MEDIUM: Mixed Media

STUDIO LOCATION: 52 at 6 Vernon Street

WEBSITE: bobballou.com

Instagram: @ballou.bob

My art grew out of my career as a land planner and urban designer, disciplines that engaged my love of architecture and the landscape. Photography was always an important tool as a way to see relationships of form in both and to evaluate the impact of variables such a light, color and line on our emotions. When I retired, I wanted to expand on this experience, incorporating the skills and tools I used in my work and to add contemporary tools to find a new means of personal expression. My art emerged from this exploration.

My work merges three mediums: photography, digital painting, and pastels. I begin with a digital photo which I bring into a software program that allows me to play with color, light and proportion and then to eliminate detail in order to focus on these relationships. Once colors are established, I use a digital brush to paint pixels of light rather than pigments of color. This is printed on fine art paper and pastel is rubbed into the paper to provide highlight and enrich certain areas within the composition. This process allows me to explore how color, light and form impact and play on our emotional response to a place or setting.