Digitally manipulated images and painting

Discusses the artist´s use of digitally manipulated images sourced from photographic studies from nature and used a visual resource for canvas painting. Traditional approaches to canvas painting have included various paths of image preparation prior to the actual application of paint to canvas. This presentation reveals the artist´s approach to utilizing digital technology as a means for exploring ideas related to formal considerations of composition and color through image manipulation within Adobe Photoshop. Images that originate as original photographic studies from nature are manipulated, printed as hard copy and used as source for the final paintings on canvas. These canvas paintings are large in scale and are executed within the synthetic acrylic medium. Occasionally, the hard-copy images are re-manipulated as collage pieces and/or re-scanned and re-processed through the software. The final paintings, however, are not totally pre-determined by the digitized images. Alterations are made throughout the process of creating the paintings. Considerations of actual surface texture, color transparency, and numerous other characteristics not available for manipulation through image digitization all partake and influence the final outcome. The presentation includes a slide representation of the entire process involved in creating the final paintings from the initial photographs, digitization and the final, physical act of painting on canvas. The use of traditional materials within art and the relationship of new technologies within that process is an important underlying issue