The beloved.
Night, when word's fade.
And things come alive. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery.
One of my loves in imagery is transparency: And working with ice has given me the chance to explore this. ~Ally.
Another visual feature of my ice pieces is the way the light caresses their slightly uneven surface. The reflections of jewelled light: Such a challenge to capture.
Lighting.
Lighting plays a very important role when photographing these ice pieces with the view to highlighting their transparency and exquisite reflections.
Some of the masters of 'frozen flower art' use light boxes to obtain the back lighting needed for their imagery. Still in the dark ages ~ I love natural lighting. In my next Ten Days of Reflection I'll describe my studio lighting.
Ten Days of Reflection Challenge.
The rules of this challenge are simple and can be found HERE.
Thank's so much @ilovedietcoke for creating this inspiring #tendaysofreflection challenge where the beauty of reflections: Whether they be in nature or the 'material world' can be highlighted for all to enjoy.
I'd like to nominate Olga @olga.maslievich or anyone else with an eye for the wonder of reflections to join the Ten Days of Reflection Challenge.
Ten Days of Reflection.
Ten Days of Reflection: Challenge Day 1.
Ten Days of Reflection: Challenge Day 2. Bass Point Marine Reserve.
Ten Days of Reflection: Challenge Day 3. Tidal pools at Shellharbour.
Art and Photography: ©Alison Lee Cousland.
Camera: Sony Alpha A7 Mark II.
Processing: Lightroom.
My favorite ice photos :))) Love the magic you create every time @allyinspirit!
Thanks ever so much Dunja. Ice really is a magical medium to work with. But I'm longing to start painting and drawing once again. Your watercolour inspires me so much. Been 'playing' with pastels lately, which has been fun too.
My previous articles of flowers in ice have become lost in the stream of resteems and so at the moment I'm preparing an article that will bring them all together. Will let you know when I post it. 🦋
Did you set this up specially for the challenge? It's lovely. I had no idea there was such a thing as 'frozen flower art'. I'm going to have to look into that although if it's dependent on whether I won't get very far.
Ice is an incredibly intriguing media to experiment with Gillian. Requires time and patience, but well worth it. This image was actually one of my 'failures' ~ And so I played with crushing the ice and making that part of the feature.
The master of the art of 'frozen flowers' is Mo Devlin.
Japanese artist Kenji Shibata has also created stunning imagery with 'frozen flowers.'
In her article How to do Photography of Frozen Flowers Megan Kennedy illustrates how she creates and photographs her 'frozen flowers.'
Megan's method is much the same that Mo employs. My methods are different again to both, as I work in reverse.
Mo uses a light box to photograph his work whereas Megan describes how she uses the natural light from her apartment window. My methods for using backlighting have been similar to Megan's (which can be quite tricky as you can imagine.
I came to experiment with ice more than 5 years ago when I wanted to verify that there was an energy field around some tiles I was making from orgonite. You can do a search for orgonite and there are LOTS of commercial applications of it now. For instance: orgonite
I was interested in its healing and energetic properties and spent 2 years on making a sculpture using it. Another story I still wish to share here at Steemit at some time.
But the short answer to your question. Most of my work with 'frozen flowers' was done a few years ago, before I had my present camera ~ Unfortunately. It evolved in its unique way because even though the visual effects have always been incredibly stunning, I no longer wished to freeze fresh flowers ~ Just didn't fit with me. Instead I freeze layers of inorganic bits and pieces, stones and lichens etc and place the live flowers/plants more on the surface.
I need to write an entire post on the history of my work with frozen flowers. Sometime ~ Sometime. 🎻
Thanks so much for the information and references. I eagerly await the 2 posts you mention!
The process sounds similar to that where artists trap objects in layers of resin, except that's more permanent obviously!
One of our local artists Jessica Zoob - https://www.jessicazoob.com/ - whose progress I have followed from unknown to "has hit the big time" make a large sculptural resin piece a couple of years ago. She normally paints on canvas.
Her new found success meant she had the funds (£20K i think she said) to play around in a new medium and create something she'd always wanted to have a go at. (Although I'm sure she would describe it much more poetically).
I can see how you could get a bit carried away with freezing stuff in ice. it sounds a bit technical but heaps of fun. Shibata's flowers are absolutely gorgeous.
Something else I'd like to have a got at if only I had the time . . . and camera!
Working on a post now: Compiling images of the frozen flowers I've already shared at Steemit. They have become totally lost amongst all the resteemed articles so I'd like to bring them all together, before I share new ones. 😊
Similar but different again. I'd much prefer to work with ice and photograph the pieces than work with resin these days. Although having said that, after all these years of searching, I've finally seen that water soluble non-toxic resins are actually available.
I did a lot of experimenting with different resins when I made the sculpture I mentioned. Most of the jewelry, paperweights and orgonite you see are made with polyester resins which are highly toxic. They're alright as soon as they harden. The artist is the one exposed to the toxic fumes. Not nice I can tell you and it didn't take long before I knew I couldn't use them. I did find an alternative at the time that was less toxic, although the crystal clear effects were deminished. Fortunately for my purposes, it was still fine.
I looked at Jessica's site and really liked her work. Following her on IG now. Thanks so much for letting me know about her work Gillian. I hope if she continues to work with resin she'll be able to work with non-toxic materials.
It may be sometime before I share the journey I went on in the making of my sculpture. So I'll share this image of it now with you.
4 triangular shaped pillars: 2 meters in height: Spaced to represent 11:11. Transparent so that the pillars became unified with the surrounding environment with the front surfaces made with orgonite: metal filings, copper spirals, crystals, shells, stones, leaf gold, all set in resin.
Wow. That sculpture is sooooooo beautiful. You'd get on like a house on fire with Jessica. I'm sure of it!
Did you actually take the pieces down to the beach?!!!
Water soluable non-toxic resins sound fun!
As far as I know Jessica only did the one, huge, resin piece and continues to paint.
She is a wonderful person and I used to love going to her open houses and chatting with her. Nowadays she is not available in the same way, as she has high paying customers to entertain!
Pictures of her art don't do it justice. To be honest I'm not very knowledgeable or even that interested in art. I just like what I like. But her paintings have been known to bring a tear to my eye when seen in the flesh!
We went to a gallery opening of hers in London once. Just to have the experience. 😊 One of the other artists who was being exhibited was Damian Hirst, his butterfly series.
They didn't do much for me but, strangely, having just checked them out online they look better on the screen than they did in real life!
It is magical - roses in ice, beautiful and clear picture.
Thanks so much Neli.
The roses I used in this piece were exquisite to begin with: Pale pink with deep magenta centres and light olive green edges. Ice adds such a magical touch to anything doesn't it?
The roses are always beautiful, but the ice indeed gives the touch of magic.
Also the choice of colour is also fantastic.
I love your art very much.
Thanks once again Neli. I've always loved white on white drawings/paintings/photography with just a suggestion of colour. Ice gave me the opportunity to explore this as well. 🦋
I love this one. There is lots of poetry in your work !
Thanks so much @aymeric 🦋
Good job! wish you the best
Thank you @tomas95