Balloon Sampler 2011: miracles of Photoshop

Balloon Sampler 2011

5x7" Balloon Post Card Painting

I have been using Photoshop primarily for storage and organization for my watercolors for the past few years, but this afternoon, I stumbled into the 21st century and began to explore its astonishing capabilities.

A quilt with sampler blocks

As someone who spent half a lifetime looking at samplers in which quilters and needleworkers practiced stitches and alphabets, and created ever-more complex quilt patterns, I felt a kinship with their energy and gratitude for this amazing tool.

Beginning with a 300 dpi scan of a 5x7" watercolor on 140# paper, I copied the image over and over again, experimenting with posterizing, gradients, channels, filters, curves and more. I created a 22x22 blank square and then dropped in each of the copies, re-arranging, adding, and deleting. When I ended up with a 3x4 row image, I deleted the excess blank canvas, added a signature, and I was finished.

Making a quilt or a piece of needlepoint can take weeks or months. Beginning with a finished painting, which, admittedly took about six hours to paint, the Photoshop exercise took about an hour.

This was way too much fun, and I look forward to learning a lot more about Photoshop, and multiplying and manipulating the color and energy inherent in original nanoscapes.

Balloon Sampler 2011 is available in two limited editions of five each, signed and numbered through the nanoscapes website:

• 20x20 inches, matted:          $75.00 
• 10x10 inches, matted           $50.00

Torn Paper: a new group of nanoscapes

A few weeks ago, I began The Post Card Projects, a return to the small works that were the first nanoscapes. They have gone in two directions: The 31 Pumpkins of October (ongoing) and The Torn Paper Projects.  After the first two Torn Papers (orange at left), I took a detour with the 6" square Red Linked Blocks (right). Torn Papers play up the negative spaces filled by links in Linked Blocks, and I have returned to Torn Paper with a 12x16" new work.  (below, right)

These designs had stirred a memory of Hawaiian applique quilts, and I thought that they were either the source or the inspiration. Having  refreshed my memory of those exquisite works, I admit to completely mis-remembering, and must continue digging in my memory for the  source of these designs.

Check out these beautiful designs by Sharon Balai and you will see how completely unrelated that they are to the Torn Paper designs.