Copyright: All artwork/content protected under ©2007-2011 Lynne Ciacco

All content herein copyright © Lynne Ciacco


Friday, December 20, 2013

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...

I haven't gone into hibernation but I have journeyed west to Vancouver to spend Christmas with family and friends, away from the snow (or so I thought).  Lotus Land got blanketed with the wet white stuff today.  But rather than chill me, it fueled my creative fire.




This Christmas card-like composition is what resulted from a few happy hours spent tinkering in Photoshop with a scene photographed from my mother's balcony this morning. The birds are actually "brushes" from Amanda Rockwell (I have signed up for her Designer's Brush Workshop). If I was sending cards this Christmas, I would likely print this on watercolour card paper, giving it a textured, hand-painted look.




This is a simpler version, showing how I had started to play with the colours.




This is the original photo.

I didn't really think I'd be inspired by images of snow
 when I came out west!

14 comments:

  1. Festive and seasonal!
    Loved it!

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    1. Thank you so much for visiting here, Elizabeth. I'm happy you enjoyed the trip.

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  2. lovely. i guess the snow likes you, it follows you everywhere. thanks for your thoughtful comment on my blog post about my friend's book. i have been away from blogging for awhile, sigh. anyway, best to you on this holiday season. be well, suki

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    1. My mother tells me I was born on a day of a rare blizzard in Vancouver so I suspect that has something to do with this "curse" of being haunted by recurring snow storms. Rather like receiving a gift from the Bad Fairy at one's christening.
      Wishing you only the happiest of blessings in this holiday season,and for the New Year!

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  3. Fabulous Lynne don't you just love what winter does to foliage...your rainbow effect is lovely and the birds warm it up and draw you in...beautiful work.
    I'm so glad to see you back I stopped by the other day and all your pictures were blanked out with X's I didn't know what to think.
    Wishing you a very Happy Holiday Season and a wonderful and artful New Year.

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    1. It is certainly good to have the visual pleasure of what winter does to foliage as compensation for the inconvenience that it causes in almost every other aspect of its chilling presence. That white canvas it provides is irresistible! I'm glad you like my tampering.
      I, too, was horrified to find my pictures X-ed out the other day! Both my blogs were affected and I had to work long and hard to get everything back. I had tried to limit things on my Google account(s) when I found page after page there of every image I'd ever posted or thought about posting. I locked them all down then discovered my blogs no longer worked! So I had to get it all back posted publicly. Ugh!
      I wish you a merry and cozy Christmas and a colourful whirlwind of creative impulses for the New Year!

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  4. Come back with your talents. We could use a creative magician to add a little colur to our totally white landscape.

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    1. Try Kool-Aid! Either randomly toss packets of the granules onto the white surface or mix up a batch of the Electric variety and ingest.
      ;-)

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  5. these turned out great, lynne! makes me want to grab some of my older winter shots to play with them... can you imagine we had almost no snow so far this winter... we normally get buried under heaps of it.
    i wish you and your beloved ones peaceful days and a healthy new year!!

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    1. This is turning out to be one crazy winter in most parts of the world, I think! Normal weather patterns are being turned upside down. But snowy images do make good digital playgrounds, which I must prefer to playing in the real white stuff.
      My warmest wishes to you and your loved ones for a jolly holiday season and inspired New Year!

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  6. Love seeing the changes in this one beautiful scene ... I actually like all three and can't imagine choosing any one over the other... this could become a boxed set!

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  7. Oh, what a great idea--a boxed set! One of these years, I really will get myself into "production"!
    :-D

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