Desert Bunch Grass Abstract

I decided to reach back into the archives of photos I took in the Arizona high desert, probably 15-16 years ago.  There wasn't a lot of vegetation where we lived besides Juniper trees and  little bunches of grass that waved wildly in the wind. Layered over a colorful background, Nature's work creates an interesting abstract painting effect, but this is a photographic piece with a couple of digital effects. Prints are available on Fine Art America.

Bird Abstract Botanical

 

This is the same series as the last two posts. I used the same images I used in the first two but layered them in different ways, and then put a bird on it just for fun.

Prints and prints on various surfaces are available on Fine Art America.

Blue and Orange Flower Abstraction

 

I probably did 20 versions of this idea tonight, some so surreal you wouldn't recognize them as starting with the same floral subject matter. I might work up a few of those as final pieces as well. It's multiple layer photography with multiple images and patterns combined, some images used multiple times with different layer effects in Photoshop. It got crazy in my laptop art studio tonight!

Prints and prints on a variety of surfaces are available on Fine Art America.

Time and Place — Foxtail Edition, Multi-layered Digital Photography

I am exploring the multiple dimensions of reality by layering multiple photographs showing different elements of the same scene all at once. There is more going on in a single moment  than a simple snapshot can capture. But we record these impressions on a conscious or unconscious level whether we know it or not. This scene is created from photographs I took at ground level. The color shift is to make you look at something most people walk by without seeing: foxtails and native grasses.

This piece is available on Fine Art America.

"Strange Autumn" New Multilayer Digital Photography

 

This reminds me of the mood of the nation this autumn—grey, foreboding. It's really a multilayer digital art piece using my photographs of the sidewalk and autumn leaves along the edge of "landscaped" area of my apartment complex. I like the abstract quality of this piece. Available as a print, framed print, or print on canvas, acrylic, metal, etc. on Fine Art America.

Dead Flowers in a Vase #11

 

Also from the Dead Flowers in a Vase series. This is Number 11. In this case it was made from layering several shots of the same scene using a variety of layering effects. Prints, framed prints, and prints on canvas, metal or acrylic are available on Fine Art America.

Dead Flowers in a Vase, Winter Mood

 

I thought I'd return to my "Dead Flowers in a Vase" series. This was done during the early days of Covid lockdown when we thought it was fun. I decided to make art from whatever I could see in front of me—in this case some dead flowers that had not thrown out because I liked the graceful way they were hanging down from the vase. This was created from multiple images of both the original scene and one I felt addressed a similar theme of beauty in nature even after death. The combination gave me a feeling of peace during a winter snow storm. Prints, framed prints, prints on canvas, metal or acrylic, etc. are available from Fine Art America.

Foxtail Jungle

I'm probably going to have to call this Image 3 of my "Foxtail Series." I didn't think I was going to have a Foxtail Series but I didn't expect to have a "Grass Series" either and that's gone on for many years now. What I liked about this image is that I did not use any software purposely to make it look like a watercolor painting. That's what happened after I layered the same photograph about 7-8 times, using different Photoshop layering techniques on each layer. Very fun! Prints, framed prints, prints on canvas or metal or acrylic, etc. are available on Fine Art America.

Orchid Dreams

 

I wanted something bright and cheerful tonight, a little tropical in feeling. This is a digital art piece composed with multiple photographs I took of an orchid plant from different angles. Prints, framed prints, and prints on canvas, metal, acrylic, etc. are available.

Mid-Summer Botanical Abstract

 

I'm exploring a theme in my work that has headed into strange territory lately. I've been breaking the "rule" of simplifying my work and instead add more complexity. I would say that my subject matter is complexity—the multiplicity of life experience and the complexity inherent in the natural world. Nothing exists separately from anything else. Everything in the natural world lives in relationship. And we don't experience the world like a camera that freezes whatever we point it at and leaves out the rest. We take in multiple impressions at a single time, especially as we move through an environment, sometimes combined with the thoughts in our head which may be focussed on something entirely different than what is actually there. 

I add multiple images together—sometimes different angles of the same scene, sometimes unrelated images that I imagine might belong together. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I reject more ideas than not. It's an experience of discovery—trying unusual things I was certainly never taught to do in three different photo-editing programs and seeing what develops. That's what I like about the process—I wind up seeing things in my work I didn't know where there before. Or the process itself creates something new I would not have expected. It adds an element of surprise and wonder that was otherwise absent, for me, in most of the art I have tended to do before.

In this piece I'm using multiple layered photographs of flowers and other garden plants (all my original work) with multiple digital effects to create an abstract landscape. Prints, framed prints, and prints on canvas, metal, acrylic, etc. are available.

The Battle Between Grass and Fence

 

The battle continues! This is an ongoing theme I think because, ultimately, grass always wins. This is multi-image digital art made from three of my original photos. Prints, framed prints, and prints on canvas, metal, acrylic and other products are available.

Cymbidium Carnival

Cymbidium Carnival © 2017 Sheryl Karas

My latest. I started a much more mundane painting of Cymbidium Orchids but found myself frustrated and bored. So I took myself back to the computer to try my hand at composing another piece and one thing led to another. This was made by combining multiple photographs and digital painting techniques to evoke the movement of tropical breezes through the flowers and foliage. Framed and unframed prints and prints on canvas, etc. are available on Fine Art America.

Winter Trees in Bronze and SIlver

Winter Trees in Bronze and Silver © 2016 Sheryl Karas

I just realized I never shared my Winter Trees series here. I've taken multiple photographs of the trees I can see from my bedroom winter and layer them together in a variety of ways. This might be my favorite version but I'll share at least one other in a future post. Prints and prints on canvas are available on Fine Art America.

Bottlebrush Abstract

Bottlebrush, © 2016 Sheryl Karas

Another Bottlebrush macro, this time layered with paint splatters to approximate the intention I had when I took the photograph. I was attracted to the blur of white anthers contrasted with the red filaments of the flower and wanted to emphasize that instead of the plant itself.

Prints and prints on canvas, etc. are available on Fine Art America.

Bottlebrush and Wild Grass Abstract

Bottlebrush and Wild Grass Abstract, © 2016 Sheryl Karas

I'm continuing with creating art with a lighter, more uplifting palette. This piece started with one of my macro photos of a Bottlebrush flower. Then I overlaid one of my photos of wild grass blowing in the wind to create an abstract photo-painting.

Prints and prints on canvas, etc. are available on Fine Art America.

Abstract Expressionist Grass, Abstract Digital Painting

Abstract Expressionist Grass, © 2016 Sheryl Karas

Another in my series of wild high desert grass dancing in the wind! This abstract was created with so many layers of photographs that I lost count. I really love how the series has evolved into something so very expressive—it's more about the wind and the dance than about the form of the grass very much now at all.

Prints and prints on canvas, etc. are available on Fine Art America.

Breaking Free (Cool Version), Digital Art

Breaking Free, © 2016 Sheryl Karas

Sometimes time goes by and I revisit an older piece. Just a small color shift and it says something slightly different to me -- no longer Southwest, now it's about breaking through the ice of a long winter. Prints, framed and unframed, and prints on canvas or metal are available.

Breaking Free (Warm Version), Digital Art

Breaking Free, © 2015 Sheryl Karas

This multiple exposure photograph of a High Desert Yucca plant became surreal and mostly abstract in effect. Yet it expresses an aspect of this plant I liked very much. The spirit of the yucca is pretty profound. When I first saw this plant it was yellow and dried out, almost dead. But buried in the heart of the plant is the promise of new life. It waits and waits for the summer rains and then sends a mighty shoot out from its center which becomes a surprisingly large flower stalk. But what attracted me was the juxtaposition of tough sharp spikey leaves with the silky filaments that cling to the center. Metaphysically, this plant represents the power to hold fast to your life purpose in the most adverse conditions until the time is right and you cut through to break free into a new life.

Prints, framed and unframed, and prints on canvas, metal or other items are available.

Graffiti Grass on Adobe Wall, Digital Art

Graffiti Grass on Adobe Wall, © 2015 Sheryl Karas

Another in my Desert Grass series, this piece explores the impressions made by little patches of bunch grass in a desert landscape that was mostly bare. The wind would whip that grass around in wild gyrations. Everything gets worn down by the wind, even adobe. Life in the desert can be harsh but the grass persists at least in this bunch grass form. 

I've been exploring the use of photography for abstract expressionism and in particular keep returning to the very few plants I was attracted to in the desert as a starting place. I call the pieces in this series "Graffiti Grass" because I've layered either the shadow or light of more than one image of grass over a crumbling adobe wall. It's like street art using the natural effects of sun, shadow and wind instead of paint.

Framed and unframed prints and prints on canvas, metal or other items are available.

The Persistence of Desert Grass, Digital Abstract Art

The Persistence of Desert Grass, © 2015, Sheryl Karas

When I lived in the desert, the ground was bare and the grass grew in small clumps and was mostly dried out or dead. We longed for water and for green. Today, the Arizona high desert is a memory and, despite the drought in this region, there still exists the expanses of green I longed for. In this piece I juxtaposed one environment over another as the tests of one place overlap the present. Time and place influence us all, but somehow the grass persists and carries on.

Prints of this piece, framed or unframed or on canvas or metal, are available.