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I took a photo yesterday evening of a blanket of fog as we were driving down the road . I was delighted when I downloaded the photos and saw the horse in the photo because I hadn't seen him when I took the photo.
My mother used to paint and she also does crossword puzzles and other word games, etc. It's been over 40 years since she painted.
Now my whole reason for telling you all of that was that she was trying to think of the word that describes what the horse was in the painting. She used the word "fulcrum", telling me that the horse would give the painter's perspective of the dimensions from the foreground to the mountains. She wasn't sure about that word though so of course, we googled it and a bunch of other stuff came up. I tried to find that word in some type of artist's glossary, but it didn't show up there either.
I'm hoping that someone here knows the correct word because it's driving Mom crazy not knowing what that word is.
I was delighted at how well this turned out considering we were driving down the highway on a mountain road, it had been raining, and the windows were really fogged up. I told Auntie to slow down but there were cars behind us. I rolled down the window and took 3 shots of this area. I was just fascinated with that blanket of fog between the road and the mountains.
In case anyone is wondering since it shows I am in Beaumont, Texas, we were NOT in Texas, but were close to Rileyville, Virginia.
Janet,
That is a beautiful photo. Fulcrum is a focal point of balance, which is probably what she was thinking, and a focal point connects parts of a picture.
Cheers
Cath
I'd just sat down here to write you and thank you for the clarification of the word when Mom hollered down the stairs "Janet, did you see the rainbow?!?" It rained just a bit here and I hadn't seen it. Well, you know me, I grabbed my camera before I even looked outside.
There was a rainbow stretched from the view to Front Royal to right in front of me. There was a huge tree in the front yard though that kept me from getting both ends of it. I even ran out where the guy had bushhogged the big yard today and still couldn't get both ends of it into the viewfinder. There were 2 guys across the street gettin gas and they were laughing, watching me run from one end to the other with the camera. They finally turned around and saw what I was taking pictures of. Mom and I laughed when she said, I bet they thought you were taking THEIR picture!
Well, now that the excitement (and the rainbow) has died down, Thank you!!! Mom said she can't imagine why that word didn't show up in the right context on the internet. She knew she hadn't dreamt up that word and she was glad someone knew what it was.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerial_perspective
Atmospheric perspective or aerial perspective is probably the term she is trying to remember. I have done the same thing in forgetting that term.
Pam
fumage - A method of making an image with smoke fumes. Fumage was invented by Wolfgang Paalen, whose first fumages were made with a kerosene lamp. When surrealist painter Salvador Dali (Spanish, 1904-1988), made a fumage, he called the method sfumato; and some have spelled this term "sfumage". Very few artists have worked in fumage. (fyoo-MAHZH)
WOW Cath! Outstanding job of getting the "stuff' out of that photo. Had I not been so excited and in the middle of writing to you when all of that happened, I probably would have tried to get the "stuff" out too. Mom asked me when I showed her your work how come I hadn't done that before I posted the photo. She's a stickler about "stuff" being in photos, especially family photos and we've kidded her about that for years. Yet when I look back at HER photos, they are always pleasing to the eye, whereas I'll see something out of place in my own photos.
Mom laughed when I mentioned your saying she ought to paint. She's almost 80 now and said her paints have long dried up and been donated to Goodwill. She does have some of the most gorgeous scenery all around here here to paint. I've been taking photos of the old family homesteads and Mom is amazed at the photos I've taken of the mountains, which she's not quite, but almost taken for granted all of her life. As a child, I did too, but am truly appreciating God's beauty here this year. And doing my best to capture it so I will remember it when I go back to Texas bext week.
Pamela, thanks so much for adding to the artists' glossary terms. (This is ALL new to me) Mom said she understood what you were referring to, but it was the horse itself that she was trying to use that word on, not the haze of the fog blanket or the type of perspective. She and I both really appreciated the fumage post because I've always been a big fan of Dali's work. Yeah, I'm on the strange side! HAHAHA
This is a paragraph from 'Principles of Design' & following is how I relate this to your picture. Let me know what you think.
Asymmetrical balance, also called informal balance, is more complex and difficult to envisage. It involves placement of objects in a way that will allow objects of varying visual weight to balance one another around a fulcrum point. This can be best imagined by envisioning a literal balance scale that can represent the visual "weights" that can be imagined in a two dimensional composition. For example, it is possible to balance a heavy weight with a cluster of lighter weights on equal sides of a fulcrum; in a picture, this might be a cluster of small objects balanced by a large object. It is also possible to imagine objects of equal weight but different mass (such as a large mass of feathers versus a small mass of stones) on equal sides of a fulcrum. Unequal weights can even be balanced by shifting the fulcrum point on our imaginary scale.
My interpretation of this is the BALANCE your eyes achieved by the visual weight of the horse to the visual weight of the mountain in this picture - (both sides of the fulcrum point) so since all was nicely balanced, the horse just didn't stick out.
Thanks Pamela I think you hit the nail on the head with that post. I showed it to Mom and she agrees.
The only painting I see in our near future will be me painting the front steps, the front porch and the ceiling of the porch. Each "job" is a different color, shades of grey with the ceiling black. Sounds rather dreary, but the new colums and railings are white. We bought the paint yesterday and then it rained shortly after we got home with the paint. We expected more of the showers we had yesterday evening, but they never materialized today. It was supposed to be scattered thunderstorms every day this week, according to the weather guy. Never can trust those guys! HAHAHA
Tomorrow morning, after the dew is gone, I am going to start on the front steps. That is some kind of oil paint and I figure it will take the longest to dry. I'd love to get 2 coats of paint on them before I head back to Texas next week. They are concrete and only have one coat so far from last year. Mom had some major renovations to the porch done last year and Everything only got one coat of paint. In this part of the country, I think at least 2 would be better. Oh how I'd love to be here in the wintertime when it snows. (sigh) I guess I'll just settle for our 3 cold days in Texas. :-) By the way, Mom will be supervising the painting, so I hope there are no drips of that black paint! HAHAHA
This house was built by my great grandfather way back in 1900 and it looks fantastic for being over 100 years old. Mom (and my Dad when he was living) really have done a jam up job of keeping this old place up. She's only here for 6 months of the year and goes back to San Antonio the rest of the year.
I've known this paint job has needed to be done, but at Mom's insistence, we took photos of the old homesteads the first 2 1/2 weeks of this trip. I'm so glad we did because we had perfect weather for that. Mom said that if the painting doesn't get done while I'm here, at least she's got the paint on hand and she will get someone else to do it.
I hate that we'll lose the use of the porch. We're painting one side at a time to cut down on the loss. We sit out there and speculate about the folks that stop at the store and gossip each evening and we sure have enjoyed that time together.
Mom has done most of the work herself until the past couple of years. She fell 3 times that year and just doesn't trust herself on a ladder any more.
edited to add an "a" and break up some of the paragraphs for easier reading.'
Thanks Pamela. We're all really proud of this old house. When they bought the home from the family estate back in 1982 it was a "pasture in disaster". There wasn't even running water in the old house then. The photo I will add will show you how much things have changed. That's my granddaddy on the front porch in 1982. Aunt Eltie would have loved seeing how much Mom and Daddy have done to this house. She and Aunt Grace lived here until she died and Aunt Grace knew she couldn't take care of the house by herself.
When the sale of the house was made, on the old deed my great grandfather had included that this house was to remain in our family "forever, and ever, and ever". No one knew that when my parents made the offer on the house. I'm sure he's smiling in Heaven now to see his old house that his granddaughter has lovingly cared for.
Don't think there will be much painting today. As I sat out there with my coffee, I'd decided to get the steps done first since it's the oil paint. Mom called me in and as we were eating our oatmeal I noticed the sky darkening. It started to sprinkle. I may tackle the ceiling instead. I am just having a hard time getting motivated to get this job started. I'm such a procrastinator! Mom knows that and says she doesn't want me to "work" on my vacation. I'll git 'er done, but it may be at the last minute. We're thinking Saturday may be a better day weatherwise.
I agree that your Grandfather would be smiling with pride over the improvements your Mom made. What a wonderful transformation. And so much history there. The ceiling would be a good thing to get out of the way first. My neck starts to hurt from tilting the head back to paint ceilings. They are the worse. Then the rest may go easier to finish on up.
I'm back in Texas and thought I'd show you all how nicely the porch turned out.
Pamela, I took your advice about the order of the painting an d that worked out fantastic.
Mom didn't want the paint rolled on the ceiling (in Mom's words) "Your Daddy never used a roller because it used so much paint." And she was perfectly content with my just touching it up. If you sit there and look at it, you can see what was touched up. But because it's a chip board material and was already painted black, it doesn't look bad at all. The important thing was that the bare wood (where a new light of a different size was installed) be covered with paint.
The actual porch was done in two stages so we'd be able to continue to use the porch. That worked out perfectly. We put clear 3M packing tape from the front of the runners to the back on the pair of rockers. The black paint on those runners was leaving streaks on the porch before and I didn't want to see those streaks on the fresh paint. That worked like a charm!
Here I am second day of porch painting, bringing the two halves together. You couldn't tell where one began and the other ended.
Saturday we saw no rain at all in the forecast, so decided that would be the perfect day for the steps. The front steps paint was a different color than what was on there. They only had ONE concrete paint to choose from and it was gray. I figured it would be the same, but it was quite a bit lighter. Mom really liked the way it looked.
Yes, I was painting barefoot. I had only taken good leather shoes with me and I wasn't about to ruin them. :-)
The bottom of the concrete "form" rocks showed badly though with such a lighter color. We went to Lowe's and bought cheapo topsoil and then I snagged just enough gravel rocks from her driveway to make it so the rain wouldn't wash the dirt away again. We think it really gave those steps a finished look.
You can really see the difference from the photo I posted before the painting began to what it looks like now. And the main thing is that Mom is a happy camper now!
Thanks. We are all really proud of that old house. After all, my Great Grandfather built it!
Mom and I talked about her painting again while I was there. She said she has nothing that she used to hav, so it would be starting from scratch for her. She used to paint from the Arizona Highways magazines and she is a wonderful artist. Many of her paintings hang in our homes.
She has gorgeous scenery in Virginia to paint. Perhaps next year we can explore this idea more. Maybe Connie and I can work on gifting her (as you said) some of those supplies. Mom has 2 homes that she spends 6 months each in and flies between them. You wouldn't believe what all she goes through to close down the houses. Can you say "Lists"! HAHAHAHA I know it would be hard for her to transport her supplies.
Janet how did you tear yourself away from that beautiful area. Tell mom you want her to do a painting of your picture for your (Christmas) present. Get her the supplies and one day when she is bored she will surely paint for you. It is a great pic. I just started painting at 69 and I love to do it. She would enjoy it. Just get her to start. shirleyt
