I returned just at sunset from the town of Quincy.  The smoke was a little less thick that day in Quincy but as I returned to Wenatchee, it was so thick at one point by the river that I could not see the sun and it was not sun set yet at that time. As I approached Wenatchee and was up on a hill, there was such color in the sun that I had to pull over and get some shots. So far response has been good to these as I posted some on Facebook.

Meanwhile, as I was trapped indoors due to the smoke my mind’s eye gravitated to further experimentation with digital art. At least one of my fire sky photos lent itself well to layering with a photo of geese flying by and adding some other digital filtering and digital painting and I came up with a piece that a quite a few people have really liked.  I have been getting good response to my postings from people associated with a Salvador Dali’ Facebook page. I like that. They like Martha’s painting a whole lot... probably more so than my digital art even.

And, while I have doing all of the above Martha has been painting away creating some new works that should do well as some of her other recent pieces have. This past month she sold one painting at the Two Rivers Gallery and donated two pieces, a watercolor of a ’Guatemalan Woman and Child’, and a print of her ‘Dancing Flower’ painting, for a fundraiser for Columbia Valley Community Health which did very well for the clinic.

And speaking of works sold I also sold a piece at Two Rivers Gallery this month – a 10”x20” framed photo of a ‘Great Blue Heron’ on an Island in the river printed on linen.

This month we also submitted images of works to some galleries for some juried shows. We sent three images of one of Martha’s paintings and her 'Dreaming of Bolshoi' sculpture to the Larson Gallery in Yakima and I sent off some digital photo art pieces to LACDA for the 2012 International Juried Competition in L.A.

We shall see how we do on these.

And, while I have been back in CA taking photos of princesses and nights in armor, Martha attended a gala opening reception and ribbon cutting for the new music and art center at the Wenatchee Valley College and has started another new painting… this one of President Obama in profile. I can’t wait to see that ne as done with Martha’s unique use of colors.  I heard about greens and oranges while I spoke with Martha over the phone this morning. I really can’t wait to see this piece when I get back to town. I only hope the smoke has cleared as it was really causing me some serious headaches before I left town.

Well, I think that’s enough for now. Until the next time from your Artful Blogger… Rod Daut

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