Rowe Photo Painting & Photography

The original art piece was located on the grounds of the Waikoloa Beach Marriott Hotel on the Big Island of Hawaii. It was easy to almost overlook it because it was located in a corner near the pool. I found the piece compelling and thought it would make an interesting painting. It took me a while to decide how to paint it until I came upon the idea of a special delivery from the underworld. Enjoy!

This painting was inspired by the original image of the model I photographed at the Air Museum in Washington D.C. I thought this fabulous airliner deserved to be flying, so I created this composite image to make that happen. I know I certainly want to fly on it!

I took the original image on the grounds at Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove in 2014. I have always liked this image, so I finally decided to paint it. As you can see, I deleted the vertical background branch from the painting to create some additional negative space for compositional balance. Why did I name it “Point the Way?” Because the image reminds me of asking a group of people for directions and they point in every direction as their answer! Enjoy.

I took the original image on the grounds of the Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove, Calif. The flowers were growing in the sand near the beach and they were exceedingly small. I took the photograph in my typical style of shoot wide, crop tight. I hope you enjoy the painting.

I took the Original HDR (High Dynamic Range) image in April of 2011. I have always loved this image because of the two people walking on the jetty dressed in red, and the bright red flag on the structure near the end of the jetty. I decided to paint the image using thick paint to accentuate the movement in the skies and the ocean. This scene was taken on the beach in back of Phil’s restaurant in Moss Landing, Calif. By the way, the food is great at Phil’s!

I received a post card in the mail in 2011 advertising the state of Arizona. I scanned it into my computer way back when, because I loved the images and colors so much. Now almost 10 years later I got around to painting it. As you can see, I popped the colors way up and added a sandy texture to the piece to more accurately depict this wonderful state. I wish I could give credit to the original artist, but the physical post card is long gone. Enjoy!

The original Image was taken at Moonstone Beach in Cambria Calif. near Morro Bay. My wife was working on her doctorate degree in Nursing in 2014 and we would go there so she could study. While she was studying, I would go out and take pictures. This original scene was fascinating to me because of the mysterious “‘Ghost’ footprints in the sand,” that seem to begin and end as if by magic. As you can see, I had to crop out the strong light source in the upper right corner of the image or your eye would be drawn there, instead of to the strong horizontal and vertical lines in the piece. Enjoy!

I took the original image in a curio shop in New Orleans while browsing. I often take a small pocked size camera with me, so if I find anything interesting I can snap a quick shot. Unfortunately in this case, the shop owner saw me taking pics of his displays and kicked me out! He probably wanted me to buy the clay voodoo dolls, but why would I do that? Ha ha, enjoy, but don’t stick a pin in one!

The original image is a close up of a Glass Egg that caught my eye in a shop, and this time I actually purchased it. I took the pic after I brought it home to once again show that you can take interesting pictures around your home. I love the interplay of colors and form in this abstract piece of art. I simplified the original image and intensified the colors since, you know, it’s a painting. Enjoy.

I took the original image as a demonstration of a photographic compositional construct called, “Pattern with a Break.” Patterns are a strong compositional element in photography, but they can quickly become boring. By adding a break in the pattern, the eye is quickly drawn to that break, adding interest to the image. The break in my pattern was simply a missing reflector in the road. The fun part of this image was that these road reflectors look like cigarettes in the middle of the road.

Back in the 70’s I flew Gliders at Sky Sailing in Fremont California. The glider port no longer exists. One of the sailplanes I flew was an American made glider, the Schweitzer 1-26. This sailplane is only 20 feet long with a wingspan of 40 feet. An average glider flight last about 20 minutes when you are towed to an altitude of 2000 ft. If you are lucky enough to find a thermal (look for dust devils on the ground or puffy clouds to fly under), then you can fly for hours. My longest flight was 1 hr 45 min, and my highest altitude on a flight was 11,400 feet. I didn’t have oxygen in the glider and it was below freezing at that altitude (no heater), so I couldn’t stay up there very long. It’s a great sport if you can afford it and love to fly, like I do. I gave the sport up when I found out that girls were more fun than flying a glider by myself!

I took the original photograph while on a canal tour in Amsterdam in 2019. The original image was rather dull, but again I saw potential in the setting and colors. Bikes are EVERYWHERE in Amsterdam, so I wanted to display them in a beautiful setting. Enjoy.

The original scene caught my eye because of the precarious method of entry and exit from this boat. The captain has to climb up the side of a brick wall on a ladder while the boat is bobbing in the water! I painted the bricks using an IMPASTO brush in Painter 2021 to give them texture and a 3-dimensional look. I have no idea what the name, DE A, means. Enjoy, but don’t get sea sick!

Shoot Long and Crop Close is my typical style of photography. Here I noticed what I assume is the steering wheel of the boat. The red wheel on this boat is typical of many of the vessels in Amsterdam. I personally find these wheels interesting and compelling to my photographer’s eye. I love to build my compositions around “line and form” as is displayed in this somewhat abstract painting. Enjoy.

Here is another example of those compelling wheels on Amsterdam boats. This wheel was particularly interesting since it cast a great shadow too! As I love to do, I cropped closely on the original image to create this abstract painting that is strong on form and color.

I took the original image early one morning in 2019 while cruising on the Rhine River in Germany. The sun was just rising over the river on a misty morning. I was inspired by the beauty and serenity of the quite morning on the river.

The original image was taken on a canal in Amsterdam. I noticed this interesting pattern in the water in front of a house boat with a white fence on its balcony, so I took the shot. As usual, I shot wide and cropped the image later for painting. I love to create abstract art from everyday objects or scenes, to challenge viewers to figure out what the art actually represents. Enjoy.

I had fun creating this somewhat abstract painting from a photo I took of a “metal and glass sculpture?” in a retail store. I thought it might make an interesting painting. I hope you enjoy it.

I wanted to paint this image for a long time because it has special meaning for me. The original Manga poster hung in my son’s room when he was a boy. When he grew older we moved it into the garage. One day I had my camera in the garage and took this image as the poster reflected off of the windshield of my car. I have always loved the whimsical nature of this image, along with one of his beloved stuffed animals silhouetted on the right. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

I took the original image in Maui on a summer day. As per my usual photographic method, I exposed a long shot and then cropped, developed, and adjusted the digital image in Lightroom and Photoshop before painting it with Corel Painter. Hope you enjoy it!

The original image was taken by John Derry and painted by Geary Rowe

This boat caught my eye while my wife and I were on a tour of the canals in Amsterdam. Most of the images I photograph are framed further away than most other photographers. I do this purposely because it gives me extra flexibility during post production to crop and frame my final output.

In this image I like the bold lines and colors of the boat and thought it would make a nice painting. Hope you like it.

I photographed these Water Goblets in a small restaurant in Amsterdam. I liked the original, but decided to crop, de-saturate, and slightly paint the glasses for a more dramatic look. I also added a vignette to further focus the viewers' attention on the goblets. Enjoy.

The original image was taken during one of many photography classes I have taken over my 40 years as a photographer . The assignment was simply, "Take a picture of a mustard flower." I decided to use the flower as a background for the composition, while focusing on the bee. This is one of my favorite images/paintings. I hope you enjoy it.

This digital painting is dedicated to John Derry, the Digital painter with many painting courses located on LinkedIn Learning (originally Lynda.com). The original digital image was supplied by him via one of his Corel Painter LinkedIn Learning classes. Thank you John for being my talented mentor!

If you scroll down to the bottom two images, you can see that I took two rather unremarkable shots. One of a house in Colmar France and another shot of a cleaning person on the Rhine River docks in Basil Switzerland. Neither image is that great, but as a photographer/Painter I was able to imagine a nice composite image to paint that might be fun by including a man in Top Hat and Tails sweeping his front porch. I hope you like it.

This image was taken on the California coast North of S.F in Half Moon Bay. As you can see from the original image, it was quite a stretch to end up with this piece of abstract art.

The original image that inspired this painting was shot just down the street from the Beach Cottage Window image in Half Moon Bay, California. As you can see the original image was very busy, so it was my job to reduce the clutter and focus the eye of the viewer onto the main subject.

The original image was taken on Bourbon Street in New Orleans Louisiana (NOLA). The shirt on the man with angel wings reads, “NEED $ FOR COCAINE,” and the guy in the middle has a patch on his vest that reads, “THESE ARE MY CHURCH CLOTHES.” Bourbon Street is a great place to take street pictures. Enjoy.

This painting took a LOT of work. I took the original building image along with the Sax Man Image in New Orleans in 2018. I really liked the painted building since it is such a great representation of the city and it’s musical roots. As you can see from the cropped image I had to delete a parking meter, a trash can, and pole, and an entire family walking from the sidewalk. Then I added the sax man image, which I took near Bourbon Street in the French Quarter, to the building image. Finally, I painted the composite image using Impasto brushes to emulate the gritty feeling of the city. Hope you enjoy it.

This is the Nubble Lighthouse located near Kennebunkport Maine. The original image was cluttered as you can see in the original, so I made a few changes to focus the eye of the viewer. I deleted a building, telephone pole, and added flowers after painting away the weeds. Since the sky in the original was such a flat light blue, I added some texture to the sky. I also added an American flag on the previously empty pole. The really fun part was adding a Lighthouse Keeper with a telescope in the tower searching for ships in peril. Enjoy!

I thought it might be fun to paint a second image of the same lighthouse at night with stars and a strong search beam with the lighthouse keeper still searching for ships in peril. Enjoy.

I took this image right outside our rented condo on the Big Island of Hawaii, then painted it using Corel Painter.

There is a great lesson to be learned from this pair of images. As you can see, the original below was taken from a long distance. But if you have a decent camera with a minimum of say 18 megapixels and you shoot in RAW format, then enlargement and processing is very flexible. The image was taken with a Nikon D5200 24 megapixel digital camera, then painted in Corel Painter after enlargement and processing in Lightroom and Photoshop.

This church is located on the Big Island of Hawaii and is actually called, “The Painted Church.” So this is a painting of The Painted Church! My wife is in the front pew, praying.

Morro Bay near San Luis Obispo is a favorite destination for my wife and I. This image of the bay and electric plant stacks needed some extra processing and painting which it got! In the original image below, I had to crop my wife out of the right edge for compositional clarity…..Sorry Babe!

The original Rose image shown below was pretty good as is. But with a bit of post processing in Lightroom and Photoshop, and painting in Corel Painter, I think it turned out even better!

As you can see from the original image below, it takes some imagination at times to see the potential in an image. I had a feeling that this image might be good, so I first created an HDR (High Dynamic Range) image of this scene with 3 separate shots at different camera exposures. I then processed and painted the combined images to get my final abstract result.

The original image taken with my Nikon without a tripod in difficult conditions at sunset, shooting into a bright sun and shadows. In post processing, I decided to add texture to the flat sky to add interest to the piece. The scene was photographed near Pacific Grove which is adjacent to Monterey, Ca. Hope you like it!

This image of my son was taken on the same evening and location as Sunset Pelicans. Here I decided to hand paint a vivid sky instead of adding texture. I learned this particular digital painting technique from Corel Painter Master, Aaron Rutten who can be found on YouTube. Enjoy!

These brass swans shown below sat in my parents' house for years, and are now keepsakes in my home. I was interested in taking some pictures of them after noticing the interesting reflections on the green marble behind them. I tried to get a compelling image of the swans and their reflection as shown in the Reference image, to no avail. Ultimately, I decided to focus on the reflections themselves due to the interesting patterns in the marble as seen in the Swans of Hope original image. Then I painted this abstract image in honor of my mother, Hope, and I am dedicating this painting to her.

This is an image I painted from a scene in a movie that holds special meaning for me. Two people are adrift in a raft at sea with little chance of survival. The man sees this beautiful moonrise glowing in front of him on the open sea and is simply thanking his creator for his life. This is how I feel about my life with my wonderful wife, children, and grandchildren.

The movie: Joe versus. the Volcano, starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. Silly movie with thoughtful life messages.

This is another exercise in seeing. This is an abstract image of the glass and brass door window of my previous home. I went in and out of this door thousands of times before this image was revealed to me after taking some pics of it.

This composite image of Vietnam Veteran “Ghost Soldiers” searching for the names of their missing buddies on the Vietnam Memorial in DC, was built from the two images shown below. After seeing the Memorial in person and being moved to tears, I decided to make this image in their honor. God bless all our Veterans.

On a personal note, I missed going to the Vietnam War myself because my eyes we so bad the army rejected me in 1968.

This particular wood carving was located on the grounds of the Waikoloa Beach Marriott Hotel on the Big Island of Hawaii.