Thanksgiving Hike along the Trails above Rossmoor in the East Bay

Thanksgiving day socially distancing hike with family.  Clear blue skies, fabulous views, unique terrain, steep uphill - well worth the effort!

Two New Bird Quilts in Process

 Top two birds will make their appearance in a Crow, Flamingo, Dodo Bird Quilt; bottom 4 Funky Birds are set to show off in a Funky Bird and Bug Quilt.  My Style continues to be messy, creative and imperfect- just like the birds!

New Large 36 x 36 Oil Painting

 Boat in the Water with the Taylor Twins.  Oil painting on stretched canvas 36" x 36".  Background from a photo shot in Bolinas during a King Tide event; swimming Taylor Twins referenced from a Marriott swimming pool photo taken during the weekend of Rachel and Court's wedding in Oakland.  

Playing with Photoshop's New Sky Replacement Tool

 

Always in the mood to learn something new, while not wanting the end result to to be like anyone else's, I decided to experiment.  Photoshop's new Sky Replacement tool has a number of nice sky presets.  But when I use them, I'm using elements I didn't create, and that anyone else can use, which is never my first choice.  So, I figured out how to insert another image into one of the Sky Replacement layers to create something that is all original. 

Top to Bottom:

1.  The original, edited photo, of a king tide shot in Bolinas, California in Jan 2018.

2.  That same shot with one of the Photoshop sky replacements.  

3.  A photo of mold growing on one of my lemons.

4.  The original photo with a close up of lemon mold replacing the Photoshop sky.  Looks like the fire sky we experienced for too long this past summer!

In the Studio

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1.  Finished oil on canvas 18x24 "Fleeing the Fire Ash Sky"

2 and 3:  In process 36" x 36" oil "Boat in the Water" very early stage underpainting

Playing Around With Old Photos, Patterns and Neural Filters in Photoshop on a Gray Day

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Photo shot in Seattle, September 2011 with Amber, Cole and Wilson - as shot

Same photo with B&W filter and some Photoshop Beta Neural face smoothing

Same photo with a different Neural filter and a pattern overlay of a repeating self portrait painted by my father, the late, great E.A. Autrey

Same photo toned down a bit by re-layering the original photo over the 3rd photo.

Since I am no longer travelling up to Seattle on a regular basis, this makes up for it a little.

New Fabric Designs and a Contest Entry

I'm back doing more fabric designs, which are available in my Spoonflower shop here:  https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/lucy_autrey_wilson. 

 Some of the new designs are not yet available but will be soon.  They can be seen by clicking on the "designs not for sale" button.  I have to buy test samples before I can sell.   Some of what's new is described below

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1.  New coronavirus repeating fabric design.  The viruses were created with Illustrator and Photoshop, then layered on top of a photo of a chain link fence in front of a garden which was modified to more closely appear like an electron microscope scanned viral specimen.

2.  I painted a Dodo with pen & ink and watercolor, put it on a watercolor rainbow painting and added scanned cheesecloth. 

3.  An old fabric design of a bacteria.  Face masks made with bacteria and/or virus image fabrics seems like something that makes perfect sense.

4.  Last, but not least, I created a Poster Tea Towel image (to be printed on linen) as my entry into a Spoonflower contest.  I painted the image (actually a larger version of it) while on one of my many Ibiza vacations.   Voting starts Oct. 22.  You can vote here:  https://www.spoonflower.com/design-challenge