Trish Neil

Living and working on the Central Coast, NSW.

Category: surrealist

June 29, 2014

Scribbly Gum Image

 

This image was developed in a similar fashion to the previous one. The colours are different; it depends on the time of year the original image was taken. The outer bark is shed at various times throughout the year, but mostly late winter & early spring. The new bark that shows through underneath is bright cream and the scribble insect tracks are a rich red-brown. As the year goes on, the bark colours fade until they are a subtle blue/grey and the tracks are dark grey.

He looks very sad, this one – a grey, downcast creature, feeling rather vulnerable.

 

sad-eyed-man

 

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June 26, 2014

New Scribbly Gum Image

Here is a new way of treating my Scribbly Gum characters. I’m pleased with this; desaturating  the ground and using layer adjustments to enhance the figure brings out what I see in them without losing the context.

 

Frog-Prince

See him? I call him the Frog Prince. He seems a little pensive, for all his funny hat. Perhaps he is not sure whether he preferred being a frog.

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June 14, 2014

A Different Method for the Scribbly Gum Images

Earlier on I found another way to treat the “background” for these little faces I see in the insect tracks that are the scribbly gum ‘scribbles’. In photoshop I can ‘paint bucket’ into the bark texture. Depending on the settings, I can end up with a texture which is a bit like an etching, which I think throws the ‘figure’ into relief against this highly complicated ‘ground’.

Fools-and-Innocents-4 fools-and-innocents-6 fools-and-innocents-7 Fools-and-Innocents-12 Fools-and-Innocents-14fools-and-innocents-5fools-and-innocents-10Fools-and-Innocents-3

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June 1, 2014

New Scribbly Gum images

I have been exploring these for some time – is it really 6 months since I last posted anything? Time flies …..
I have made the ‘background’ (what my mind sees as ‘not the image’) black for some scribble creatures, like these ones.

scribble figure 2

scribble figure 39934

scribble figure 4

Funny sort of creatures, aren’t they? They seem to have such distinct personalities, you could begin to make up lives for each one; real caricatures. Feel free, anyone, to suggest their story!

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June 3, 2013

Recent changes to ” …and all the trees were cast down …”

and all the trees were cast down

I’ve been doing some work on this lately. (An earlier version is on my Page titled Work in Progress under Portfolio.) I think it is improving; the theme is hopefully clearer; the ‘Last Judgment’ on the trees that mankind is meting out by collectively deciding that the natural world is not really as important as the financial world, represented by the city on the heights.

All these trees are basically as they are growing. I have rotated them to emphasize the “falling” aspect of the composition, but their tortured, anguished shapes are all their own. They seem to be falling and whirling down to destruction and despair with more energy than before.

I am gaining ever more respect for the Baroque painters whose work I am referencing. Their composition, their painting of clouds, and figures, it’s all quite awe-inspiring.

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April 22, 2013

Scribble #3

Proposal: that there are evanescent personae/archetypes which appear fleetingly in unexpected places, such as the in the curious markings of certain insects in particular species of tree, or in the twisted forms of tree trunks, or in half-caught glimpses and dream states. If you are careful, observant, introspective, you may, on a good day, catch these characters as they manifest.

fools-and-innocents-10

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April 2, 2013

Easter scribble modified.

I am wondering if other people see what I see in these scribbly bark images. It’s a matter of perception, of figure/ground differentiation; what seems figurative to me is perhaps an abstract and meaningless mess of lines to many others.
Maybe I can make it clearer like this:
This is the image:

fools-and-innocents-11

And this is the image again. I have darkened all the ‘background’ areas, and emphasized the left ‘eye’.

fools-and-innocents-11-in-black

Does that make it clearer? Can you see the connection with Easter? It is a peculiarity of perception that once your brain has ‘seen’ something which makes sense to it in an otherwise random pattern, especially a face, you keep seeing only that face and it looks really obvious to you – but not necessarily to anyone else. I would love some feedback on this.

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February 28, 2013

Enjoying the work of Joan Fontcuberta

 I am fascinated with the work of Joan Fontcuberta. He constantly questions our acceptance of the photograph because of its appearance of reality – yes I know everyone is aware of fakes, of  photoshopped models, etc etc, but we still tend to give  credence to photographic evidence despite that. That is to me the interesting thing about digital  post production work, that you can, as it were, paint with reality (or the appearance of it). Like this lovely creature from his Fauna series …..

Fauna_Fontcuberta
His work is so alive with humour; he says, “I believe in the artist transmitting joy.” Not so much of the suffering artist here!  If you don’t know his work, I recommend the adventure. His more recent work on ‘Landscapes without memory’ is also quite beguiling. These links are just the top of the Google list, but a start.

http://www.eyecurious.com/interview-joan-fontcuberta-landscapes-without-memory/

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February 22, 2013

Scribble # 2

This was one of the first of this style that I did, and is why I chose the name Fools and Innocents – he just looks like an innocent, a fool, or a clown.

Fools-and-Innocents-3

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February 19, 2013

Scribble for today

Scribbly bark  scribbles are the ultimate Rorschach Test of the bush! (For those unfortunates without ready access to the Australian bush, there are tiny insects which burrow under the bark of the Scribbly Gum eucalypts and leave these wonderful patterns. Each year the tree sheds most of its outer bark and reveals a new set of scribbles. Infinite variety!)  With a little help from photoshop to emphasise what I see and produce something which looks rather like an etching, here is the first of a selection of Scribbles.

fools-and-innocents-2

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