Sharing The Roijoy

 We were admiring a painted portrait by a local artist, and the woman who was standing with me commented, "I've never had my portrait painted". "Would you like that?" I queried. "Yes it would be awesome" she responded. "OK, I'll do you one" I offered.  And that's how I came to do this painting.  And here is a video of my progression. Portrait 001 Acrylics on canvas 12 x 16 inches

A Kiss Is Just A Kiss Acrylics on canvas 30 x 40 inches This painting is a mixture of dream recollections, memories, experiences and emotions. Although there may be specific meanings here to me, nothing is explained so that the viewer can overlay their own experience on this painting and see if it resonates. In spite of the skull, this is not intended to be a morbid composition. I feel that life and death are tightly entwined and wherever there is life you will find death and vice versa. Below is a short video showing how the painting has been built up.

  The Halloween shoot for Motorbike Rentals and Alternative Adventures in Belize was a little batty. The main model was Emma the business owner and co-starring was her cat, Ducatty. As usual, Emma provided her own clothing and props and did her own make-up. I did camera, lights and post production. For the main shot, I lit Emma from the front but also placed a light behind her to make sure she was separated from the background. And also to give a subtle outline to her upper body and a spotlight behind her head. We shot quite a few frames so that we would have a pose and positioning that we were happy with. Then I set to work cleaning the image up and making enhancements including adding the bat insignia to the front of the bike. I also took out anything that was too distracting and added a suggestion of movement to the background. Once this was done I just needed to add Ducatty in her co-starring role. It took 2 shoots to get Ducatty just right. In her first shoot, everytime she w...

The 2024 Thanksgiving shoot for Motorbike Rentals and Alternative Adventures, Belize , Had a slightly different twist to it. Emma , the business owner, decided to explore 'Spanksgiving' which really is a thing. Despite it's various guises, if you visit Emma's Instagram , the words in her post with this image gives the composition relevance.    We did the shoot at her bike shop in Hopkins, Belize, and just the two of us brought this image, and other variants, to completion. Emma did her own wardrobe, hair and makeup and modelled. She also printed the bag in the foreground to say Happy Spanksgiving. I took care of the lighting, art direction and photography. We hung a red light close to the ceiling positioned around 1 o'clock, angled toward the scene. To prevent the whole scene going completely red from the lighting, I added a daylight fill light aimed front and left of the scene.  Once I had the lights balanced we were able to shoot a bunch of variations and poses to...

The components of this painting include, dream fragments, life experiences and feelings past and present. If you've read Genesis, you'll know how Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden. At the beginning of their exile from the Garden, the entrance back into the Garden was guarded by 'cherubims and a flaming sword'. In my dreams, I see the dreams of Adam and Eve. Their dreams become a recurring nightmare of Paradise being just out of reach. Even though they can see where it is, it's totally inaccessible.  Even when they find some of the exotic fallen fruit, as soon as they collect it, it's suddenly infested with worms. Paradise is up the stairway and on the other side of the mountains. On the other side of the gorge where the creature guards, there is already fresh water and succulent fruit falling from the sky since this is already the approach to paradise. The creature is entirely from my dreams, and regardless of how it looks it is wholly benevolen...

 This year's May 4th image for Emma at  Motorbike Rentals & Alternate Adventures - Hopkins, Belize   featured Emma riding a Speeder bike through the jungles of Belize. There are no outlets to buy Star Wars toys here in Belize but Emma was able to use her contacts and have one brought to Belize from the USA. Once we had the toy we went out to do our shoot. A friend gave us permission to shoot amongst some trees on their property on Sittee River. To help with getting the correct angles we had a ladder that Emma could sit on as if she was sitting on a life size Speeder bike. I also used lighting to define the direction we wanted the sunlight to be appearing from. We shot various spots around the trees and mixed poses and directions so that we could have choices when it came to putting the final image together. Once we had the location shots, it was time to shoot the Speeder bike. The Speeder toy is 20cm in length so I was able to light and shoot it on a tabletop from var...