Near Big South Fork SWF + CTST Vol. 5

Hello, Kittens and Dawgs! This is the 3rd week that I’ve shared Skywatch Friday/Celebrate The Small Things on Thursday.  How is it working for ya? Do you like that I broke up my regular Friday posting to making it more digestible?

I haven’t taken many photos since December with the holidays winding down, the cold weather, and DH’s work schedule.  This isn’t a bad thing. It forces me to look through my archived photos of those not-so-purrfect pictures to run them through a bit photo-editing to share.

In today’s Skywatch Friday I’m pulling out a few images from a day trip to the Big South Fork area of Tennessee from 2011.  These are off the beaten path and honestly, I can’t recall more precisely where we were when I snapped these shots with my Canon SD880 point n’ shoot camera. This is what I had before getting a big girl camera (Nikon D7000).

Looking back, I remember it being a rainy, cool April day.  Given that it’s winter I felt this photo needs a B&W touch to trigger a bit of chill down your spine.

We wandered up a gravel road where it came to an end.  This pond looked inviting but the sprinkles kept me inside the car.  The sky was rather bland, so in the Affinity photo editing program, I used the haze remover to make the sky more dramatic.

Later, I decided the little pond needed some friends (I’m sounding a bit like the painter, Ross, now aren’t I?).  I borrowed some free brushes Brusheezy and placed a family to the right of the picture and a woman with a child (silhouette needed to be a bit darker) in the left center of the pond.

When we got close to the main road again we noticed a hawk flying over a field and it landed on a tree limb.  It was really hard to distinguish it from its surrounding, so I used the depth of field feature in Affinity to make the hawk more prominent for the viewer.

Can you see him?  On Wednesday I shared more shots from this day taken of a WWII hero’s home if you’re interested in taking that tour.

Today, I’m celebrating like I do every day, I Celebrate The Small Things in life.

I’m celebrating… the feeling I get with art. I don’t consider myself an artist but I love creating and dabbling with simple sketches and using my Prismacolor pencils is totally uplifting for the mood. I doodled four designs to use for this Valentine’s Day greetings I will share with my children and DH.  I plan to create a special pre-Valentine post with ideas and will include my drawings. 🙂 Also, I’m celebrating getting my exercise time on the elliptical to an hour each day and maxed the resistance for an intense workout. It’s good to be active again!

What are you celebrating?

Please joining CTST’s host Lexa and others to see what they are celebrating this week!

 

 

I will wind things down today with a new meme I thought I’d try hosted by Wandering through the Shelves. The rules are simple. I am to share 3 to 5 movie picks based on a weekly theme and tell ya why.  The category is “Movies About Artists (Painters)”.

I thought it interesting the movie prompt today is about artists and my CTST segment I celebrate my wannabe artist side. 🙂  In all honesty, these sorts of movies wouldn’t be my first pick but I certainly am not opposed to watching them especially if the mood hits me just right. The below list of flicks I haven’t seen but work purrfect for today’s theme choice.

 

 

The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965) Charlton Heston portrays the biography of Michael D’Angelo’s facing his doubts and struggles painting the Sistine Chapel upon the behest of Pope Julius II.

 


A friend recommended this film after I shared A Picture of a Painting last year and if it should ever make its way to Netflix or Amazon Prime then I will watch it. I love old movies!

Frida is the Mexican self-portraitist who survived a near-fatal bus crash when she was 18.  The story revolves around her injuries, art success, and volatile marriage with artist Diego Rivera. Frida is currently available on Netflix, so I watched it mainly because of this prompt. It was interesting to see how this woman lived. She was a bit progressive for a woman of that era. Wikipedia describes her as a feminist and the movie eludes to this fact.  Her dreams gave birth to her folk art style paintings which tell of her life’s struggles and it’s a bit too abstract for my taste. I prefer realistic art. I enjoyed the movie but I doubt if I will watch it again.

 

 

Big Eyes is a drama based on the 1950s success of paintings by Margaret Keane, whose husband claimed credit and the legal battle to remove her husband as the creator and to gain recognition for her work.

 

 

The story where the underdog rises to the top in the end, is my kind of flick, especially one that’s been mistreated or misrepresented as Keane.  This along makes it a good reason to see and when it shows up on Netflix then I’m gonna catch it.

Have you seen these movie picks?  Can you think of or have you seen any movies about artists?

Tomorrow, I invite you to join me for some social media fun and your weekly dose of laughter with Friday Sillies.

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error: Please contact me for permission to download. Thank-you!!