Life is funny, I posted couple days ago old photos, for some reason I added a photo of my uncle in the post, even if the post mainly was about my mum and her sisters.
The next day my uncle passed away at the age of 94. He went to be with his wife of over 55 years, he missed her so much after her passing few years back. I took these portraits of them four years ago.
I got a request from a woman whose husband had once when they started dating, long time ago, said to her that his ideal woman in the beauty sense was Sophia Loren. Now she wanted to surprise him with an artwork that had Sophia in it.
So I went to work, I did several sketches and used different photos trying to capture a look that worked for me, as I need to be happy with it before I can show it to anyone. Then I asked for the main color that they wanted for the piece. It was orange. I also needed to know what size they would like it to be. Wow, they wanted it to be 100 x 140cm. That’s big I had never had one of my art been printed to that size.
I sent her this as an example of what I thought was nice and suitable for the space. She came over to look at all the options and we decided that this was the one, she saw the others too, liked this one best.
Now I had to finalize the work by going through the picture with big zoom to see that the pixels would not be too obvious, as this was BIG. I got all the the issues that I found fixed, so that it could be printed.
I think this turned out rather nice 🙂 It looked really big when we took the wraps off it, but on the wall not so much so.
If you wish to see more of my artwork you can see them at https://artbyritva.com/ and https://www.instagram.com/artbyritva/
Frosty flowers shimmering beautifully in the February morning light
yep, it’s one of those days when you just want to do nothing, nothing interests you, you, life everything is boring.
I am contemplating what to do for lunch, nothing grabs me. Yesterday was the same , so we ordered pizza. Today I have to fix something…oh, no! I don’t want to. I assume we all have these days. Here are the some of the ingredients for tuna salad (red pepper, celery, eggs). Add tuna, dill and mayonnaise and you are ready and well the pasta should be included too :-).
As in previous post about faces – well people. I started today to look at some old photographs, the first set is my mum and her twin sister. Next my parents and the last two are of my aunt and uncle( my mother’s other sister and her husband) Well this a memories of people passed.
Frank, from Beach walk reflections approached me if I wanted to collaborate with him and provide photos for one of his posts. He asked what kind photos I have, he had a list of topics to choose from. I could have provided photos to many of the topics, in the end and he chose to write about Faces* and after few discussions later he suggested photo collages, which worked out well for me.
Have a look at his post to see what he wrote about faces and the collages he chose to go with it. This was fun, maybe will do this again 🙂 You can visit his blog also from here* and see the rest of the images.
Frosty flowers shimmering beautifully in the February morning light
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Frosty flowers shimmering beautifully in the February morning light
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I wonder where dreams come from… from where from the subconscious the images, come from
This morning I woke from a dream, a color one, where I was with people, lots of subtle conversation around the place all trying to make a bid on a painting. It was a man in the field with a scythe cutting crops of wheat, In my mind I saw the long curved blade at the end of a long pole. Blue sky in the background…autumn landscape from the countryside. In my dream the the words scythe and crop came up often, but the conversation in the back was vague. We could not find a resolution who was going to own this piece of art.
I woke, and called out to my hubby in the next room, he had already started in work day in his office (not a long distance to go to work, as it is located next to our bedroom)
-Do you remember… telling him about the picture in my mind – have we had a poster a LP or something like this…in my mind I had a name – Tom Petty – I did not voice it.
He remembered that we had the Southern Accents LP in our vinyls , it is the sixth studio album by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, kid you not, the image I had in my dream was , the cover art for the album Southern Accents.
I love the way he is able to pick up my idea, what I am searching for subtle hints that i randomly tell him and give me my answers to the music questions I have…well this time cover art ..
The thing is, I have not looked at this LP or listened to Tom Petty lately, thought I have often done so in the past, but recently not so much, not at all really.
Where did this memory come from, why, it was so vivid..
So that is my question for today… where to dreams come from, is there a meaning reason for them. Why am I thinking of harvest, art, scythe in the middle of winter.
Brown the color that has grown on me over the years, from boring to cosy and warm. Homey( is this a word? )
Touch of red on the few remaining rose hips that the birds have left for our enjoyment in the autumn.
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For the first time this winter, I was about to write year, which is also true when I went out to take close ups the day was not a sunny day, cloudy I would say. The color tone of the shots from that day is totally different than the ones I took yesterday, when it was rather nippy (-18C). Yesterday the macro shots of frost, snow and the few pops of color I found more blue toned.
After this long introduction, these photos are from the cloudy day, not macros, but close ups, the last one just showing the tone of the day.
We have had several cold days this week, but the weather should be warming up a bit. This cold certainly brings us nice and sunshiny days and the clear starry nights. The amount of clothing you have to wear to keep warm. Layered clothing is the thing or just stay inside, which is the option i use the most.
We have been seeing news about Texas and other areas that are not used to winter conditions and the problems they are having…so sad.
At breakfast this morning I started to play with my mobile phone, I took photos of the fruit 🍎 I had on the table 🍊🥭, so why not share some colorful and healthy fruit shots
It has been a big trend , knitting that is. I decided to be part of it. I went out and bought some yarn 🧶 and knitted myself a beanie and a warm Elizabethan collar. The technique has something to desire, but I am rather happy with the result
Yawn 🥱, my Veikka cat was a bit tired 😴
I asked my husband to get something tasty to go with coffee. This is what I got, laskiaispulla. A bun with whipped cream and strawberry jam. Aah , so tasty 😋
Time, clock, lavender are the inspirations for these still life photos.
Happy Valentine’s Day to all my fellow bloggers!
I am surprising you just with one photo today. I like how this turned out.
As all my art studies are on a break due to Covid, well I have been lazy. I have had an idea, intention to do something, but when the push came to shove, nothing happened. Today I made an effort. I am looking for inspiration as it exists if it finds you working. I am rather proud of that fact that I got this far, not so much of the outcome, but they are not so bad, that I would not show them. Feel free to comment 🙂
So today I took my aquarelle colors out, took time to clear the easel from the other works I store one it. Then I started to play with colors, with the warm palette.
Repeat from yesterday, all this is still valid, today we have the bluest skies, so lovely! The minus side is that it is so COLD! -15C /5 F but with the wind factor it feels like -20C /-2F .
Wednesday, I went for a walk and a drive to few lovely seaside places. Here are few pictures from my next stop, the Marina in Soukka. I stopped to see if there were any ice hole swimmers about this morning, nope, not today. What I ended up trying to capture was the quickly changing sky, the play of the clouds and sun behind it, playing hide and seek. Clear blue higher up, cloudy near the ground.
I found some color amongst the snow.
Today we have the bluest skies, so lovely! The minus side is that it is so COLD! -15C /5 F but with the wind factor it feels like -20C /-2F .
Sunrise today was at 8:09. Sunset today is at 17:00. Length of day 8 h 51 min. Spring is coming 🙂
Yesterday I went for a walk, despite the cold. My fingers did not thank me for taking photos 🙂
I visited the Suinonsalmi inlet, when I was a kid I came here often. I was not the only one out there, I saw people walking, cross country skiing even though it was rather cold. This was my first stop.
Ritva Sillanmäki Photography 