Gallery of past work

Thursday 15 January 2015

Travelling and red

I had a wonderful year of travelling and visits in 2014 with my husband and with assorted friends and family. We went to cathedrals, churches and lovely old houses in England and Scotland and abroad to France and the USA. We saw amazing scenery, extraordinary objects, lovely sculpture and rich textiles.

Although I've blogged before about most of these trips, this search for red has made me review my photos with new eyes and I thought I would liven up a very dark, grey, windy January day with some different photographic memories of all the fun. Each image features red, sometimes in dramatic and almost overwhelming quantities and sometimes as small eye-popping splashes.

And. because I have now, at last, loaded Adobe Photoshop onto my new PC and can play with my images again, I have included some - the first two - that I've had particular fun with.

The first features a church doorway in Essex with its warm red welcome mat ...


... and the second shows old worn military banners in the church in Sherborne, Dorset. These became extraordinarily vibrant when the colours were inverted and enhanced in Photoshop ...


The next brings memories of a lovely visit with a good friend to Gloucester Cathedral where we unexpectedly discovered an impressive exhibition of sculpture entitled Crucible 2. The piece that caught my eye the most as I trawled through my photographs yesterday is by Jon Buck and is called In Man's Nature - and of course it's red, very red, and a dramatic modern contrast against the intricate old stone of the cathedral cloisters ...


With the same friend, we visited Snowshill Manor in Gloucestershire and found the following lovely, delicate old textile ...


... some very early bicycles being displayed in the attic where the lighting conditions seemed to produce amazing colours, including brick red ...


... and well-loved old toys on a worn red carpet ...


In the USA, we found so much red in all its variations. Three especially stick in my mind. The first here shows one of several vibrant woven Navajo textiles seen in the Lake Powell Museum in Page - such accomplished work ...


... and the second shows something very different - a sign on a mesh gate inside the Glen Canyon Dam in Utah with such striking red in an overwhelmingly white or grey institutional place ...


... and the third (and last of this post), brings back memories of a lovely conversation in a quiet, dusty car park in Arizona on jewelry and being creative ...


The reason for the choice of red is because of course today is the third Thursday of the month and is the first Roy G Biv day of the year. For those who are new to this monthly colour extravaganza, more details can be found here on Julie Booth's blog. 

Why not join in?


22 comments:

  1. d'une belle idée est venue ce résultat superbe.. vive le rouge!!!

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    1. Le rouge est l'une de mes couleurs préférées - si vivant et si joyeux!

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  2. I just love how you manipulated the image of the military banners, Margaret! And so many other treasures in here...the "DEADBOLT ONLY" sign is especially striking. It's always fun to go back at look at photos from travels, isn't it?

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    1. Thank you very much, Lisa. I think when I stop my current fixation with black and white and return to colour that the military banners might feature further...

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  3. Great photos, great memories for you I'm sure. Love what you've been doing in Photoshop. It all becomes so inspiring doesn't it?!! Now, did you happen to come across any shops that sell extra time???

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    1. My daughter has lent me a book to help me develop my skills with Photoshop ... so watch this space. I think I will need some colour to liven up the winter months!

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  4. Hi Margaret- Seeing your reds makes me want to get more traveling into my life! I've just arrived in Savannah and so am catching up on Roy. Thanks for starting another round with us!

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    1. It was an easy choice this time - red is so vibrant and eye-catching.

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  5. Wonderful examples of RED ... cloth, to metal to all sorts of spots of red...thanks for the ride to such great places!!

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    1. Thank you very much - I think the cloth banners were my favourite but I found it hard to choose - hence more than the suggested 5 photos ... lots of indecision!

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  6. Wonderful encounters with red.The contrast between that large red modern sculpture in the old white church is very striking.Amazing workmanship in that geometric Navajo blanket.

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    1. I had great trouble choosing which photos to show this time. There was similar contrast in the cloisters of the cathedral with another red sculpture, right beside this one. - It was just as hard with the Navajo blankets so many were breath-taking ... I must return to that part of the USA soon!

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  7. Such a stunning collection of reds! I must admit that the sculpture in Gloucester Cathedral keeps drawing me back to it. Such vivid color midst the stone and solemnity of the cathedral. Enjoy!

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    1. It was stunning and the contrast with the cream stone and the peace of the cloisters gave it an unexpected serenity ... lovely!

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  8. Those photoshopped images are great, and the textiles are both exquisite in their own ways - congratulations on a great display of red!

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    1. Thank you very much, Sharmon ... ~Searching for Roy was particularly fun this time.

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  9. I appreciate the "ish" of your reds…taking liberty with color makes for interesting photos and artwork.

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    1. Thank you very much for visiting my blog and for commenting. Experimenting with the 'ish' of colour is what it's all about for me ... but it's so much in the eye of the beholder ...

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  10. Love your reds & your travel photos with their stories! Thanks for visiting mine.

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    1. Thanks for dropping by. Red is such a powerful colour and exploring it such a great way to start the year.

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  11. It's like looking back on happy days and travels through red-coloured glasses! I think my favourites are the sculpture in the cathedral - how mind-blowing was that? and the red sign - so arresting. Go well and happy travels!

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    1. The sculpture was mind-blowing - smooth and very tactile in its textured and ornate surroundings. What I enjoyed most though was how cleverly it was placed as the cloisters turned the corner. It was unexpected from both directions - and I came back for another look from the other direction before I left. Go well to you too.

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