I wish you a very Merry Christmas or a happy holiday in whatever form you celebrate it. I wish your spirits to experience joy and celebration. As we look forward to 2012 we leave behind the challenges and opportunities of this year in anticipation of greater joy and creativity for the year to come. It will be as we make it. Whether you spend the holidays alone, or with friends or family, our happiness lives within us. I wish you peace. Winifred
Doodling is taking on a different look for me. Last night I was playing with various paper and brush combinations in Corel Painter 12 – just making marks and taking my color from gradient mode using some of the new gradients I have recently created. I was just making marks starting with some of the darker tones – they were my newest gradients and some gold tones. Soon I started to see trees.
I had no painting in mind, so I continued with my marks, adding a bit of green – a little park, perhaps, I thought, and so it went until this little image complete trees and sky and creek and sunlight was born. I am not concerned about whether it is good or not. I had fun and it is a different kind of painting for me to do. That’s enough. Hope you enjoy.
This is a painting I created recently with what is probably my favorite color palette.
I love gold, brown and red tones.
There was no cloning involved in creating this image, not even a vase of flowers to look at. I just opened Painter and started to paint. I painted a background . I then painted the other elements of the bouquet on layers – all the while envisioning direction of light. Strong composition is always important.
During our workshops we will discuss the importance of these elements in creating a pleasing painting. Happy Holidays. Warmly, Winifred
I created this image with a recipe made in using Nik Filters in Nik Color Effects Pro 4.
I will be exporting my recipes for your use. Please sign up to receive my Blog in order to receive them.
Florence, Italy 2009
This is a display of 30 large beautifully framed portrait paintings. the display opened November 10th and will remain on exhibit until December 2nd. It has been very well received with many visitors being curious about the process of creating digital art. The fact is that they cannot discern any difference between my portrait paintings created electronically and those created with traditional media.
The following are some of the newest pieces to be included in my collection:
I am passionate about the creativity and quality I bring to my images. However, I cannot accomplish this through sheer will alone. Color management is critical to producing images which have the color and density which I envision and can see on my monitor. X-Rite for all of my color management needs. Likewise it is essential to use software which supports my creativity. I use Nik Software. I use Nik filters to enhance paintings and photos alike.
By using X-Rite color management tools, I am able to create custom white balance for my camera, a custom camera profile consistent with specific lighting conditions to optimize the colors in my images. For this, I use the Colorchecker Passport. I use the i1 Pro Photo to calibrate my monitor, projector and printer. If I am traveling, I use the ColorMunki Display to calibrate my laptop or a projector if I am conducting a workshop. The ColorMunki Display is a simple to use wizard driven device and it is indispensable. If you print, I would recommend the ColorMunki Photo as a simple way to create custom profiles which will match your display to your printer.
On November 16th, I will conduct a live webinar sponsored by Nik software and X-Rite to discuss how I use Color Management and Nik filters in my workflow. I will post the webnar link as soon as it becomes available.
I created a project for myself recently. I created my very own version of flower girls. Like anything, it was fun and lots of work. I have completed 7 of the 8 images I want in this collection but I will wait not longer to show them. I hope you enjoy. please respond to the question at the bottom of the page.
Harriette
Elizabeth
Amy
Natasha
Jeanna
Flowers from every season are very beautiful. Which flower is your favorite?
Winifred
Perhaps there is nothing really average about any day in New York. First I met a new friend at the new Dream Hotel on 16th ST. I has been open only 6 months. It is a “boutique hotel” and the decor is just stunning. I wanted to view his rug samples – i am going to design a line of high end contemporary rugs.
Then we went off for a great lunch followed by a preview an upcoming art auction at Christies Auction House. WOW!! I could have been at a museum. One of our favorites if not the favorite was a Keith Haring print. It was a large piece, had a real story to it and very powerful graphics. I didn’t attend the auction a couple of days later – but HE GOT IT!!!!!
Then I went to the Rockefeller Center ice skating rink. It is very near Christies Auction. Such a beautiful day – somewhere between cool and warm. It was delightful to see the skaters.
Photographer Winifred Whitfield: Successful fusion of art and business
February 1, 2011 @ 11:11am | Rodika Tollefson
Winifred media
Women In Business
Photographer Winifred Whitfield: Successful fusion of art and business
February 1, 2011 @ 11:11am | Rodika Tollefson
Winifred WhitfieldWinifred Whitfield has no trouble reinventing herself. The Poulsbo-based photo artist has followed several paths before finding her current niche — creating fine art photo portraits of women — but they all have one thing in common: complete dedication.
“I want mastery. I want to do it really well. I’m not a dabbler, that’s for sure,” she says.
Whitfield launched her boutique studio gallery, Intimate Portraits for Women (www.bigvalleyphotoart.com), when she discovered she enjoyed creating soulful, sensual portraits of women using the disappearing art of classic portraiture. She was doing wedding photography and when she found the possibilities of digital photography, she saw it as a way of returning to a childhood passion: painting.
“People want to do work fast, put a tag on it and get it out the door. My niche requires time intensity to develop these products,” she says. “It’s not fast at all.”
The product starts with a photo session where Whitfield uses techniques such as lighting and the subject’s own feelings. She says a good photograph needs a context, a person’s emotions, whether that’s sadness or joy.
“I tell women to concentrate on their thoughts and what they project. I need content because it will come through the camera,” she says. “There’s a feeling to the images, a calmness, and that’s the difference. When people are ‘not there,’ there’s no feeling.”
With the photos complete, Whitfield’s work is only beginning. She will take the raw image and digitally turn it into fine art, brushstroke by brushstroke, using two different software programs. “It’s very engaging and it’s a lot of work but it’s not boring or tedious,” she says.
To achieve her level of mastery, Whitfield studies constantly — everything from composition to lighting in other artists’ good work — as well as dissecting her own work to see how she can improve it. She also focuses efforts on the technical aspects, such as experimenting with her digital brush strokes in order to build up her toolkit. “You have to work at it, it’s not intuitive at all,” she says.
Her work has become renowned around the country and abroad. Whitfield, who also does photography in New York on location, has won various awards for her work and has been in demand for classes — as recently as January she went to London for a week to teach workshops. She also was recently invited to do beta product testing and be a spokesperson for X-Rite, a global leader in color science and technology.
Whitfield enjoys sharing her knowledge with other photographers, and she’s even conducted a tutoring session for a renowned photographer friend via Skype: As he worked on a photoshoot in Australia, she guided him in using her techniques.
The business aspects are generally challenging for the artsy types, but Whitfield says she has disciplined herself to do the work that comes with being self-employed. “If you don’t do it, you perish,” she says.
Using that side of the brain, of course, is not new to her. In her former career in New York City, she was in charge of bond ratings at Standard & Poor’s. But one day she decided she was done with Wall Street and with life in the big city, so she set off for the Pacific Northwest to start a new life. She had been to Bremerton before and liked it, so the Kitsap Peninsula became her destination.
As she continued in the financial sector for a while, assisting colleges and other entities to structure their financing, she had acquired lamas and turned her focus to breeding. After she landscaped her six-acre farm and designed beautiful gardens, she found her property in demand for weddings, which, in turn, brought her into photography. (She has since put the farm on the market and moved to a much smaller home in Port Ludlow.)
“It’s not tough to reinvent myself. I’ve been told I have the gift of fearlessness. I know I will land on my feet and do well,” she says. “It’s because of the mastery. It’s an inner thing — not having to overcome fear and the drive to learn new things, be creative and do well.”
She says if she had to change careers again, she could easily do it, but she’s content with the niche she has found, especially in an industry that continues to grow. “The best part is the satisfaction, the tears that come when I deliver the final product. Women like to see themselves expressed beautifully.”
Working for herself has worked out well for Whitfield, who likes to do things her way, and she doesn’t see going back. “I’m very happy on my own,” she says,” as complex as it gets sometime.”
Some wise person ~ I forgot who ~ said to ” stay in motion”. Some might think this includes just “spinning your wheels, digging deeper and going no where, but I have never found this to be the case for me. I think Peter Crabtree would agree. He stays in motion also. A friend of mine, Bonita Doerkson suggested that we have a glass of wine one evening. “Let’s go to ChocMo” she said – “it’s just opening.” For a glass of wine – no problem for me. I entered this new space – only open for 3 days at the time – at least as the newly expanded and renamed place that is is. Many know the previous and smaller version CBC. I never really knew what it was. I knew it had something to do with chocolates but this is not one of my addictions – as it is for most. I found this new environment lovely. It was elegant. I liked it’s spaciousness, the textures and color of the wood used and the color of the walls and furniture. It was so me!
It was a quiet evening so we had the opportunity to visit with Peter Crabtree, it’s owner. I also had the opportunity to hear his story and his vision for this altered and expanded venture. Many know the story of Peter’s beginnings with chocolates in high school only 6 years ago. He was taking a culinary class and had the opportunity to make chocolates – the kind with the hard outside and the soft center. Peter was immediately fascinated with this. He began to make and sell chocolates after school, then at the farmer’s markets, then had the small retail space just next to the State Liquor store in Poulsbo … and now … introducing ChocMo.
The much bigger, much fancier, expanded version of Peter’s dreamNow it is much more than chocolates. I ask Peter that night what he was going to do with all of those blank walls. “I want to feature a new artist each month” he replied. Well, we figured this out in only and instant and he did not have much longer that that before his “Grand Opening would occur about 10 days away. If I can respond at all, I can normally respond at great speed. I brought one load of my beautifully framed portraits back that night, and the next load a couple of days later. Creating a professional looking installation of about 30 large pieces was another matter and for this I went to Derek Gundy, quite and excellent artist himself who manages Artist Edge in Poulsbo.
Winifred’s portrait exhibit and the environment Peter created are beautiful together.The portraits will be in place through the end of May. They will then be transported and exhibited in Columbia Bank in Port Ludlow, WA during the month of June.
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A good and a very delicious time was had by all.
