Ethereal at Dawn in the style of Charles Conder

Ethereal. Let me be completely honest!  It it is not exactly what I was aiming for this morning as I took the photographs. It began as I was  …………

 

Rereading my book Orientalism: Delacroix to Klee.  

The book  opened to Charles Conder’s  Moonlight at Mustafa 1892 oil painting in which I felt the magic and mystery reach out through the pages. A lovely dreamy quality to that moonlit painting that I wanted to convey myself, just in a different  context.

 

At dawn, the light struck our christmas cactus basket of blooms just perfectly.   It was cold.

I had the Canon EOS 600d and Canon macro 100mm f2.8L  ready to go out the door, into the bracing frigid air, in my robe and slippers. Did you forget? It was Dawn!!

 

I just took 16 shots, it was cold.    From the 16, I tossed out half and kept the rest.

 

Ethereal.  It suits the subject perfectly.    a delicate  other worldly quality exists in this photo that I find really delightful.

 

Let me be honest, it is not  the Exact Thing I was aiming for when I set out to take the shots this morning, but …..  I think it is …. better.

I like that it ‘appears’  on first glance to be delicate and fragile; yet upon closer inspection,  I find it has substantial body,   content,  context and  substance.  

 

Its more than a pretty pink picture.

Its more that an empty doll.

Beyond the ethereal fragility we initially  see,  is a design with good structured tones, nuances, edges,  a clear background middle ground, foreground.  There’s some creativity thrown is as well.

This is a stand alone image. But, if I chose, it could very easily be a great candidate for oils, pastels or watercolours due to its dreamy soft edges.

 

I enjoy this style of being Inspired By an Artist!   To observe their work, to get a sense of the moods and feelings that come through. And then, to see how one can try to also evoke a similar mood in a –  different –  context.  A different subject. Or different medium.  Or both.

 

Ethereal:    (a Side note for New Zealanders!)   Ethereal is a well known New Zealand thoroughbred mare who won the 2001 Melbourne Cup, and she too, just like Black Caviar,  has Northern Dancer in her pedigree. Thus, making the two mares related – in a distant cousin kind of way!