The space between assumed reality and the intangible

I’m a little behind on studio time this week. Was completely slammed with client work. Made up for some of the lost time today. This past week I begrudgingly broke one of my unwritten rules. My frame of reference has been that if I'm trying to "free" the photograph from itself, that the only medium I use should be photo-based... so I've been reluctant to alter the image using any non-photographic ways to turn the image into a "multi-media" piece. But I've changed my mind (for now).

While it [photography] is ultimately an illusion, let's assume that it is attempting to capture a moment in time. A moment of time that we call "reality." And let's also just assume that "reality" is the manifestation of collective thought that can either be something we consider tangible or something unearthly. Then altering the image by whatever means [photographic or non-photographic] is just a further manifestation of either "reality" so it [the altering process] is completely valid in "freeing" the photograph. That statement/thought still needs a lot of work, but here's the artistic application...

The pieces below show my process. I started with an image of ice (first image). I modified the color tonal range and hues in Lightroom and performed some further value adjustments in Photoshop before printing it to canvas (second image). Then I began to play with painting over the image (third image). It took me a while to get the feel of the paintbrush in my hand (it's probably been 7 or 8 years since I've painted) and work out a few set-up issues.

I used to paint in acrylic so I started there. Had some fun, but didn't like how opaque the paint was. I thinned it and started to use it as a wash. More interesting. Then I started using the paint even thinner so that the ink from the photograph would show through. I started getting excited with this effect. So I broke out my gouache paint. Still too opaque and I didn't like how it was handling over the ink. So I broke out my watercolors—and that was it.

Using watercolor allows the photograph to be seen through the paint making it difficult to know where the photo ends and the paint begins. In essence, where the assumed reality ends and the intangible begins.

The third image certainly isn't intended to ever be a finished piece, and really has just proven to be a test area for the different painting techniques. I've reprinted the photograph and intend to work on it solely with watercolor and let it inform me as to what the next step is. Whether I leave it as is, or print another image over it and then paint over that.

I do have to say, that these tests on random images in my database has me itchy to get out into the field and begin shooting with this method in mind. It's important for me to be connected to the base image, and all of the tests I've performed so far are void of that connection, and I believe will fall flat as a result, regardless of the process or technique used. The last image is just a shot of the studio as I left tonight so you can get a sense for the size on these (and previous) studies...