Kat Eye Studio

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Off to the Sea

I am off on holiday for the next week. It’s Easter Break for my son’s school and we are headed to Greece. Before we left Europe I wanted to photograph a place with white, white buildings and blue, blue sea, so we will be spending the week on the island of Santorini with a day or two in Athens.

To give you a taste of the sea, here is an image from the Cinque Terre, on the Ligurian coast of Italy. This region is more pink and green than white and blue, but beautiful nonetheless.

Even though I won’t be writing here this week, there is a lot going on that you can participate in:

  • There is a new Exploring with a Camera topic: Rimmed with Light. Stop over and see how to capture this beautiful type of light. You are welcome to link up or share your images in the Flickr pool.
  • I just “officially” announced the Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap yesterday and it’s open for sign up! Yay! I hope you’ll join in with sharing your artwork in the swap.
  • My first newsletter will arrive in your mailbox tomorrow! It will include a download of the Time to Blossom image I shared last weekend. If you haven’t signed up for the newsletter yet, you can at any time. Just look for the form on my blog sidebar.
  • The Mortal Muses theme right now is “Here Comes the Sun.” Share your images with “flare” with us here and you may be featured on the blog. I just mused on Signs of Spring on Thursday, come by and see the signs of spring blossoming on our blog.
I hope you have a great week! 

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Visual Music

I am so happy to get reacquainted with this stairway today. This lovely spot is in Cascais, Portugal, a little coast town that is a 30 minute train ride from Lisbon. This stairway takes you from the sea up to the town. I loved the texture of the peeling paint and the exposure to the sea air. Looking at this photo today, I am reminded of music. A treble clef to start the line, and notes ascending. A beautiful melody of line and color and texture to see and hear. In my mind, the percussion of the sea is in the background, to support and tie it all together.

I have been thinking of the creative process this morning, as I am reading The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women by Gail McMeekin. My creative process is a combination of regular practice, along with some little rituals. When I work at the computer, either writing or with photos, I love to have my cup of tea. That signals my brain, “It’s time to create.” When I’m writing or have something I need to really focus on, I also turn on classical music. I love classical music, but I save it for my personal creative time. The cup of tea and the music help me move quickly into a state of flow. It’s amazing what happens from there.

Do you have any rituals that help you get into the creative zone? What is your creative process?

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Colorful Expressions

While it is wonderful to travel to new places, it is also nice to go back to places you love. Places that inspire you in some way, that sing to your soul. I have been so lucky to be able to visit the Venetian lagoon so many times. It is a place like that for me. And every time, I seem to find a different focus for my photography. I am in a different place in my life, my creative development, and I see different things.

This time, in Burano, it was all about color and form. Color for color’s sake, how color and shape and light come together to make a beautiful composition. The primary colors of the interior of this boat, are just one example. I could see beyond the colorful canal vistas of the houses lined up in a row, the lace shops, the bussolai (which are the yummiest cookies ever!), to see some of the most wonderful details of colorful expression to be found.

Think about that… if you are always traveling to new places, you don’t get to uncover the layers of the places you love. A trade-off that must be made, one of the hardest, I think!

By the way, the postcards arrived yesterday! Yay! You still have time to go comment on yesterday’s post and enter to win them. I’ll pick and announce the winner tomorrow, and tell you all about what’s new around my little world here.

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Time for some Color!

I hope I don’t hurt your eyes today, with all of this color. I had a marvelous time capturing the color in Burano on Saturday, and had to share some of it here. (If you read this in a blog reader, come visit to see my new blog header!) I hope you have a color-filled day!

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Spring!

There are signs of spring here in Oregon, like this gorgeous barrel of daffodils at the Rogue brewery in Newport. Unlike our home in Italy where it’s still been cold and frosty, it was beautifully clear and sunny in Oregon last week. I love seeing these signs of spring, Oregon has such a long and colorful spring. It will be interesting to see what it’s like for us in Vedano… when it starts!