Western Exposure

"Helleborus not" is digitally manipulated flower photography created from a photo of yellow tulips in my garden combined with a grungy canvas-like background texture. The resultant red, purple and pink colors are reminiscent of those found in Helleborus species. Canon A350.

For the love of colors: Primary colors, secondary colors and tertiary colors in muted tones are arranged in whorled color wheel on a light gray watercolor paper background. This looks cool on a T-shirt, especially with darker or lighter color shirts letting the colors appear quite differently. Light or dark grays or dark blue are best.

I swear this is not a collage, apart from the background I added in. I used to breed Jubilee Orpington chickens for some years. They are a speckled old English breed developed in the late 19th century named after the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. They are quite rare and I often took photos when I was selling birds or hatching eggs, and one day I almost accidentally snapped a photo of the rooster and this one hen looking at each other. I might be anthropomorphizing but it does look like they are gazing each other lovingly, does it not? This would make a perfect gift or card for chicken breeders.

My mum loved fuchsias. She tenderly grew them as pot plants on our patio and overwintered them in the frost-free basement. She was stunned when she first came to Ireland in summer and saw miles of large fuchsia shrubs lining roadsides in the western regions where winters are mild enough for them to survive. Their delightful deep red and purple flowers contrast with the many shades of green the Irish countryside has to offer. Inspired by Mark Rothko's paintings, here I offer a radical color field abstraction of such scenes: Framed in dark green, five horizontal color bands stand for an overcast sky and fields in different shades of green with a thin color accent band in the red and purple of Fuchsia magellanica.

"Landscape of my imagination" is a digital abstract in earthy colors, very vaguely hinting at a hilly landscape scene. It ranges from warm browns and ocher at the bottom to cool greens and sky-like blues towards the top, composed in overlapping and angled brushstrokes and textural splatter elements.

"Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot Among others, red, green, hard as a knot. You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for Picking. Then red ones inked up and that hunger Sent us out with milk cans, pea tins, jam-pots Where briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots. [...]" (Seamus Heaney) This digitally rendered work is based on a photo I shot during last year's harvest. This years' is about to start. Tarts, jam and juice comin' right up! (Canon EOS 60D DSLR, edits and watercolor rendering in Photoshop CS6)

Dandelion, from French dent-de-lion, meaning "lion's tooth". Now you know why ... ;) Created from two photographs - one my own of dandelion in my garden, the other a distressed background (an originally gray and pink wall by Pawel Czwerwinski (on Unsplash) used under CC0 licence, with thanks). Dandelion shot with a Canon EOS 60D DSLR, layers and other edits in Corel PSPX.

Digital manipulation of a photo taken on a neighbouring farm of parts of a cattle crush with a concrete wall and a section of a metal gate, with the shadow of the gate resembling a hashtag. Canon EOS 60D DSLR, Corel PSPX

“She turned to the sunlight And shook her yellow head, And whispered to her neighbor: "Winter is dead.” ― A.A. Milne, When We Were Very Young Floral abstract created from a close-up photo of one of my tulips and a wall texture, expressive of shorter nights, longer days, and the exuberant explosion of colors in spring.

"Sundown" is a distressed mixed media abstract in blue, orange, very dark tones of aubergine, purple and green and some magenta highlights. It made me think of the poem "Sundown" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The summer sun is sinking low; Only the tree-tops redden and glow: Only the weathercock on the spire Of the neighboring church is a flame of fire; All is in shadow below. O beautiful, awful summer day, What hast thou given, what taken away? Life and death, and love and hate, Homes made happy or desolate, Hearts made sad or gay! ...

Something is making a big splash in the water in this dynamic blue and white abstract. What it is is up to your own imagination.

Yup, badly needed. Peace symbol on a red,green and black distressed canvas-like background, one of a series using different colors.

Photograph of a single dormant tree blended with a background texture in Corel PSP X, resulting in a painted effect. Original photograph of oak tree in snow by Bachy at pixabay, used under CC0 licence, with thanks. Layer work in Corel PSP X.

The Great Escape - Algarve, Portugal - Sailing boat in inclement weather at Meia Praia Beach in Odiaxere, Algarve, Portugal.

A friend's cute donkey happily grazing in a springtime meadow on his farm on a sunny morning in the Algarve, Portugal. Canon 60D DSLR

The forgotten stairway - photograph of a beautifully constructed clearly underused, weed-covered old masonry stone stairway at the Barragem de Bravura dam in the Algarve, Portugal. Canon EOS 60D DSLR

Living dangerously - Cliff fishing at Cabo de São Vicente, Algarve, near Sagres in Portugal, the most southwesterly point of the European mainland. It is breathtaking, if not horrifying, to see these fishermen at work and, according to a documentary I watched recently, accidents do happen and fishermen do die here. There is a cool short drone video here (not mine):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Pozk0kAGcg Canon EOS 60D DSLR

Remnants of a harvest past - Parched olives lying on the bare soil, left over from last year's harvest in the Algarve, Portugal. Photographed in April 2018. Canon EOS 60D DSLR

Lightness of Being - Meadow Flowers Summer has officially begun and the sides of the track to my house are covered in wildflowers. I don't have lawns and mow these verges once or let my goats graze them down in late summer once most flowers have set seed. For now they are the domain of bees and butterflies and a host of other insects and give me immense enjoyment as well. Foreground: Stellaria. Background: Vetches and buttercup. Canon EOS 60D DSLR Co. Clare, Ireland June 2, 2018

Sunlight weaving through fern fronds. June 4, 2018 I found this little beauty this morning in an area where I had coppiced some dogwood last winter, its delicate fronds flooded with morning sunshine, producing beautiful dappled light. Co. Clare, Ireland Canon EOS 60D DSLR

Cinnamon night - A digital texture abstract created from stone surface photographs - one my own and one a sandstone texture by 'WildTextures'. Canon EOS 60D DSLR, Layer work in Corel SPS X.

Into the Light - Digital abstract created from cloud photography. Canon EOS 60D DSLR, Corel PSP X

“Fog burning” | A digital abstract created from photographs taken at my home – a rusty surface, a wild cloud formation, and wildflowers on the roadside. Canon EOS 60D DSLR. Layer blending and other manipulation in Corel PSP X.

Elderflower blossom time is upon us. These are just about to burst open. These are two blended photographs taken from underneath the tree in my backyard into the bright summer sunlight which creates a bit of a bokeh effect. Canon 60D DSLR, Corel PSPX

These two cute little chicks were hatched out by one of my hens and are shown here on their first outing in the yard. (Canon EOS 60D DSLR, watercolor rendering in Photoshop CS6)

Molly, one of my goats as a kid last year. Canon EOS 60D DSLR

This goat portrait in black and white is of one of my dairy goats, Bee, against a distressed background edited in. She was standing on a high stonewall, allowing me this shot of her sweet face from below.

Window and facade of abandoned house in the Algarve Portugal. I came across this abandoned house in Vale da Lama just west of Silves in the Algarve, near the confluence of the Arade and Odelouca rivers. I love those warm colors. It's so sad to see houses like that abandoned in such beautiful areas. Shot with a Canon EOS 60D DSLR.

In Chinese philosophy, yin and yang (also yin–yang or yin yang, yinyáng "dark–bright") describe how seemingly opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world. I 'pulled' the original less saturated gradient colors from a photo of a rainbow. In this earthy, textured depiction of the yin and yang symbol they represent earth (brown), water / air (blue) and biological life (green) and their intertwined state. Created in Corel PSP X.

Johann the goat was a famous character of Cushendun in Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland. He was a feature of the harbor area for many years. A sculpture by artist Deborah Brown was erected in his memory. The image of created from a blend of a photo I took of the statue some years ago and a concrete surface background texture. Canon A560 / Corel PSP X

For the mushroom enthusiast: Wild Enokitake (Flammulina velutipes) mushrooms growing on a tree stump on my land in Ireland. In Japan this mushroom is cultivated under exclusion of light as a culinary mushroom. It is also considered to have medicinal properties. Canon A560.

Horned cattle - A rare sight these days: We spotted a whole herd in the Espinhaço de Cão mountains (Serra de Espinhaço de Cão) including this beautiful cow and her calf in the Algarve, Portugal in April 2018. The cows all had bells too! Since the land was unfenced and graded into forests I guess the bells are needed for herding. Canon EOS 60D DSLR

Many years ago a friend gave me some cute little ceramic chickens for Easter and every year I use them in my Easter flower bouquet with hazel or birch branches, daffodils and whatever else might be in flower at Easter on my little farm. I think this one would make for a sweet 'Happy Easter' card. Canon EOS 60D DSLR

Dawn II is an amalgam of a sky photo, watercolor and paper textures, and a canvas-like texture in dark blue, blue-green and vivid orange, resembling a foggy sunrise. (Photo shot with Canon EOS 60D DSLR, all other edits in Corel PSP X)

Taken in the early morning of January 10, 2020 at the back of my place in the west of Ireland, these orange-brown and slate-gray cloud banks look something like an abstract painting depicting the boundary between night and day, juxtaposing a first hint of the rising sun in the bottom left with the disappearing night-time black in the top right of the image. (Canon EOS 60D DSLR)

The door to the magazine at Fortaleza de Sagres in the Algarve, Portugal. The promontory fort was built in the 15th century by Prince Henry the Navigator. The restored magazine is one of several buildings inside the large fortress. Photograph taken in April 2018; Canon EOS 60D DSLR