ad libitum

TEXTURES AND MORE TEXTURES

It's Nancy's Texture Tuesday again. I have been busy traveling lately: after my trip to California, I took a road trip to New Jersey (to see Judy and Howie) and Connecticut (to see Sal and Eric) and I am just beginning to get back into art and out of piles of laundry and annoying daily life tasks. Nancy's testure challenge came at just the right time.

While I was visiting Judy, she took me shopping in Manhattan. I did more shopping than photographing (I bought jewelry findings, buttons, beads and ribbons); but I did manage to take some pictures.

Below is a picture of the street signs.

I cropped the photo and played with filters and levels and blending modes.

I added a bit of street grunge with Nancy's texture.

Below is a picture I took near the New York Public Library.

I played with it and added a couple of Nancy's textures.

Below, I added a film strip mask.

Of course, I had to take pictures of Macy's windows.

I then played with levels.

And then I added Nancy's texture to put in some city grunge.

Back in Jew Jersey, I took some photos of some of the decorative objects in Judy's studio.

More playing with levels and adding text...

The addition of Nancy's texts:

More playing with levels and adding a mask:

Here's a photo of a great vintage head Judy owns (can you feel the coveting?)

I cropped and played with levels.

And, then I added text, one of Nancy's textures as a background, and another of her textures across the face

Here's the photo I took of another of Judy's treasures.

And, here it is with Nancy's texture.

LIFE'S A BEACH AND THEN YOU POST

The class I had originally sceduled (I'm at Art & Soul, Virginia Beach) was cancelled, so I spent the day spending way too much money on art supplies and taking photos at the beach.

Here are a few of my photos (no surprise, with a little bit of photoshopping).

 

A CAR AT LESEDI, SOUTH AFRICA

Use it, reuse it, transform it into something else, make it beautiful...

PENGUINS ~ ESPECIALLY FOR KATE

My friend Kate loves penguins. (Who wouldn't?). When I learned that we would get to go see the colony of penguins at Boulders Beach, I knew I would be taking lots of pictures - both for me and for Kate.

 

AND LIONS, OH MY!

Most of the lions I saw in South Africa were napping. I did see a lioness eating a warthog, but almost all the others were pretty still. We saw a lion soon after his meal (the ranger told us you could tell by his belly and by the way he was breathing) and he was pretty immobile. No matter, they are magnificent creatures and I'm really lucky to have seen them.

The Castle in Cape Town is guarded by a pair of lions.

This lioness got up and walked around when our Land Rover arrived, but got back to dinner when she decided we were't going to try to share the meal.

 

The ranger told us that just after he eats, a lion is not going to move for quite a while. No one got out of the LandRover to test this theory.

Such a powerful profile!

White lions napping in the bush outside of Johannesburg.

Here's Annie petting a lion cub (the fur is a little rough and the guide told us to pet with a strong hand because a light touch irritates them).

 

CAPE TOWN

Cape Town was a delightful surprise to both me and Annie, It's a beautiful city with a beautiful shorline and a busy and fun waterfront. Our hotel was by the waterfront. Our first morning there, we took a city tour, going up to Table Rock (the line for the cable car was too long, so we didn't take the cable car to the top), driving through the brightly painted BoKaap neighborhood, touring the Castle, driving through District 6 (a sad part of Apartheid history), walking through the city Park, and seeing diamonds being cut.

SOUTH AFRICAN BIRDS OF A FEATHER

I saw an incredible variety of birds in South Africa (it's home to penguins, ostriches, buzzards, hornbills, vultures, etc).

THEY TURNED THEIR BACKS TO ME

Sometimes (like almost all the time), animals in Nature are not interested in posing. I saw a lot of animal butts in South Africa and took photos anyway. Below is an assortment of photos of wildlife headed in the other direction (as my mother used to say, it was an enchanting southbound view of a northbound mule).

OUT OF SOUTH AFRICA

Annie and I got home yesterday from our 10 days in South Africa. It was an incrdible trip. I was enchanted with the beauty of the country and the charm of the people.

It was a long trip home and I napped soon after I got back home and expect to nap a lot more this week-end.

Annie was a delightful and fun traveling companion.

It was summer in South Africa and we really had great weather.

Being a tourist  and having all those good times is a lot of work and I'm looking forward to a relaxing bubble bath.

I loved the diversity and cooperation between Nature and the cities, among animals, and among people.

I have 1,901 photos and will be posting a lot more about this trip (you may consider yourself sufficiently warned).

CAPETOWN WATERFRONT

Yesterday we had a city tour of Capetown and then walked around the waterfront on our own. I can't overstate how courteous and charming everyone is.