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Chris Vest Digital Painting Prints |
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Chris Vest Digital Painting Prints |
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"I have a long history of taking pretty mediocre bird photos. With crummy lens and lack of patience, I've put together bird images from Israel to Alaska that are breathtakingly dull and out-of-focus. But I do have computer Photoshop skills, so my choice was either to cut my throat in photo envy and self-loathing, or breath new life into the bad photos with considerable "painting", merging and touch-up; and so voila: part painting, part photography. I've been a photographer and illustrator for 30 years; unfortunately, it's almost all been for employers that view art purely as commerce-- it's time that I demonstrate to the world (and to myself) the nature of my own personal vision. My newest work has attracted the attention of the American Bird Conservancy, for whom I am now commissioned to produce bird illustrations for an upcoming book. I call myself a "Neo Photo-Secessionist"-- humbly borrowing the term from the tradition of Alfred Stieglitz and his group. I particularly identify with the etched surfaces and beautiful tonality of Heinrich Kuehn, Edward J. Steichen, and Gertrude Kasebier. In a nutshell, these artists at the turn of the century (c. 1900) were trying to bridge fine art and photography to earn for photography (which was often dismissed as merely a mechanical and documentary medium) the kind of artistic legitimacy that traditional painting had. They therefore manipulated their black and white images in the dark room to render them more "pictorial". These techniques foreshadowed much of what is done with today's computer capabilities, for example: dodging and burning, image superimposing, and even etching upon the original negatives. That indeed is what I do, though I do it in vivid color-- striving similarly to lend artistic endorsement to computer generated art.
Because my work is digital, it can be modified for printing at any size--in fact even compositional alterations are usually quite a simple matter. Contact me for information on customizing any image. All images are professionally printed with archival giclee' inks, and both canvas and paper are available as a printing medium. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mr. Vest is much too critical of himself and work; we couldn't disagree more with his self assessment. Each of his bird photographs are amazing considering how difficult it had to have been to capture on film or digitally the subjects in their settings. For example, the bluebird perched on the broken barn window or the dipper in the flowing creek, they could not have come about easily each taking considerable skill, knowledge of his equipment and patience. Once the bird image is placed into the computer and photoshop, Mr. Vest enhances the image into a piece of art. The bluebird piece, a digital painting or artistic rendering, looks so much like a watercolor; just study the detail in the window, the aged window pane,s bubble glass and rusty frame. This technique is referred to a "painted digital painting." Critiques may reject it as art but we don't. The artist starts with a photograph, but remember photography is a true art in itself, and then the artists takes a computer's cursor as one takes a paint brush and applies color and style producing a fine work of art. All the giclees are produced on a high quality ink jet printer. The inks are lightfast up to 108 years for color images and more than 200 years for black and white, aka "archival inks". |
Click on images to enlarge
Also click on F11 to enlarge further then again to return
To understand how Mr. Vest creates digital paintings - CLICK HERE
(All Giclee prints are signed and numbered)
What is a "Giclee" - Click Here
Praise from one who appreciates Mr. Vest's work
| "I absolutely ADORE your Ute Mountain Birding poster for this year and discovered your website due to it. Your work is fabulous and your attitude toward changing bad photos into fabulous digital art is delightful. I just wanted to let you know I'm as delighted as a mockingbird after he jubilantly completes his repertoire." MM - CO. |
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Coils of Old Wire - Western Kingbird |
Snowbird, Dark-eyed Junco Digital Painting Edition of 50 Size: 14" x 16" |
Evening at the Bosque del Apache Sandhill cranes Digital Painting Edition of 50 Size: 19.5" x 14" |
Autumn Spruce - Bluebird Digital Painting Edition of 50 Size: 13" x 18.6" |
The Way Home - Lark Sparrows Digital Painting Edition of 50 Size: 16.7" x 8" |
City view - Ring-billed gull |
Garden sentinals - violet green swallows Digital Painting Size; 15" x 10" Edition of 50 |
Phoebe: Young Say's phoebe Digital Painting Size: 13 17" x 12.75" Edition of 50 |
Yellow-headed black bird: denny lake blackbird Digital Painting Size: 13" x 8.75" Edition of 50 |
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Newcomers - Eurasian collared doves Digital Painting Size: 14" x 9.75" Edition of 50 |
Bluebird in the rain - Western bluebird Digital Painting Size: 12.5" x 9.5" Edition of 50 |
Colorado River Heron Size: 13.5" x 10" Digital Painting Edition of 50 |
Old Log - white breasted nuthatch. Size: 14" wide x 12.5" Digital Painting Edition of 50 |
Wilson's Warbler Digital Painting Size 12.5" x 14" Edition of 50 |
Aquaba Bee Eater Digital Painting Size: 15" x 15" Edition of 50 |
Cattails and Fall Yellow Rumped Warbler Digital Painting Image Size: 11.3" x 7.75 " Edition of 50 |
Meadow Watch - 1 Bald Eagle Digital Painting Size: 16" x 12" Edition of 50 |
Meadow Watch - 2 Bald Eagle Digital Painting Size: 13" x 20" Edition of 50 |
To Order or for more Information
10142
Chris Vest lives and works in Colorado 
