Welcome to Blend Mode — a blog devoted to digital photography and the creative process.
Sometimes inspiration comes from the least likely places. Last fall, I had an idea to incorporate into my photographs the paintings I did in kindergarten more than 50 years ago.
The result has transformed my work.
The free-form paintings from a 5 year old’s imagination are so vivid and honestly I couldn’t replicate them if I tried. The colors pop and enhance photographs I have taken with an adult’s more measured perspective.
Done with a brush dipped into cans of tempera paint, these “masterpieces” remained in a drawer in my mother’s living room until she passed in 2017. I am so grateful she had the presence of mind to keep them. And later for nurturing my interest in photography and suggesting I explore collage which at the time I dismissed and now regret.
Today, using the blend mode tool in Adobe Photoshop, I layer pictures of these paintings on top of many of my images leading to completely unexpected results. Sometimes I just have to sit back and stare at the colors. They are a link to my childhood self and a source of artistic inspiration all these years later. So thanks mom. You knew something about that I didn’t.
