Moment vs. Times

As a plein air painter, I always like to paint outdoor to catch the changing lighting and the feeling of the  surrounding. It may take hours or sometimes even days to finish a painting. Lighting and the colors change during these times, so I have to have a visualization even I before lay my first color  on canvas. The colors and lighting may have been change, but the concept remain.

When I take photos, I treat it as a painting and take times to compose, to study the colors changing over times. I want my photos are not just reflection of the moment,  they represents times, space and feeling as well.  I usually take twenty to thirty photos every five or ten minutes on each set, then stack them in photoshop. I use adding  and subtracting method to build the photo. I  may use only small part of the each photo for the composition to my need. When the final image appears marching my concept and visualization, I begin to make adjustment as whole, like color temperature, tone, saturation and texture, etc. The pictures present here some samples of my thought and process.

My landscape paintings are the version of my edited reality severely. I know that  canvas is small compared with nature’s. When my painting’s idea or concept becomes clear it is easier to for me to decide what elements to include and which colors and painting technique support the concept and which do not. It is same principle apples to my photograph. I like those photos reserve not just a golden moment of time but the trace of the times.

 I paint what I cannot photograph, and I photograph what I do not wish to paint.