I am in love with this painting I found on a blog. this is New Mexico. My photo is from Arizona. We can see the old style architecture of the West in both of these pieces. I have been wanting to do a pastel of my photo. I connect with this painting and will try my own style.

Welcome to my Photography

On Crystal's Creations-StillWatersgallery, I will share alot of my photography. In fact, most of the photography is done by me. I also take the pictures and videos of my work.

I have a Canon Rebel. Years ago in college, I took a photography class with an SLR Canon camera. I learned to do the developing also but the chemicals were so expensive that I did not have the money to buy them or to replace them when they went bad. When you are a new photographer, things go wrong and your chemicals can go bad too! At that time, I couldn't even afford the film.

Yes, I have always been a poor artist and hopefully that will change someday. My parents bought me the camera for a gift and I was an art major and music major in a college in Boston. So, out of sheer desperation and care, I would try to take as little pictures as I could because I could only afford one role of film. You laugh...yes I do too! One role of film is nothing compared to our world today of taking thousands of pictures in one trip and then trying to decide which ones to keep and the rest to delete. We can delete on our camera and we can delete on our computers when we load up our pictures. We can have our pictures developed from companies online or stores down the street, camera shops or even our homes with our lazer print machines.

We just don't know how we have it made. But you want to know what is funny? I took my memory card to Ritz photo three months ago to bring my sons wedding pictures and still have not picked them up. "Why" you ask? Because I can't afford to pick them up:) Sound familiar?

Anyway, the architecture photos you see on my blog, along with flowers from Arizona were quickly taken because we were on the run. I wanted to remember the images, the colors, the lines, the textures...I want to recreate these sites into my collage or paintings/drawings. You may use my pictures to draw or paint from. Enjoy them and please send me copies of your work!

ARCHITECTURE

I love architecture; especially buildings that were built so long ago. I just can't figure out how on earth monks so far long ago, built this beautiful missionary church that you see on my blog. When I went to Arizona for my husband's father's funeral (I have never been to Arizona before), my mouth gaped in awe over the colors, design, shapes and various textures I saw. As I even look at my photos, I see collages already made just by taking pictures of what has been built years and years and years ago. When I visited this church, I felt like I was in a western movie. Do you want to hear "shabby"? Oh yes, shabby chic all the way. the muted colors were lovely along with gold gilding. I will add more photos of the inside of this fabulous building.

So we artists of today are not far off from the founding forefathers of this country.

CHECK OUT THE FLOWERS OF OUR BEAUTIFUL ARIZONA

The purpose of my Arizona photography is to share with you the wonderful colors in our landscapes.

If you look hard enough, you will see loads of color combinations in our very nature. COPY those colors into your art work. Perhaps you don't even have to paint or color a flower, just load your paint brush with a chosen color, apply it to your canvas or paper or cardboard, pick up a new color after you have rinsed your paint brush, and lay that down on the canvas in another spot or next to the first color. Keep on doing this with just two colors or three colors and fill up the canvas. You will see how colors change when they are placed next to a different color. Sometimes grey can appear blue. Check it out!