First Friday! Tomorrow Night! Guest Artist Ian Rhodes!

First Friday! Tomorrow Night! Guest Artist Ian Rhodes!

Join us this Friday night at The Gallery Underground and Summit Studios and see what the buzz is all about.
We open our doors once a month to the public to share what some of the most creative minds in Northern Colorado are up to.

We will also be celebrating the birthday of resident artist and creative bad-ass, Ayn Toppin.

Sponsored by New Belgium.

A little about Ian Rhodes-

Ian Rhodes attempts to paint the people he sees around him engaged in
various activities. That’s how it starts, innocently enough. Somewhere
along the way, though, things get mixed up and the work that comes out
the other end often contains imagery that remains a mystery even to him.
When he sets out to create a work with a narrative these intentions
usually betray him as well and personal conflicts and influences drip out
uncomfortably on the canvas. He keeps an eye open for relationships and
situations that are a bit tragic or desperate and tries to create
characters to inhabit such places. Ian is also a big fan of space and
form and enjoys using skewed perspective and bent shapes in service of
mood. If the paintings seem a little uneasy, that’s the way he likes it.

Also new work will be on display by Bryan Collins, Elinor Christopher, Eric Aoki, Ryan Gualaume, Ayn Toppin, Forrest Gerke, Oscar Woodruff, Erin Washington, Cody Kuehl, Jacob Miller, Rolfe Bautista, Kalen Foster, Holly Kyseth, Kirsten Savage and Darren Mahuron.

New Photo “Parenting II”

New Photo

This is a photo of my client Courtney and her son Miller one year after the first Parenting shot we completed.  It was a blast to shoot. Hope you like it.

Kite Flying A Kid

Kite Flying A Kid

I just finished this one this morning. Courtney Rogers, who has been a client from the beginning, hired me to photograph herself and her son Miller. I came up with the kite idea as a challenge to myself, and as fun way to have them together in a photo without the typical boring family pose.

The trickiest part was getting the perspective right and to make everything fit compositionally. This often happens where I can see the image in my head, but it’s in 3D so when I flatten it out, it can be tough to make everything fit. Somehow, and maybe it was the 9 hours in photoshop yesterday, it worked out.

Matt Morris and The Floating Guitar

Matt Morris and The Floating Guitar

This was a shot I did for Matt Morris and Tennman Records. Not super complicated, but I like the Chaplin-esque feel of the photo. Matt was a blast to work with. Very open to ideas and spontaneity.

darren

The Social Grooming Of Lester Graves

The Social Grooming Of Lester Graves

Looking at this photograph one would not guess how much planning and set up goes into creating the final image. But Darren has been kind enough to give us a glimpse of the stages involved.

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The Social Grooming Of Lester Graves Stage

First there is the background. Old school white tile and radiator. Summit Studios’ world headquarters is in Old Town Fort Collins Colorado, a place that has no shortage of rooms like this. If you look at Darren’s portfolio you’ll see a lot of Old Town reflected in it.

Social Grooming step twoNow that the stage is set it is time for our actors. Darren shoots the characters in his tales in front of a simple white background. This makes extracting in Photoshop a simplier task. Though it is still time consuming with potential for a lot of frustration.

Social Grooming step 3The final step is to bring it all together in Photoshop. For the very detailed instructions on how Darren does that click here.

This print is available in Darren’s Etsy shop right here.

Before and after of Smoke Break

Before and after of Smoke Break

Ah the smoke break, what an age old tradition. One that first found its way into art back in 1778 when Francisco Goya painted “La Cometa” or “The Kite.” Notice the fellow in the bottom left corner enjoying his cigarette while his merry friends fly a kite. I’d say the old boy was ahead of his time, he knew that kite flying was on its way out as a gentleman’s la_cometa by goyasport.

While Goya was looking ahead you could argue that Darren is looking back with his image of a smoke break. These days it is not as hip as it once was. Which is why this image works so well. Between the car, the fashion, and the attitude, this piece screams Americana.

Those are my two cents. What do you think? Leave a comment with your thoughts.

Before and after of Cold Swamp

Before and after of Cold Swamp

I always see stories in Darren’s photographs and this one is full of potential stories. We have a big guy in a swamp holding a chainsaw and a doll. My first thought is about the doll’s owner.

It could be that the doll’s owner met the business end of that chainsaw and now our big friend is carrying around the doll as a trophy. Another possibility is the big guy is the doll’s owner and he is much like Lennie Small from Steinbeck’s novel “Of Mice and Men.”

What are your thoughts? What do you see in this photograph?

What story do you want to tell? Contact Darren to set up your own shoot.

Darren Mahuron’s high contrast masonite prints now available on Etsy

Etsy Logo“Etsy is an online marketplace for buying & selling all things handmade.

Our mission is to enable people to make a living making things, and to reconnect makers with buyers.
Our vision is to build a new economy and present a better choice:

Buy, Sell, and Live Handmade.”The Social Grooming of Lester Graves

That is how Etsy describes itself. Bottom line it is a web service that allows artists to easily offer their work on the internet. It is easy for the seller and the buyer, which is one of the reasons you can now find Darren’s work on Etsy.

Check out his store front right here: www.summitstudios.etsy.com.

He is offering a range of prints from $25 to $200 with more on the way. What is hard to tell from looking at the prints online is just how much they “pop.” Often this is the first thing viewers notice about Darren’s prints. That super glossy print on masonite adds a new dimension to his photography. I suggest you order one, get it in your hands, and see for yourself how much better your living or working space looks with photos from Summit Studios.

When you have a wall with a photograph from Darren Mahuron, chicks dig you and guys want to be you. (Or vice versa depending on your gender.) So what are you waiting for? Head over to www.summitstudios.etsy.com and buy a print or five.

Another caricature photograph

Another caricature photograph

This morning we have another photo from Darren’s caricature project. A caricature is a “loaded portrait.” It exagerrates or distorts the essence of a person and their features. The art form has been around a long time. Graffiti on ancient Roman walls often involved caricatures of politicians. By manipulating the photograph with Photoshop Darren has updated the long practiced art form.

As always you can find more examples of Darren’s work on his website www.darrenmahuron.com.

Or if you’d like to set up a photo shoot with Darren use the contact form found here.

Before and after from Darren Mahuron’s caricature project

Before and after from Darren Mahuron's caricature project

This is a photo of Andrew that Darren did while learning the fine art of photographic caricatures. I can only imagine how many hours Darren spent with these in Photoshop. But the very creative results are well worth it.