Y'all are wonderful!
Monastic Bat!
Thank you for the aerial perspective info. That was exactly what I was wondering about.
Jinny!
You're analysis is primo! and I completely agree about looking for yourself at the things you want to paint. Although looking at someone else's work can give you an idea of how others have solved the problem before.
for example, from casual observation, I don't recall the background behind the Mona Lisa or The Creation of Adam
I could (and now have gone)go back to specifically look at the backgrounds in those images and as Monastic Bat said . . . the background serves to give the subject context. . .
But at least for me, backgrounds were not memorable (until I wondered how those artists had solved the background question. . . then I had to go back and look).
Stecyk66 !
Your images are always so vivid! I love that picture. . .I couldn't help but think of Paradise Lost or the Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tale about the The Garden of Paradise (and yes of course the biblical story itself).
But I don't know if the talk of candy in your thread on favourite things about painter colors my view. . . but the orbs, the swirls. . . .they look delicious like chocolate.
That is just such a rich and Fantastic (not just in the sense of excellent but in the Fanciful and Imaginative sense) image. I love the imagery. . .wonderful!
But you also touched an observation that had only resided in my head 'til you gave it words.
I observed that the way I see things is distinctly different from the way a camera sees things.
I can look at my desk and not see the clutter because my attention is focused on something other than the clutter. But bring in the camera and it sees everything and gives everything equal weight. . . perhaps why people say that the camera doesn't lie.
But for me, an object (which is there all along) only seems to "appear" when I focus on it. It does make me wonder if our brains actually record all the sensory data or only what we were focusing on at the time. From what the hypnotists and others say, all sensory data is recorded whether you focus on it or not. (and of course through hypnosis they can help you to fast forward, rewind, zoom in, zoom out, print an 8x12 glossy [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img] )
So the camera, by itself makes no distinctions. It discerns nothing and puts weight on no part of the image. This has to be where the master photographer comes in and is able to tame the camera and force it to focus.
And in a painting, an artist can use focus by omit ting or adding the things that he or she feels add to the story that he or she wants to tell.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> seems as though we possess a kind of perceptual 'environment filter' that isolates and highlights the specific subject being observed. something to think about. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
yes and we may not be the only ones. . .my father and I once talked about something called frogs eye theory. . .(don't know the source of frogs eye theory) but it went something like this. . .
a frog sitting in the pond waits for flies and reacts when they zoom by. but the frog does not seem to pay attention to other items that might be passing through the air near him (like a falling leaf or seed). He only seems to notice the fly. We might guess from that, that the frog's brain is filtering out the falling leaf and he only sees the fly. (or perhaps he's learned to only expend energy on the fly. . .if he actually notices the falling leaf at all.)
Anyway, I love the concept of the perceptual environment filter also. It was basically another very unformed idea that bounced around in my head when I was trying to formulate this question on backgrounds.
BR
Green air! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]
hmmmm humidity affecting the view. . . since I'm in the houston area that would seem to explain some of what I see here [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]. . . ok so do the people in the desert or the arctic (two extremes where it is plausible to have dry air) get greater clarity for greater distances? (so on a clear day you really can see forever? [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img] )
to all forum contributors
I had to think quite a bit before I came back and posted [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] . This is such a fantastic forum! y'all really bring it to life.
Athena
[img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]
[This message was edited by T. Athena Hatton on March 26, 2001 at 09:29 PM.]
Athena
Our thoughts are bounded by words. The quality of those thoughts is largely determined by the words that compose them.
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