Helen Glazer, Artist - Clouds - Photographs and Hand-colored Prints

Clouds

An ongoing series of archival pigment prints of clouds, 2007 to present, some with hand-colored with paint or pastel.
Read an Artist's Statement.
See a related sculpture here.
Watch a short video about Helen's clouds on YouTube.

Select a group of prints to view from the drop-down menu:

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Artist's Statement

If we notice clouds at all, we’re probably just checking the weather. But I’ve been taking a closer look. Clouds are ephemeral, transforming and decaying as they move across the sky. When I stop the action with a digital camera and increase the tonal range with Adobe Photoshop, clouds reveal themselves as intricately textured three-dimensional forms arising from complex rhythms of flowing currents of air.   They gesture and take on a poetic resonance. They morph into unexpected, almost otherworldly forms that would be difficult to invent -- the human brain works too schematically for that. As the saying goes, "You can't make this stuff up."

Shown here are archival pigment photographic prints hand-colored with pastels or acrylic paint.    I begin with a digital photograph. While sometimes background details are deleted or smoothed out, and colors and tones may be intensified or deepened, the actual shapes, textures and forms found in nature are not augmented with invented forms, nor are they combined with other images. The resulting images reveal nuances that the camera captures, but the naked eye fails to see, and conventional image processing does not show. After they are printed, I add the hand coloring to emphasize the rhythms and movements through space. The most recent pieces shown here were printed at 40 inches wide or high, which makes it easier for viewers to project themselves into this recognizable, yet strange, environment.