Summer Travels: The George Eastman Museum

Earlier this summer, my husband, David, my best friend, Robin, & I traveled to Rochester, NY to see the George Eastman Museum.  

We came to see the museum's collection of historic cameras and photographs, from early Daguerreotypes and box cameras ...

... to a massive camera designed for the NASA Lunar Orbiter Project in 1967.

An unexpected gem for me was getting to tour Eastman's home and gardens.

Here's a view of the flower garden from the second floor of the mansion.

I felt inspired by the beauty of his gardens, and snapped reference photos that I hope to revisit this winter when the world is cold and gray.

If you find any of these photos inspiring, I hope you'll make a sketch, a drawing or painting from them!

Inside George Eastman's house, we were treated to the elegance of a time gone by.  My favorite room was the library, full of books and comfy chairs.

Imagine unwinding in this quiet space!

Every detail within the house was artistic and inspiring.

We got to try our hands at opening Eastman's safe! Instructions were provided on the cabinet door.

We had a wonderful visit and I highly recommend it!

Happy Creating!

Nature Journaling the Solar Eclipse

On April 8th, 2024, I traveled to Medina, Ohio to watch the total eclipse of the sun.  Of course, I brought along my nature journal and art supplies, and recorded what I observed.

I had seen three partial solar eclipses, but never a total eclipse.

 We set up early to watch and photograph the event.

We had a camera on a tripod, with a cell phone app to trigger the shutter.

Using eclipse viewing glasses, I was able to see every step of the process, and when totality occurred, it was magical.

Here's a photo of the total eclipse.  We took off our eclipse glasses and viewed it with our eyes.

You can see solar flares as the colorful bits around the edges.  Absolutely stunning!

Whether you are recording an eclipse or the dawning of spring, making drawings in your nature journal help you to fully experience natural events.  

The simplest sketch strengthens your memory of the event, and now you have a record of what you saw, what you noticed, and how you felt.

I hope you take the time to create in a nature journal this week!

Copyright Betsy Bangley 2024. All rights reserved.

Photographer David Mollenhauer Visits the Studio

One of the things I love about making art is that it allows the rest of us to see the world from the artist's eyes.  Only you will see a scene from your unique viewpoint, and your art reflects what's important and beautiful to you.

That's one of the things that makes these photos exciting to me; they allow me to see my familiar art studio in a new light -- through the eyes of photographer David Mollenhauer.

If you'd like to see more of his work, visit his website here:

https://www.mollenhauerphotography.com/

David shot these images with a Nikon Z8, using a Petzval lens.

The images below were photographed with a 70-180 mm lens on the Z8.

I'm blown away by these images.

Part of that is due to David's artfulness in the composition, lighting, and treatment of each scene.

I think it also has to do with the fact that I spend time in this studio every day.

This room was transformed over the last four years from a living room to an art and photographic studio. At first, everything was stripped away. Slowly, artworks and artifacts have accumulated, building the energy of the space from a mere room into a place of discovery, exploration, and creativity.

I see the result of all of this effort with new eyes when I flick through David's photographs in a way that I never noticed over the gradual transformation of these past four years.

Isn't that the beauty of each of us sharing our own unique viewpoint through our art?

Many thanks to David Mollenhauer for his visit, his photos, and for allowing me to share his work on my blog!

Inspiration from an Old Stump

Out on a hike with my Nikon D-70s, I found this battered stump just as I was returning to my car at sunset.  The vibrant moss and the wild tangle of vines caught my eye, and I snapped a photo.

At home, I downloaded the file to my computer and set up my studio for painting.

I made a quick pencil sketch, and broke out my gouache paints.  Gouache is like watercolor paint, but opaque if you keep it thick. 

I love taping off the margins on a nature journal page, and then setting to work laying in the colors -- big areas first, then delving into the delightful details.

Of course, I picked out the details I liked and painted the rest in generalities.  At the end, that's the beauty -- we get to focus on the parts of the scene that inspire us.  We're not creating another photograph, but a painting.  And in that painting, we express our artist's eye & our spirit.  

May you get to follow your artist's eye and express your spirit soon!