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.

Green Sage, Wild Grass Abstract Pastel Landscape

"Green Sage, Wild Grass", © 2017 Sheryl Karas

This was a study I did for a larger piece now hanging in the lobby of the Chico Breast Care Center. I was experimenting with techniques for creating a pastel painting that did not need to be framed under glass and this was the first one that succeeded. I tried out lots of types of marks and types of pastel in this piece, never meaning to present it for sale. Years later, I look at this and love the freedom and spontaneity in it, thinking it really does stand on its own. So I finished it and will eventually frame it (not under glass). In the meantime, prints and prints on canvas are available on Fine Arts America.

Okay, this is finished now. It's 12" x 12" on cradled panel. Then I mounted it on a second 16" x 16" cradled panel painted black. It's ready to hang without framing (although I suppose you could add a frame if want to, but no point in adding glass).

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.

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.

Macro Grass Shadows 4, Macro Abstract Photography

Macro Grass Shadows 4, © 2015 Sheryl Karas

Another from the same photo shoot: wild grass blowing in the wind, shot with a macro lens without a tripod, color shifted in Photoshop to emphasize the abstract effect.

Framed and unframed prints and prints on canvas, metal or other items are available through Fine Art America.

Macro Grass Shadows 3, Macro Abstract Photography

Macro Grass Shadows 3, © 2015 Sheryl Karas

From the same photo shoot as my previous post. Again, this is dead wild desert grass, shot with a macro lens without a tripod on a windy day. The color, of course, was tweaked to emphasize the abstract nature of the photo that appealed to me.

Framed and unframed prints and prints on canvas, metal and other items are available on Fine Art America.

Macro Grass Shadows, Macro Digital Art Photography

Macro Grass Shadows, © 2015 Sheryl Karas

Living in the Arizona high desert stretched me as an artist in many ways. There wasn't much there, at first, that I thought could hold my attention. But then, because there wasn't a lot of vegetation, what vegetation there was became extremely interesting. I brought my macro lens out one windy day without a tripod and did a whole photo shoot just of the grass whipping around in the wind.

This is a single exposure, just as it came from the camera, with the colors shifted in Photoshop to emphasize the abstract nature of what I saw in it.

Framed and unframed prints and prints on canvas or metal as well as other products are available on Fine Art America.

Tangled, Multiple Exposure Abstract Photography

Tangled, © 2015 Sheryl Karas

In the high desert of Arizona where I used to live, the dead wild grass would often be blown horizontal by fierce 50 mph winds. I took a series of photographs one day and combined them in Photoshop to create this abstract "multiple exposure" photograph.

It is available as a framed or unframed print or print on canvas or metal on Fine Art America.

Orange Dreamscape, Abstract Digital Art

Orange Dreamscape, © 2015 Sheryl Karas

We lived for a time in the Arizona high desert, a place that was almost unbearably hot in the summer and surprisingly windy. 50 mph winds were not unheard of. So that's the inspiration behind this entirely digitally created abstract. Wind, sun and a little sagebrush. And years ago. It seems like a dream to me now. An orange moving dreamscape. But that's MY story! What do you see?

Framed and unframed prints and print on canvas -- or metal! -- and other items are available through Fine Art America (Pixels.com).

You've Got the Power! (Yucca Series), Digital Art Photography

You've Got the Power! (Yucca Series, Power Yucca), © 2015 Sheryl Karas

From one day of photographing a dried out High Desert Yucca came MANY pieces of art! This one shows the powerful shoot that rises straight out of the center of the Yucca when the rains finally come and the plant resurrects. The Yucca symbolizes the ability to hold on to your life purpose even in the most challenging circumstances.

There is no original for this piece as it was done digitally. Framed and unframed prints and prints on canvas or metal or other products are available.

Yucca Abstract in Green, Digital Art Photography

High Desert Yucca Abstract, © 2014 Sheryl Karas

When Paul and I lived in the high desert of Arizona, yucca plants were a rare sight. So when we saw a dried out yellowed one by the side of the road it grabbed my attention. Given the sorry state the plant was in at the time it made no sense that I took dozens of photographs of it from different angles. Especially since I didn't know how dramatically the plant would resurrect itself when the rains came in the "monsoon" season. I liked how the silky filaments clinging to the center of the plant contrasted with the spiky, swordlike, quality of the leaves. It became the start of a long series of pieces all done in Photoshop and originating from that single shoot.

Because this is digital art there is no "original" but framed and unframed prints and prints on canvas or metal and other products are available.

Rebirth (Red Sand, Green Sage), Mixed Media, Acrylic and Pastel

Rebirth, © 2012 Sheryl Karas

This is inspired by Sagebrush at sunset in the red sand desert, blowing this way and that in the wind. I call it "Rebirth" for two reasons. One, Sagebrush is the first plant to reclaim the desert after it has been devastated by ranchers ripping out all the Juniper trees to graze cattle. But also, I think that rebirth can often be a chaotic process as you determine (or discover) what from your old life does not apply anymore and which way you might want to go next.

In this piece I was innovating a way to mix drawing with pastel and painting with acrylic and present it without glass. I used multiple layers of spray casein fixative and then several layers of acrylic medium and varnish. It is painted on canvas that was applied to cradled panel painted black.

SOLD!!!   Prints and prints on canvas are available on Fine Art America.

The Promise, Photo-Painting

The Promise, © 2011

This piece was based on a photograph I took of a seemingly dead Yucca plant in the high desert of Arizona. But in the heart of the plant lies a secret: the promise of regeneration. It may not rain for a long time but, when it does, the plant sends a tall tall flower shoot out from its center, and springs back to life.

This is a digitally created piece but I do have an "original" in the sense of having a one of a kind 30" x 30" print on canvas mounted on painted cradled panel, coated with acrylic and signed on the back. You can contact me through the form on the right side of this page if you are interested in that. Other prints and printed products are available through Fine Art America or Pixels.com.

The Dawn Of Creation, Photo-painting

"The Dawn of Creation", © 2015 Sheryl Karas

Sagebrush and wild grass was the inspiration for this photographically created digital painting. Sagebrush is symbolic of the power to recreate oneself. It is the first significantly-sized plant to regrow in environmentally devastated parts of the Arizona high desert ripped up by ranchers hoping to find their cattle easier. They drag chains across the landscape and pull all the Juniper trees out by the roots, destroying animal and bird habitats and leaving the carcasses behind. When the Sagebrush comes back, it creates new homes for small animals who live under the thick branches.

There is no specific "original" or size for this piece as it was created digitally. You can find it as a framed or unframed print or print on canvas or metal on Fine Art America (and Pixels.com).