{ Previously Featured Print }

Nature's Face #1

I found this planter while touring a large botanical garden and it caught my eye immediately. There was something about the way that the plants draped down over the face in some places, and covered the surface of the ground, creating a sense of the face gently emerging from the foliage. When I first saw it I knew that the only way that I could present the feeling that I had to the viewer was through the use of color, but I didn't feel that 'normal' color would represent how I felt - it had to be hand colored to fully capture the feeling properly. I worked on this photograph for some time before I found the right vantage point, and the results of that effort are presented to you here. Sadly, shortly after this negative was exposed, I discovered that the plants had all been replaced, and no more exploration of this subject would be possible...

I don't really like to talk about technique, but given that hand coloring is a somewhat uncommon technique these days I thought I might speak very briefly about how I created this print. I first carefully applied a very thin layer of translucent oil paint ('photo' oils) which allow the image to show through the color. I used only three colors in this particular print, each carefully mixed to produce the colors that I felt would best achieve the feeling that I was interested in presenting to you, the viewer. After I had achieved the effect I had in mind when I made the negative, and the oil paint had time to fully dry, I coated the print with a preservative varnish used to protect oil paintings to ensure long life.

I hope you like it as much as I do!

- Randy