"Cactus"
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"Pink Rose"
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"Glowing Green"
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Personal Background:
Graham Owen, an American artist, was born on the island of Penang, Malaysia in 1961. He grew up traveling the world, living in Malaysia, Australia, Canada, the states of Illinois, New Mexico, and California. Attracted to the beauty of the outdoors, Graham spent three summers hiking and canoeing the wilderness of northern Canada. His gift for transforming nature into art may be genetic. His mother trained at prestigious art schools in England and is an accomplished artist specializing in painting animals and birds. His grandmother Nona Kiralfy studied under sculptor Henry Moore. While establishing himself as an artist, Graham was one of the first actively engaged in promoting alternative energy resources as a solar contractor in Southern California, for over 25 years. He served on the Board of Directors, California Solar Energy Industry Association, other advisory boards and committees, and designed and installed the first privately owned grid-connected solar powered home in Los Angeles.
Style:
Graham's photographs display his eye on the natural world and how he sees it. His work demonstrates a unique style and blending of Realism and Artistic Impressionism. His photos have been featured on the cover of various publications. A pattern of style of photography I noticed is the use of Macro photography. This is "extreme close-up photography, usually of very small subjects and living organisms like insects, in which the size of the subject in the photograph is greater than life size."
Philosophy:
Graham's passion for nature opened the door to his art and photography. His current work evolved mainly from decades of independent experimentation and practice. His art and photography can be found in many corporate and private collections.
Graham says, "The purpose and approach of my work is to capture, engage and express my passion, sometimes whimsically, with a firm belief that helping reconnect humanity with the environment is a positive intention. I love what I do and hope to continue for many years to come. I love nature, art and photography, and believe they have the power to transform lives by engaging and enriching the human spirit."
Influences:
Graham's photography influenced me to try to take natural photos. All of his work reflects the world and the wilderness naturally and beautifully. He also inspired me to take pictures at different angles and try new things with my pictures. While recreating his photos, I set different adjustments on my camera and got very close to the nature when normally I wouldn't do that. Getting new angles of the subject makes you see things differently.
Compare and Contrast:
While I tried my best to recreate his photos and make them look as similar as possible, I couldn't do it exactly. Knowing this, I did some things differently from him but our photos still have similar qualities. For example we both took picture of a leaf, but mine photo shows more detail of the veins of it. Also my photo of a cactus was father away and shows more spines than his picture. As for the flower, his was a rose but I decided to use a different flower for different effect of the photo.
Personal Artist Statement:
I chose to recreate photos of nature because I grew up loving plants and nature. My grandma always grew lots of plants and she gave me my first ever plant to take care of; a cactus. Every time we went over her house I would look at her beautiful flowers and the different herbs she grew. Taking pictures of these plants made me feel at home and I was working with something I knew - nature. Taking these new photos made me realize there is a whole world to photography. No two pictures will ever be the same, and everyone has a different eye that reveals new sides to the subject. This art can tell such strong stories without any words, just a beautiful photo.
Resources:
http://www.grahamowengallery.com/photography/macro_photography.html
http://www.grahamowengallery.com/Bio.html
https://www.slideshare.net/gracesykes/graham-owen-photography-34671547
https://liamrosie.wixsite.com/formandfunction/single-post/2015/10/06/Artist-Research-Graham-Owen
Graham Owen, an American artist, was born on the island of Penang, Malaysia in 1961. He grew up traveling the world, living in Malaysia, Australia, Canada, the states of Illinois, New Mexico, and California. Attracted to the beauty of the outdoors, Graham spent three summers hiking and canoeing the wilderness of northern Canada. His gift for transforming nature into art may be genetic. His mother trained at prestigious art schools in England and is an accomplished artist specializing in painting animals and birds. His grandmother Nona Kiralfy studied under sculptor Henry Moore. While establishing himself as an artist, Graham was one of the first actively engaged in promoting alternative energy resources as a solar contractor in Southern California, for over 25 years. He served on the Board of Directors, California Solar Energy Industry Association, other advisory boards and committees, and designed and installed the first privately owned grid-connected solar powered home in Los Angeles.
Style:
Graham's photographs display his eye on the natural world and how he sees it. His work demonstrates a unique style and blending of Realism and Artistic Impressionism. His photos have been featured on the cover of various publications. A pattern of style of photography I noticed is the use of Macro photography. This is "extreme close-up photography, usually of very small subjects and living organisms like insects, in which the size of the subject in the photograph is greater than life size."
Philosophy:
Graham's passion for nature opened the door to his art and photography. His current work evolved mainly from decades of independent experimentation and practice. His art and photography can be found in many corporate and private collections.
Graham says, "The purpose and approach of my work is to capture, engage and express my passion, sometimes whimsically, with a firm belief that helping reconnect humanity with the environment is a positive intention. I love what I do and hope to continue for many years to come. I love nature, art and photography, and believe they have the power to transform lives by engaging and enriching the human spirit."
Influences:
Graham's photography influenced me to try to take natural photos. All of his work reflects the world and the wilderness naturally and beautifully. He also inspired me to take pictures at different angles and try new things with my pictures. While recreating his photos, I set different adjustments on my camera and got very close to the nature when normally I wouldn't do that. Getting new angles of the subject makes you see things differently.
Compare and Contrast:
While I tried my best to recreate his photos and make them look as similar as possible, I couldn't do it exactly. Knowing this, I did some things differently from him but our photos still have similar qualities. For example we both took picture of a leaf, but mine photo shows more detail of the veins of it. Also my photo of a cactus was father away and shows more spines than his picture. As for the flower, his was a rose but I decided to use a different flower for different effect of the photo.
Personal Artist Statement:
I chose to recreate photos of nature because I grew up loving plants and nature. My grandma always grew lots of plants and she gave me my first ever plant to take care of; a cactus. Every time we went over her house I would look at her beautiful flowers and the different herbs she grew. Taking pictures of these plants made me feel at home and I was working with something I knew - nature. Taking these new photos made me realize there is a whole world to photography. No two pictures will ever be the same, and everyone has a different eye that reveals new sides to the subject. This art can tell such strong stories without any words, just a beautiful photo.
Resources:
http://www.grahamowengallery.com/photography/macro_photography.html
http://www.grahamowengallery.com/Bio.html
https://www.slideshare.net/gracesykes/graham-owen-photography-34671547
https://liamrosie.wixsite.com/formandfunction/single-post/2015/10/06/Artist-Research-Graham-Owen