Dewdrops and a photo competition.

As those of you who follow my facebook page probably already know, I have entered a photo competition.

Checking out the Dewy Drumstick primula

These photos here are part of a series of photos of 19 photos, all in this theme I entered into the competition, which is all about self portraits. You can see the rest of the series here http://sunny.see.me/aw2011 Please rate the portfolio by clicking on the stars giving it a rating of 1-5 :)

Admiring the Water feature Drop

I particularly love the concept of having an image within an image. In the past two months I have been experimenting and discovering my new found passion for photography, as I just bought myself my first DSLR camera. Wandering around in some of my favourite places in the world (some lush green gardens) I have been snapping shots of all the lush spring colour that has just sprung into life.

One of the nicest times to be out in the garden is in the morning when the sun is shining and the dew makes all the plants glisten. One such morning when I returned home after experimenting with some photos of dew drops on plants, I turned to the Internet to find somewhere to share some of my days treasures. While searching I came across this competition, and I thought 'wouldn't it be fantastic to put myself into these photos that I love so much'.
Taking inspiration from works by some of my favourite artists like Escher and Jan van Eyck, I set out to create a self portrait of an image (me) within an image (the dew drops on the garden plants). I love the concept of capturing myself in the scene of something I do on a regular basis but in a way that I envisage Escher or Van Eyck would do it. In my case it is me going on one of my garden walks, feasting on the sight of the glistening plants in the dew, and becoming captivated by all the wonders in the garden.

Don't forget to check out the rest of the series here http://sunny.see.me/aw2011 and rate the portfolio.

Checking out the budding flowers in the dew

Oh and while I'm on the topics of self promotion and my new found passion for photography, for anyone who is interested, you can follow my creative photography adventure on my new blog http://mynikond90adventure.blogspot.com/.

Thanking ye all in advance, Sunny

Kiki & Coco in Paris

I stumbled across this gorgeous little piece of fun on photographer Stephanie Rausser's website over the weekend. If you haven't already seen it click HERE now to see the most gorgeous slideshow ever!

Art inspired landscape art. Sculptures by J. Seward Johnson

Between work, the fantastic summer were having so far and of course the world cup, I have had very little time for blogging in resent weeks. So this again will be a quick little post of something that caught my interest recently.

When flicking through a book recently I came across this first picture, and for a split second I thought that there was something a bit funny about this famous painting by Edouard Manet. I quickly realised that this was of course not Manet’s ‘Déjeuner sur l’herbe’ but in fact a sculpture by American artist J. Seward Johnson.

‘Dejeuner Déjà vu’ by J. Seward Johnson

‘Déjeuner sur l’herbe’ (1863) by Édouard Manet.

To be quite honest, my history of art is not quite as good as it should be as much of my time in art college was spent drinking large quantities of alcohol, and perusing women, however one era of art that did really stand out to me was the impressionist era, and it is quite obvious that this era has also had an effect on Seward Johnson, as much of his works are inspired by many impressionist artists.

Here are more examples of a large series of works he made titled ‘Beyond the frame’, most of which are recreations of some of the most famous paintings from the impressionist era. Most of these works can be found in the sculpture park founded by J. Seward Johnson in 1992 ‘Grounds for Sculpture’. This 35-acre public sculpture park is located in Hamilton, New Jersey.

‘On Poppied Hill’ by J. Seward Johnson

‘Woman with a Parasol, Madame Monet with her Son’ (1875) by Claude Monet.

‘Were you invited?’ by J. Seward Johnson

‘Le déjeuner des canotiers’ (1881) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

‘If it were time’ by J. Seward Johnson

‘Terrasse à Sainte-Adresse’ (1867) by Claude Monet

‘Sailing the seine’ by J. Seward Johnson

‘Argenteuil’ (1874) by Édouard Manet.

‘God Bless America’ by J. Seward Johnson

‘American Gothic’ (1930) by Grant Wood.

Garden Piano

A few weeks ago when down visiting my parents at our family home, down in West Cork, I went for a wander in the gardens (you may remember these gardens from my previous post ‘'garden labyrinth’). During my wander I stopped off to have a look to see how the garden piano was doing.

By now it has all but disintegrated, but it still holds a magical charm about it, in fact it was all part of the plan! Perhaps I should explain.

Besides being a passionate gardener, my dad is also a passionate piano player, so a few years back we got him a new piano for his birthday. So the old piano spent a wile in the shed before he had the great idea to put it out in the garden. I can almost see one of Bruno Torfs sculptures sitting there playing it when no one is around (The first picture is my photoshopped impression of this)  

Tucked away in a inconspicuous corner, the piano creates a entire atmosphere of its own. Slowly over time it began housing plants and wildlife alike, becoming part of the landscape. Although it quickly lost its ability to play any notes, my dad was hoping to wake up one morning to a loud clang, when the piano would finally fall apart, making its final encore.

Unfortunately it never did produce the theatrical clang he was hoping for, it did on day just fall apart, creating a new and in some way far more enchanting garden feature.

Unfortunately as I was not there when the piano was moved, I don’t have any photos of this. The first few photos were taken in 2008 by a guest staying at my parents farm, and the rest were taken a few weeks ago on my resent visit.

Encore from the musical tree, to celebrate arbor day!

Happy Arbor Day USA, Ok I know it’s a bit late, but ye should really make it a week like we have here in Ireland, that way I won’t miss it.

So another short and quirky post today as I have to go to work shortly. This post is for those of you who are (were) celebrating Arbour day.

This video is of a piece of music by Diego Stocco, a sound designer & composer, who creates eclectic musical experiences with custom built instruments and experimental recording techniques.

For this video, Diego said

In the garden of my house there's a tree with lots of randomly grown twigs. It looks odd and nice at the same time. One day I asked myself if I could create a piece of music with it.

Well here is your answer.

Personally I feel a bit sorry for the tree, but it is entertaining and worth a watch.



See more of Diego's crazy videos on his website www.diegostocco.com/