— Not what you see, but what you sense behind it all. What’s REALLY there.
It’s part of the magic in photo artistry, I think, to give us that glimpse beneath or beyond. A photographer can only capture the reality of a scene. It’s the photo-artist who can then bring you the reality behind the reality.
AWAKE artist Mary Young created the image featured in this post. It’s not just a photo of what she found that summer morning awaiting her in the UNCA Botanical Gardens. It’s more than that. It’s really more about what it felt like being there … it’s really more about the sense of magic the gardens awoke in her.
How many hundreds of others visited the gardens that day, and came away with nothing much to show of it?
Whereas, in a way, you might say that Mary escaped those gardens that morning with a bit of faerie treasure in tow — an enchantment of woodland sunlight, tucked away in a handful of photos she captured and made off with in the breathlessness of her escape.
The first image was of the tree in the background. She felt there was something curious in it. But it took a touch from Topaz Impression to coax the wizardry from the photograph. Duplicating it four times, and warping each, she was then able to employ layer masks to conjure forth a forest from the lone tree, revealing the woodland setting as she felt it around her that day …
The second image was of the tree stump. Not just any old tree stump either. There was something very special at work here as well, which she once more lured out with Topaz Impression, touching it off with gentle painterly strokes, giving special care to the sunlight at play.
The third image was of the path, and the fourth of the flower … Again, a touch of Topaz, some transforming and warping, and the magic was released.
As if a faerie maiden herself now, to the scene she then added a few more plants, and the butterflies after that, and a sparkle brush gave the morning woods their subtle flash and glimmer.
And finally, by way of polish, she executed a round of post production, a study in blend modes: several Curves layers, a black and white layer at Soft Light and low opacity, a gold layer draped over the scene to bring out the warmth of that morning, also in Soft Light . . .
And she had it.
That morning in the gardens was now captured and crystallized. Not as it was for others wandering there that day, distracted, chattering, checking their text messages. No. But rather captured as it was discovered that morning by the artist Mary Young — who stood quiet, listening, and breathed it all in, the rich enchanted reality of that morning.
The miracle of forest and sunlight, rendered as art.
Showing us the strength and beauty of pure stillness.
– Sebastian