Monarch Clusters at Pismo Beach

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On my work trip to Santa Barbara, I was pleasantly surprised to drive by the Pismo Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove. When we lived on Monterey Bay, we used to visit the butterfly grove in Pacific Grove but I didn't have the camera gear I now own. So I took this serendipitous opportunity to photograph these marvels of nature.

Accidental Art Amidst the Oilfields

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During my recent trip to Santa Barbara, I spent a day photographing the area around the Carrizo Plain. There are a huge number of oilfields located to the east near Taft, CA., which I drove through to get to the high hills of the Tremblor Range. These unusually-shaped expansion loops are peppered throughout the hundreds of drilling sites. An interesting example of accidental art!

John's Impasto User: Janet Stoppee

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Artist Janet Stoppee of M2 Media Studios recently painted this Blue Ridge Mountains street scene of Sperryville, Virginia.

Janet writes:

I painted this inspired by the Impressionists. It is cloned from a shoot Brian and I did capturing our favorite tree in the Blue Ridge mountain village of Sperryvile. I used John’s Impasto Medium Gloss Varnish on a few places like the tree trunk, steps and a few other areas to give it more movement.

I really tried to step away from too much photographic detail. I used the Fan - Flat Cloner Brush and made different variations of it.

You can see more of Janet's work here

Elias Mina: John's Impasto & Smart Brushes User

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Toronto-based photographer and artist Elias Mina works in both Painter and Photoshop. Eli writes, "I used your Smart Oil brush in Painter (John's Smart Brushes) and then moved to Photoshop to use mostly your brushes to paint inside and around the window. I can't make up my mind which is my favourite! I hope you don't mind me sharing with you my excitement. I am applying textures to selective part like sky, etc. and sometimes to a whole image. What a difference they make when I get it right."

You can see more of Eli's work at his web site.