Art in Motion

Videos of 4 Local Scenes

This page presents a series of two-minute videos showing the transformation of four of my oil-on-canvas paintings as I use digital ‘brushes’ to mold them into entirely new artworks. The pictures change in remarkable ways, each one evolving into a succession of entirely new and different images. The digital brushes are based on mathematical algorithms, each of which makes the pixels move in particular ways. As the images evolve, you can see many different scenes quite unlike the original but still based on it. Any such scene can be ‘captured’ and produced as an original artwork of very high resolution on canvas, board, paper or other surfaces.

The first video begins with an oil-on-canvas painting I did of the small lake at Clifford E. Lee Sanctuary off of Hwy. 60 and north of Devon, Alberta. It was in early March when I visited it, the ice just beginning
to melt after a long winter. The original oil-on-canvas painting I did is shown below, followed by the video showing its evolution.

Click the arrow at bottom left to begin and for a larger image, just click the squarish icon at bottom right.

*Music: “Outdoors” by Natalia Kolesnikova (PRSformusic)

Any instant in the video can be selected and by using opacity and transparency layering, a high-precision digital image can be made. The image can then be produced at any size on canvas up to 60″ x 80″ or on hardboard up to 48″ x 96″. With the new techniques we are now using, even the larger pieces are of remarkable resolution on a fine scale.

Here are some images grabbed from the video of the frozen–and thawing–lake near Devon.

Above: At about 50 seconds into the video, the little lake has grown mountains!

After 1:20 into the video, the transparencies work together to produce a gentle effect.

This bold presentation occurs a bit after two minutes.

And this one at 0:58.


Scene 2: Stubble Field near Riverlot 56

Riverlot 56 is a favourite trail directly northeast of St. Albert. I’ve seen all species of birds there, including a white owl and a very close encounter with a moose! This video of 2 minutes shows what I was able to pull out of a small painting I did back in 2006.

*Music: “My Inspire” by CloudSystem, Leonid Malinin

Here I’ve stretched out a scene from the first 15 seconds of the video.


This eerie phantasm occurs very briefly at 0:57 and returns again at 1:35.

 

Later: Riders in the Sky? (at 1:32)

When things in the sky calm down a little, there appears this soft and almost monochromatic pattern.

If you really exercise your imagination, you might see a gilded vase of overflowing flowers at 1:28.

The old landforms of the meadow suddenly become fiery volcanos (1:16).

Scene 3: Roadside Slough near Villeneuve

This tiny marsh once lay by the side of Villeneuve Road, which runs from St. Albert west to Villeneuve, Alberta. I believe it’s deceased now, due to the road improvements since I painted this picture in 2011. In this third video, I transform the shapes, then the colour casts to show how it might look in different seasons–if one uses plenty of imagination!

*Music: “Tomorrow” by Natalia Kolesnikova, PRSformusic

Below are some images I grabbed from this third video, expressing different forms and casts of colour.

Roadside Slough near Villeneuve, Alberta: The original painting 18×24 inches (2011).

Well, yes, I know: the pond defies gravity at 30 seconds in. But the computer for all its wisdom, doesn’t differentiate between land and water and sky!

Blue and orange sky at 0:55. This and the ones following below reflect quite different moods.

These blue and yellow shades occur at 0:50.


Scene 4: Range Road 21 near Onoway

No different from a thousand other rural roadways in north-central Alberta, this stretch of Range Road leads north from the small town of Onoway, about 40 km west and north of Edmonton. The 18×24 inch oil-on-canvas piece was one of my first oil paintings.

*Music: “Calm and Confident” by leadsquid Dmitrii Paderin

Conclusion

The still shots shown above are only a very few of the hundreds of frames in the videos. All of the images you see in them, even for a split second, can be produced on canvas, board or other medium, each in amazing resolution and colour saturation. Oh, and it’s not Artificial Intelligence. Just me and my pixel-bending digital brushes and their embedded math!

Please let me know if you are interested in the above imagery, and contact me via the “Contact” page or directly by e-mail at btenviro@gmail.com