Art takes nature as its model.

I love macro photos because getting so close in ultimately results in showing me something new. Sometimes the “new” is a detail previously overlooked or a new perspective or insight. In the case of these two sepia photos my artistic imagination was fueled.

These are photos of the inner layer just under the peeling bark of the Sycamore tree. I was looking for bark beetles and found a lot of interesting patterns instead. After taking countless number of photos I had soon forgotten all about insects.

This one reminded me of leaves on a branch.

I love the irony of this photo with the image of trees on a tree.

Aristotle said, “Art takes nature as its model.” It is so true. Can’t you just imagine designs similar to these on the back of an haute couture evening jacket or coat worn to the Kennedy Center Honors event last night?

How does nature inspire the artist in you?

Take a moment to visit Sepia Scenes for some interesting sepia photos.

Ancient Story

“In every outthrust headland, in every curving beach, in every grain of sand there is a story of the earth.” –Rachel Carson

Be sure to visit the outstanding photos at Monochrome Weekly.

Autumn flowers

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.

~Albert Camus

See more from Watery Wednesday.

Connections

"A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." – Albert Einstein

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Happiness of each

Female Mallard

“The world, we are told, was made especially for man — a presumption not supported by all the facts,” Muir wrote. “A numerous class of men are painfully astonished whenever they find anything, living or dead, in all God’s universe, which they cannot eat or render in some way what they call useful to themselves . . . it never seems to occur to these far-seeing teachers that Nature’s object in making animals and plants might possibly be first of all the happiness of each one of them, not the creation of all for the happiness of one. Why should man value himself as more than a small part of the one great unit of creation? And what creature of all the Lord has taken the pains to make is not essential to the completeness of the unity – the cosmos? The universe would be incomplete without man; but it would also be incomplete without the smallest microscopic creature that dwells beyond our conceitful eyes and knowledge.” – John Muir, A Thousand –Mile Walk.


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