We collected another eight metal prints from Orms Print Room in Cape Town last week. They’re going to be showcased in Metamorphosis, my fringe exhibition at the Johan Carinus Art Centre during the National Arts Festival 2018. The four monochrome prints are pictured here. They’re unusual because they don’t have any white. Instead the brushed aluminium shines through and the grain from the metal gives a great texture.
This last weekend we hung 14 of the pictures from my Hogsback Series at the Wild Fox Hill Eco-Cabin. You can see the full series of 17 images (with prices and full descriptions) beneath the slideshow. They are printed on brushed aluminium Dibond by Orms Print Room which gives them great impact. At the end of June they’ll move down to Grahamstown for the duration of the National Arts Festival 2018 where they’ll be showcased in my exhibition ‘Metamorphosis’ at the Johan Carinus Art Centre. Contact roddyfox@mac.com if you are interested in buying (the prices here don’t include postage) or come and enjoy them during your stay at the cabin (it’s on Airbnb) whilst you are in Hogsback.
Madonna and Child Waterfall (297 x 420 mm) R1250
Madonna and Child
39 Steps Waterfall (400 x 400 mm) R1500
39 Steps Waterfall
Swallow Tail Falls (297 x 420 mm) R1250
SwallowTail Falls
The Big Tree (297 x 420 mm) R1250
The Big Tree
Redwood Trees (297 x 420 mm) R1250
Redwoods
Twining Trees (297 x 420 mm) R1250
Twining Trees
Misty Morning View (297 x 420 mm) R1250
Misty Morning View
The Military Path (297 x 420 mm) R1250
The Military Path
Dawn Light over Hogsback (400 x 400 mm) R1500
Dawn Light
Star Trails over Wild Fox Hill (400 x 400 mm) R1500
Star Trails over Wild Fox Hill
Moonrise over the Three Hogs (420 x 297) R1250
Moonrise over the Three Hogs
Tor Doone in the Mist (420 x 297 mm) R1250
Tor Doone in the Mist
Red Hot Pokers (420 x 297 mm) R1250
Red Hot Pokers
Three Hogs and Three Dogs (420 x 297 mm) R1250
Three Hogs and Three Dogs
Dream Forest (420 x 297 mm) R1250
Dream Forest
Misty Road (420 x 297 mm) R1250
Misty Road
Elandsberg Panorama (1000 x 374 mm) R3500
Elandsberg Panorama
We will be missing two Poetry at Reddits occasions whilst we are away in Sweden: my contributions are here though. There are two of WS Merwin’s poems and one of my pictures of Hogback’s trees. All inspired by Beth Moon’s special book Ancient Trees: Portraits of Time – thank you Kate for the wonderful gift.
Twining Trees at Hogsback
Trees
I am looking at trees
they may be one of the things I will miss
most from the earth
though many of the ones I have seen
already I cannot remember
and though I seldom embrace the ones I see
and have never been able to speak
with one
I listen to them tenderly
their names have never touched them
they have stood round my sleep
and when it was forbidden to climb them
they have carried me in their branches
The picture I’ve chosen also reminds me of another of his poems, I think because of the way the trees twine around each other.
Separation
Your absence has gone through me
Like thread through a needle.
Everything I do is stitched with its color.
Looking forward to our next Reddits in October!
We’ve been having lovely autumn weather with clear air, blue skies and low angle light that brings out all the changing colours. I’ve tried to capture this in these images and combined them into one pattern of autumn harmony.
Autumn Harmonies
Going clockwise from the top right the inspiration was a bare tree in front of the after sunset glow. At bottom right is a red leaf in a sea of green foliage. The bottom left picture is a flower in the bracken and the top left is the bark of a birch tree. Here’s how the bare tree looked.
Bare Tree and Belt of Venus
And here’s a detail of how it looked after combining and overlaying the image eight times.
Autumn Harmony detail
I’m often asked if my images are for sale and the answer is yes. I’m exhibiting again on the fringe of the National Arts Festival at the Johan Carinus Art Centre, Grahamstown from 29 June to 9 July. If you’d like to purchase one of these, for example, then just email me using this contact me link and I’ll provide a quote. Cost for a high resolution 50cm width print of Autumn Harmonies will be approximately R1000 including packaging and courier to South African destinations. I have also organised having prints made and delivered overseas.
Last weekend’s trip to Hogsback was a good time for photography: the light was excellent, landscape compositions were everywhere and, of course, there’s my daughters and grandchildren. I’ve already posted my antique picture panorama but here’s a selection of the other pictures I took.
This composition was right outside Helen’s house: the building poles were stacked above the fire pit with Tor Doone looming behind them. I couldn’t resist taking another, with completely different clouds, the following morning when we set off for one of our walks.
Family walks with small children and an even smaller puppy can be slow affairs. Here’s Helen holding hands with Luke and her new puppy, Rain, trotting along beside them This was taken in poor light with my telephoto lens looking down the long hill beside Helen’s house. The next day we had another walk – to Luke’s ‘Niagara’ waterfall – and here is Sophie being carried in her backpack by Jeannie.
Helen gave me a great guided tour around the property before we left for a Sunday meal: she ended it by showing me where she plans to build the new main house. Driving home to Grahamstown on Sunday the light was lovely and the clouds were dramatic so I stopped at the Pluto’s Vale turnoff to take some last pictures before sunset.
Last weekend was spent at my daughter Helen’s place high in the Hogback mountains. On Saturday evening we took the three dogs and Jeannie with the two little grandchildren up the hill for a sunset walk. It was quite a dark scene with soft light playing on the clouds above the mountains.
The light and composition reminded me of a nineteenth century colonial painting. I took seven images to piece together. This evening, once the power outage was over, I corrected them for brightness and then stitched them into one scene using Double Take. Then I imported the panorama into Aperture and removed blemishes (dirt on the lens) before exporting it again and finally importing it into FX Photo Studio Pro. The last step was to mask the photo with the ancient canvas filter and add a suitable frame so as to give the picture the antique feel I had experienced on the hillside. You can see the result above.
