Gallery – Lucinda Atwood

Snow Ice tiara

This is ice or maybe snow. Does it matter? I like the shallow depth of field, meaning only a small amount of distance from the viewer is in focus. Everything closer and further is out of focus, creating beautiful bokeh circles of light. Initially fairly monochromatic, this image resonates with colour, especially the bottom half. But as the eye rounds up to the top third of the image it begins to pick out colours from across the spectrum. The composition is at once dynamic and static; the main shape in the top half is diagonal, drawing the eye upward toward the top right. But the bottom, which may or may not be a reflection (we can’t tell) is horizontal, denoting a strong foundation; strong foundational support.

Dots of light dance toward the viewer, circles drawing our eyes in circles across and around the image. Highlights denote sparkle, which we connect with gems, jewels, valuable materials. Which, snow being water, this is.

Winter Grass

I made this image from a photo taken while snowshoeing of long straws after a snowfall. I like that the blue reflects cold and winter, as does the starkness of the image. The diagonals imply movement, dynamism. The grasses split at the top, looking like those little lines we draw behind things to show movement. The lines in this piece are jagged, pixellated, reminding us that we are not seeing nature. Unnatural nature.

Jumbled lines dash toward the picture edges but are also static, cradling tiny bundles of newfallen snow. The muted colour palette reinforces that sense of stillness, silence, the hush of newfallen snow.

This image is very two dimensional—it doesn’t have a lot of depth. So it’s flat and silent but also dynamic and off-balance, weighted far more on the left than the right but yet feeling balanced. Because those lines draw the eye right, the image never tips backwards to the left. Asymmetrical but balanced, dynamic yet static, cold yet nurturing.

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Dam Gorge Water

The power of water never ceases to amaze me. I am strong but water is stronger. It’s loud and scary yet I’m drawn to it. The perfect symmetry of the human-made dam contrasts beautifully with nature’s rampant beauty. People wearing red provide scale and add a drop of variety to the otherwise green grey brown landscape. A tumultuous river blasts through the middle of the symmetrical composition, as mist resulting from the tremendous drop rises toward the viewer. But we are above it, we are safe. We’re close to danger but know that we are safe. Voyeurs not voyageurs. Nature stretches out in the distance, constant, continuous eternal.

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