INSPIRED BY GRASSES
Yes, absolutely. I love grasses – something about their linearity, and the swoop and curve of a blade’s path through the air…
In a mass, all of the fine cross-hatching’s are as delicious to my eye as print on a page.
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A grass can embody the prettiest, frilliest, curvaceous dance…and other times it can be a spear, crisply delineating space.
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Absorbing light as easily as it accommodates a breeze, or reflecting light every which way, like water sparkling on a lake -
…blades catch sun and fling it back into space.
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Heavily textured, stiff and dry,
or soft and feathery,
a field of grass can shimmer in summer heat like an ocean of sunlight.
Coated with frost, every stalk stands apart, each fuzzy outline adding crunch and texture.
Bamboo, prince of the grasses and always elegant, is dignified and somber at dusk.
And in the dead of winter, a common marsh grass seems to grasp its neighbor to forestall the inevitable.
Photos taken at Bellevue Botanical Garden in Bellevue, Washington; at Snug Harbor, Staten Island (NYC); at Juanita Bay Park in Kirkland, Washington; in a Duvall, Washington field; at Snug Harbor, Staten Island (NYC); on Mount Magazine, Arkansas; at Mount Loretto in Staten Island (NYC); on The High Line in NYC; at Pike Place Market in Seattle, Washington; on Topsail Island, North Carolina; in an upstate New York field; and at Ancient Lakes in Quincy, Washington.
Have you been to the Yesler Swamp Trail and the Union Bay Natural Area — accessed from the Center for Urban Horticulture – lots of winter linear branch and grasses views there now.
January 7, 2013 at 7:10 am
Hi – thanks for stopping by & suggesting that – I’ve been over there, more around the Urban Hort area, but not since last summer. I need to check out Union Bay too.
January 7, 2013 at 12:28 pm
Such lovely compositions!
January 7, 2013 at 9:35 am
Thank you so much.
January 7, 2013 at 1:31 pm
I like these – a lot! Grasses, in all their forms, are a favourite subject for me too. I like your exploration of line, light, pattern and texture.
January 8, 2013 at 3:52 am
Thank you – I think we both like natural forms that lend themselves to abstraction.
January 8, 2013 at 10:06 am
A diverse group, all with unique compositions (and treatments). My favorites? Top and bottom photographs and the BW in the middle (flung sun- rays).
January 8, 2013 at 9:06 am
Thank you for commenting – the top & bottom ones were done recently (well, obviously the top one was in the summer) so that’s a sign of progess – some of the others are older. I’m glad you like the B&W – I liked the silvery tones. I don’t have the Nik Silver Efects software, just PS Elements and LR; sometimes I have to work hard to get it looking good!
January 8, 2013 at 10:05 am
I enjoyed this set very much. Such a variety of patterns, color, structure and forms. Great. And very well seen.
January 8, 2013 at 10:27 am
Thank you – I appreciate your taking the time to comment. “Well seen” is good to hear.
January 8, 2013 at 11:20 am
Really wonderful images and I totally ‘get it’ with grasses, I love them too and they make such wonderful abstract images. Beautiful blog, very inspiring.
January 8, 2013 at 11:01 am
Oh, thank you very much – I really appreciate that.
January 8, 2013 at 11:22 am
Every phase of wild life is so beautiful!! I love your photos. Great images.
keiko
January 8, 2013 at 7:17 pm
Thank you very much!
January 8, 2013 at 9:22 pm
I love the abstract quality of the first two images!
January 8, 2013 at 7:52 pm
Thanks – I like to find that abstract quality. Often I love the soft tangles, like the second shot, but when I experience a clear, glorious days like the first one, it calls for a different approach.
January 8, 2013 at 9:26 pm
Some really splendid photos Lynn – I too like grasses and they have taken a role in a number of my paintings – not always successfully but a field of grasses continues to inspire me.
January 9, 2013 at 8:11 am
Thank you Lynne – I have an old watercolor painting of quail that was my grandmother’s, and it includes beautifully rendered, long, graceful grasses – but against a white background. Even then, certainly not easily done.
January 9, 2013 at 2:04 pm
Intriguing shots, Lynn!
January 9, 2013 at 12:26 pm
Thank you Stef! I appreciate it.
January 9, 2013 at 2:05 pm
Good for your for favoring natural forms that lend themselves to abstraction. I’m in your camp. (By coincidence, I featured a native grass today, too.)
January 9, 2013 at 12:48 pm
I just looked – love it – I was wishing I knew at least some of the latin (hey, even English!) names of the grasses above, but I don’t, other than the cultivated Hakone grass. And I know many are common, but they can be hard to identify!
January 9, 2013 at 2:08 pm
Absolutely stunning series of shots!
January 9, 2013 at 8:38 pm
Thank you very much!
January 10, 2013 at 12:32 pm
Grass, the peachfuzz of the planet! You’ve captured many of them in beautiful view. Very Nice!
January 24, 2013 at 5:05 am
So funny – I could do more, of course, and one of these days I probably will.
January 24, 2013 at 9:54 am
I love grasses too. Your photos are amazing. I especially love 4,5,6, 9 and 15. But especially 6!! They are all so cool. You have a great eye and are so talented.
February 13, 2013 at 6:06 pm
You’re too nice! I really appreciate that – and I like to hear which ones strike a chord. It’s interesting – #6 makes me think of a motif that could be in middle eastern art somehow – that curl and the ornamentation, it could be in a mosque maybe. And #15 is a departure because it’s such a dry, dry place – I don’t get to places like that much so I have very few photos of that kind of landscape. Thank you again.
February 13, 2013 at 9:02 pm
Thank you for giving us your eye on the world.
February 13, 2013 at 9:05 pm
Nothing’s more gratifying than sharing with people who enjoy and appreciate the work.
February 14, 2013 at 10:27 am