DlmtleArt

I have received some requests for information about the weather conditions at the time I took the “Early Morning Sun Rays” photographs, so I thought I would post some pictures of the sky that I took out from the road that morning.

The weather was frosty and cold with a light, misty fog, but not rainy. The sun was brilliant with a white silvery light behind an extraordinarily thin layer of cloud cover. My original idea was to capture a photo of the sun because it was so pretty and silvery like the moon; however, by the time i got home and could whip out my camera the clouds had thinned a little more and the trees were in the way (fortunately for me ) Now I wish I had taken more pictures, but I got too cold and went inside. I think if I ever get another opportunity like that I’ll take a hike further down into the forest.

All images contained in thes blog are the intellectual property of Dawna Morton. All Rights Reserved. Do not copy in any form. Prints are available for purchase in Dawna’s Zazzle gallery.

Last night I went to a really great women’s meeting at my church. It was to celebrate the birthday of Relief Society which was organized in 1842.

One of the activities was to paint a 5×5 canvas. The teacher had prepared a demonstration on how to paint a lemon with “When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade”on it. Some of us decided to paint something else. Since one of the ladies asked me how to paint an apple, I decided I would paint one too and try to talk her through it. I don’t think I do a good job of explaining and painting at the same time because she gave up and went to a different activity.

Anyway I think It turned out pretty well so I thought I’d post it here. The canvas was already primed, so I started out with a coat of purple paint. Purple is one of my favorite colors, and I also thought it would complement the apple’s red color nicely. Next I added a red apple shape and began adding the highlights and shadows. It needed to dry for awhile before I could go any further with the apple so I laid in the green foreground–being careful to let some of the purple underpainting show through.

Next I added the white apple blossoms and put in a little light yellow highlights and some purple shadows.Adding the branch and apple stem next. It was to wet to do any fine tuning on the blossoms, So I went back to work on the apple deepening the shadows and brightening some of the highlights. Adding the shadows beneath the apple and blossoms was next, using a mixture of purple and a touch of black. Normally I would just use a bluer shade of purple but I did not have a dark enough blue available for that. Then It was time to dry brush the final highlights and shadows on the apple and retouch the blossoms. The background needed a bit more life and brightened up a bit. Adding a light behind the apple and fading it out really made the apple “pop.” At first I put too much yellow in it, so I lifted it out with a damp napkin and reapplied a lighter shade, and then dabbed it again to create a slightly mottled effect. Before signing it I added a few touches of red around the edges and softened it with the napkin as well.

I did get frustrated with it at times because acrylic is not a medium I use frequently and I also did not have my good brushes with me. working with larger brushes is a good learning experience though. It is a good idea to try new things an push outside of our comfort zones. You might just like the results ( when frustrated I find it helpful to get up and walk around the room and come back to it a few minutes later with fresh eyes.) I think I’ll try this exercise again . It’s fairly inexpensive since canvases this size can be found in the dollar section at Michael’s

Photographs contained in this post are the intellectual copyright of Dawna Morton. All Rights Reserved. Do not copy in any form. Prints are available for purchase in Dawna’s Zazzle gallery.

Early Morning Sun Rays #18

I love how the silhouettes of the forest trees and foliage in this photograph create a semblance of a stained glass window.

The Bright sunlight creates a high contrast photograph, almost like a black and white, except for the hint of green in the edges of the leaves and branches. There is also a small green sunspot followed by a larger red sunspot in the lower right corner.

The branch across the lower left corner resembles a fallen beam in an abbey of the ancient ruins of a ramshackle church. The warm glow of the sun speaks of hope, renewal, and restoration as it shines through the tangle of vines and branches.

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Early Morning Sun Rays #19

The early morning sun beams its rays from the azure winter sky through the leafless maples to the cedars and forest below.

The sky is a pristine light blue with a hint of thin white clouds in the background. Darkened outlines of bare branches in the foreground and cedar trees in the background provide stark contrast with the early morning sun.

As the rays travel from the sun through the forest, several large sunspots a of lighter and darker red radiate from the sun. One small green sunspot floats like a small orb in the midst of the trees.

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Morning Sun Rays #26

The sun appears like a bright star floating in the midst of the forest as it shines through the translucent ivy on the trees. I love the warm coral half circle like a corona with sun rays streaming through it.

The air seems to sparkle with light and life as the green sunspot hovers like a remote star to the left of the sun, and the sun rays shine all around.

If you squint a little and look at it with eyes half shut and focus on the left of the photo, all the lighter areas where the blue sky peeks through the cedars look like a glimpse of stars in the galaxy surrounding the sun, or perhaps a white giant.

Early Morning Sun Rays #25

Brilliantly the sun beams it’s rays through the shadowy center of the forest, creating 4 red sunspots near the corners of the photo. Beyond is seen the blue and white of a cold winter sky silhouetted by the cedars and ivy covered maples.

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Early Morning Sun Rays #28

The early morning sky is tranquil and blue, and the bare branches of the maples stalwartly await the coming of spring. The air seems to sizzle with energy as the sun’s rays stream through the forest ending in a burst of transparent red sunspots.

The sizzling effect is actually an optical illusion created by the wavy outline of the tree on the far left. When you look at it just right (look slightly to the right and don’t focus completely) it makes the sun Rays look as if they are wavy and dancing with energy.

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Early Morning Sun Rays #31

Softly radiant, the sun illuminates the forest from the calm winter sky. A solitary maple seems to shelter and guide the young saplings encircled by the evergreen foliage of the cedars.

Part 1, part 2, part 3

Dawna’s fine Art Prints
Dawna’s Zazzle Gallery for prints, cards, and more…

Photographs contained in this post are the intellectual copyright Of Dawna Morton. All Rights Reserved. Do not copy in any form. Copies are available for purchase in Dawna’s Zazzle gallery.

Here is my next installment of Early Morning Sun Rays Photos. I hope you enjoy them. If you like these pictures you may also enjoy part 1 and part 2.

There is a variety of evergreen trees here. We have quite a few fir or pine trees, as well as a good number of cedar and maple. Interspersed sparingly are some holly. We have ivy everywhere and climbing up everything. Ivy is not native to Oregon, but for some reason we have it climbing up all the trees at my house. I plan on borrowing some goats, who love to eat ivy (yay ), seeing as I don’t want to weed 1/4 acre worth of forest by hand. I have a hard enough time keeping up with every thing else I’m doing (such as getting the garden ready to plant and keeping up with the other 1/4 acre of yard).

Aside from the ivy, the other issue that needs to be addressed, although thankfully enough, not apparent in these photos, is the garbage that people have dumped down there over the years. Most of the time the Ivy covers everything so it’s not visible, but around February and March the ivy has died back enough that I can see it all . I went down there last week and spent quite some time hauling up buckets of bricks, broken bottles, scrap metal, and several tires.It hardly made a dent in what is down there. I am trying not to get discouraged and apply Flylady’s principle of “I can do anything for 15 minutes.” It was exhausting hauling the tires up my steep ravine. They were only about 5 feet down there, but you would not believe how heavy they felt trying to push, pull, shove, roll, flip and basically wrangle them up that hill. I was worn out enough that I did only one tire on one day and the other several days later.

On the long term what I would love to do is to make some hiking trails down there for the kids (and myself too of course ). It’s going to be a long and slow process, but it will be worth it. Hopefully I can find some native plants that will provide good ground cover and keep the hill from eroding, without being invasive like the ivy.

I’ll be posting updates as I continue to make progress. In the mean time please enjoy some more photos in part 4…

Check out Dawna’s Fine Art Prints at Imagekind.com

Dawna’ Zazzle Gallery of Photos and Gifts

These photographs, and other blog content, are the intellectual property of Dawna Morton. All Rights Reserved. Do not copy. Photographic prints are available for sale in Dawna’s Zazzle Gallery. Those who are interested in using Dawna’s photos in the media or other ways may contact Dawna by leaving a comment and she will respond to you privately. Thank you.

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As I mentioned in part 1, once I was satisfied with the photos I had taken of the sunburst through the trees, I then moved on to capture some of the more subtle effects of the sun rays on the forest.

I love how the sunbeams create a heavenly light in these pictures. Lighting really does make all the difference in the mood and feeling of a photograph. It can make an ordinary scene into something truly spectacular.

Notice how the focal point is not the forest, but the light itself. It seems to radiate a peace and joy and warmth as its radiant glow illuminates the forest. Soft and ethereal, the sunlight turns an ordinary forest scene into something truly glorious.

These images seem to beckon, inviting a quiet morning walk of tranquil reflection and spiritual reawakening. Moments like these stir a desire to find the divine within us and to strive to attain a higher level of excellence. feeling at peace and harmony, we can then be rejuvenated and re-energized in our efforts to become better.

More Photos in part 3,part 4

If you liked these you may also like my post, sunlight in my forest.

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Dawna’s Fine Art Prints At Imagekind

Dawna’s Zazzle Gallery

These photos are the intellectual property of Dawna Morton. All Rights reserved. Do not copy without permission. To purchase prints visit my zazzle gallery, or contact me via comments for terms if you would like to use my photos for reference or in the media.

I suppose I have to thank my kids for missing the school bus the other week.

Why? Because, on the way home from the school I noticed the sun shining through the fog and decided to whip out my camera. ( Luckily I had my camera on me. I am trying to get in the habit of taking it every where. I can not count the times I have missed a great picture because I forgot to bring it along, like the morning on the way out of the school parking lot when it was foggy and the sun came out and illuminated the fog behind a grouping of trees. I was kicking myself all the way home for having forgotten my camera that day). You never know when you will come across something that moves you and the artist in you demands you take a photo for reference later.

The sun was so bright streaming through the trees that I had to shoot virtually blind on most of these. I would aim as best as I could toward my desired focal point and click hoping I’d gotten it, without really being sure because all I could see through the viewfinder was a bright glare.

It is really important to make sure to check the settings on a digital camera. I normally leave mine on the highest resolution setting as possible, however I had recently put it on low resolution for some

pictures I took with the sole purpose of illustrating my blog posts on framing and for my post on recycling candles. I had already taken several pictures when I realized I had not returned the settings to high resolution. which is too bad because the second of these is one of my favorites of the ones I took that day.

I love how the sunburst causes such a contrast with the deep early morning forested shade. It is all so peaceful and ethereal in its beauty. The light is not often so perfect for taking such great photos. I got a bit carried away and took around 40 in very short order. The refracted light in the camera lens also caused interesting patterns of red and blue hexagons to appear in the sunburst images.

Once I had several images that I felt captured the gloriousness of the bright sunburst I hiked in a bit further and started taking pictures of the more delicate effects of the sun rays themselves.

more of Dawna’s photos in part 2,
part 3part 4

My Gallery of Fine Art Prints at Imagekind

My Zazzle gallery of unique gifts and cards

I had a lot of fun recently designing some T shirts to sell on Zazzle.com . I originally signed up with them in order to sell greeting cards featuring my artwork, but have decided to offer other items for sale as well. Here is a shirt for babies that I completed a few nights ago. The great thing about Zazzle is that the customer can decide which shirt they would like my design on. Many designs are also customizable, giving the opportunity to create a truly one of a kind gift.

This was inspired by a baby I happen to know who really really likes making raspberries ( and does NOT like peas!).

On the back it says:

I have discovered

the secrets of

Alchemy

turn me around

and follow my instructions…

and I’ll show you!

On the front it says:

Give me some PEAS

and I’ll show you

how to make

Raspberries!

The design on the front is bordered by peas in the upper left corner and raspberries in the lower right. I drew the border at baseball practice with colored pencil and pens from one of my kids’ art kits ( hey I was in a hurry on the way out the door). I find it important to maximize my time as an artist, making good use of both the time and supplies I have available.

To see the front of my shirt, Alchemy and the Raspberries!,visit my Zazzle Gallery, or click on the image above.

Dawna’s Fine Art prints at Imagekind.com

Once I had the frame assembled, I took it with me to my local art supply store to pick out matboard. Bringing the picture with me, in a protective sleeve, was also very helpful. After spending quite some time laying down different colored mats around the picture and laying the frame on top to see how it would look, I ended up choosing a kind of burgundy color which complemented both my artwork and the frame very nicely. The store had two options for buying matboard: I could either have them cut the mat and the opening for it for about $13 which would certainly have been convenient, or I could buy a very large sheet of matboard for about the same amount and cut it myself. I decided to buy the larger board and cut it myself so I would have some extra for other framing projects. I also wanted to try cutting an oval freehand. The picture I am framing had a oval shape already drawn on it, but I drew it by hand– without a pattern– making it more of an egg shape. So It really would not have worked to have the store cut the matboard for me.

An artist friend of mine had offered to let me borrow her mat cutter, but could not find it. I have on previous occasions had a lot of experience with using Xacto knives for some pretty intricate cutting–so I thought maybe that would work if I was very careful. I laid the matboard on my clean kitchen table and lined the frame up carefully with the corner of the board. then I traced the inner side of the frame with a pencil on the white side of the board, but tracing the glass would also have worked and probably been simpler now that I think of it LOL (good thing I can laugh at myself sometimes). I chose to cut starting on the reverse side of the mat because it is easier to hide mistakes that way. It was not the easiest thing in the world to cut through the mat with an Xacto knife, but it was possible after many passes over it. It did not look bad, and even if it had the edge of the frame will cover it by 1/4 inch.

The tricky part was getting the oval. I got out some tracing paper I had on hand and traced my oval from the picture. If you are using a hand drawn oval rather than a pattern MAKE SURE TO MARK WHICH SIDE IS UP AND LEFT AND RIGHT, also make sure to make a note to yourself to FLIP IT OVER SIDEWAYS when you copy it to the back side of the matboard. I neglected to do this and it caused me a lot of grief and extra work. Copying the oval can be done several ways. either use a sheet of carbon paper and trace it on, or cut out the oval and tape on the paper you cut it from, making sure to center it, and then trace. Cutting out the oval with the Xacto blade was much more difficult than doing a straight line. It might have been ok I I had remembered to mark and flip the pattern, but even then the cut was not as smooth as I would have liked. it’s extremely difficult cutting something that thick with an xacto and trying to keep the angle of the blade consistent.

I thought about remedying the situation by just cutting the board with a rectangular opening, but after getting a glimpse of how nice it would look with an oval I just couldn’t make myself do it. So, I started hunting for an inexpensive mat cutter. they can get pretty expensive up into the hundreds of dollars depending on what you want. A really basic model for cutting at either a 45 or 90 degree angle straight line runs anywhere from $50 or more. Freehand ones cost closer to 25, but the salesperson said that was not really any good for doing oval shapes with. Matcutters specifically designed for cutting ovals were about $70. Ebay did have some mattcutters for much cheaper–anywhere from $10 and up mostly, but i was not sure how much shipping would be. Finally I went to another art store and found a mattcutter much like and Xacto knife, only much sharper. It also has a nice flat edge to rest it on while cutting. I had a coupon for 405 of an was able to get it for under $6. I still had to go over my cuts with it several times to get all the way through the board, but it was much easier. It was also much easier to hold the knife steady.

In order to fix the problem with have the oval flipped the wrong way , I enlarged the oval just about 1/8″(flipping it this time of course ) then recut it. I taped my picture on the back with acid free tape, making sure to keep it level and centered.

stay tuned for part 5…

Dawna’s Fine Art Prints

Gift items featuring Dawna’s Art and Photography

The next morning , after letting the glue dry overnight, I got to work removing the clamps. The thinner molding was of relatively soft wood and I was dismayed to find that the clamps had left a slight indent on it. Thinking back on watching Norm Abram’s show, New Yankee workshop, he would probably solve that problem by having a piece of concave wood to place between the clamp and the softer wood–which would equalize the pressure and prevent indentation. I don’t have the tools to make one of those though, and luckily it’s not very noticeable except for close up. I’ll need to come up with a easy low budget solution before my next framing project though.

The next step was to measure and cut at a 45 degree angle with the miter box. First cut off a small wedge at the end of your strip of glued molding. the inner edge with the small overlapping ledge will always be the short side. I used the edge of the Plexiglas to measure where to cut the wood, and marked it off in pencil on the inner edge of the narrow molding. If you’ve never heard the old adage “measure twice, cut once,” it’s still good advice. As I mentioned in part 2, I don’t have a workbench out in the shed to attach my miter box to, so I did this on the living room floor. If you choose to do it this way, make sure to hold on really tight to the molding and box with your non sawing hand so they don’t wiggle around. If you are not used to handling a saw, take it slow at first. Make sure to keep fingers etc away from the sharp end and if you might ruin your carpet or pergo flooring then put some cardboard or scrap wood under your work area. Keep the saw fairly level so you don’t end up sawing through the miter box. When making the second cut put the saw in the other slot so you end up with a trapezoid shape rather than a parallelogram. Check with each cut to make sure the sides all fit together nicely. Once all four pieces are cut then it’s time to glue again. If you have 2 corner clamps then you can do 2 corners one day and then put the 2 halves together the next day. making sure to allow them to dry overnight. ( make sure to glue the correct pieces together.)

Because I only had one corner clamp things got a bit interesting when I got to gluing the last piece on. I improvised by clamping one corner and wrapping multiple layers of yarn tightly in both directions for the remaining corner. I can’t say as I would recommend that though.

Even with all my measuring and remeasuring be fore cutting, somehow I ended up just a fraction of a millimeter off when it came to putting the last piece into the frame. I spent a lot of time sanding it down just right. The same thing happened with the glass. It was just a little too big to fit in the frame, so I spent a lot of time sanding both it and the frame, checking frequently until it would slide in comfortably. make sure to leave the plastic covering on both sides of the glass until you are done to prevent scratching the surface.

On to matting in part 4…

Dawna’s Fine Art Prints at Imagekind
posters and gift items featuring Dawna’s art and photography

As mentioned in part 1 of this article,part of my strategy to keep the costs down while building my frame was using as little tools as possible so I would not have to go out and buy a bunch of power tools. Another budget stretcher is to use what you already have, or borrow items from friends, relatives, or neighbors who may be into woodworking. You may even be able to get them to show you how to use it or to help you with your project. If you can, find wood scraps or recycled wood to use for your frame (check at home improvement stores or lumber yards. I have heard that construction sites are also good resources–just remember to ask. Craigslist sometimes has interesting items in the free section– scrap lumber is occasionally one of them.)

I took my a drawing to the hardware store with me, in a protective sleeve, to help me select a good width for the frame. Having the picture with me also helped to select a section of Plexiglas approximately 11 x 14 for a little under $3. I chose that size, which was slightly larger than my picture, rather than buying a larger sheet because glass cutters were about $12. Instead of buying glass cutters I left the Plexiglas as is and decided to mat the picture as well as framing it. They also had various sizes of regular glass, but if you have small children (or teenagers LOL) who constantly knock things off the walls Plexiglas is a must.

After choosing the Plexiglas, I bought 2 strips of molding. The wider piece needed to have a flat side (for gluing the other piece to) and to have a contour on the opposite edge. [see photo at top] The other, narrower, piece of molding was rounded and decoratively carved. I could not find any exactly like the ones Bob Villa used to make his frame, but that’s I really liked the ones I chose instead. Mine were approximately 7 feet long which was enough to make a frame with inner measurements of about 11×14″. I had about a foot or a foot and a half left over. When buying molding for your frame remember that each time you make a 45 degree cut for the corner there is going to be a triangle that you wont be able to use for the frame and you’ll need to buy extra to compensate for that. If you want to buy exactly how much you need you will have to dust off your high school geometry and use the Pythagorean theory to figure out how much extra to get (this will depend on how wide your molding is).

I have to admit I spent some time drooling over the power miter saws, unfortunately even on sale they were $60. What I ended up getting instead was a little plastic miter box that came with the saw all for about $8. I also bought 4 small c clamps about $2 each (make sure they work first I had to take one of mine back because it didn’t). I wished I had bought about 2 more. Make sure you have enough to place one every couple feet and that they open wide enough for the thickness of your molding. Corner clamps were about $10 each. I only bought one, but 2 are really necessary. I’ll explain why later.

I did not buy a nail setter or the 3/4 inch finishing nails, that Mr. Villa recommends, because the hardware store I was at did not have any that size. I think for the size frame I am making, especially with using a lightweight Plexiglas instead of glass, it should be ok without them. I’m sure I’ll find out the first time somebody knocks it off the wall.

I got the wood and tools home and started marking the wider piece of molding on the backside. I measured and marked every few inches with a clear ruler so that when I glued them together the skinnier piece would hang over creating a 1/4 inch ledge, and glued them together with some wood glue I already had on hand and clamped them together with 4 small C clamps and used the corner clamp also because 4 was not quite enough. For those of you with no garage or workshed to do this in, you can do this in the living room–however I would recommend waiting until anyone with curious little fingers are in bed for the night, and make sure to put down some newspaper or something to catch any drips or spills. Also, keep a damp cloth handy (ahead of time LOL) to wipe off any excess glue. Even though it is recommended to let the glue dry overnight, work quickly once you begin applying the glue. It does get tacky and difficult to adjust are in a relatively short amount of time.

part 3...

Dawna’s Fine Art Prints
Dawna’s gallery of custom gift items