may2012

laurie lyman balmuth

Opening Reception Friday May 4, 5:30-7pm

• Poppies

• Sunflower

gallery

reception photos 5/4/12

www.lauriebalmuth.com

The paintings start as a study from life done on the touch screen of an iPad using the Brushes App. They are called 'digital finger paintings' which is a good description of completely freehand drawings that do not use photography or vector drawing. The iPad allows many subtle overlays of lines and color that are then picked up in subsequent digital manipulation.

The quality of the information captured is completely different and distinct from a photograph of objects or a photograph of a drawing or a painting. The Brushes app saves every line I make building up a painting. It takes about three hours of direct observation to make the base painting and several more hours of computer manipulation to produce a finished work.

The excitement is in discovery. The first level is discovery of the freehand drawing from life and the second level is discovering how the unique lines and colors used will respond to Photoshop's filters and color replacement software. The Brushes Viewer allows every stroke to be played back as a video and also exports a dense high quality image for import into Photoshop or Painter and subsequent commercial printing at almost any size, from a postcard to a billboard. Some of the work is painted or flocked after it is printed to add a third dimension.