This is a guest post by Jen Smith. I wanted to provide some information as to the tools Zone 3 uses for digital art.

posted 02/27/24

Mastering Artistic Vision: The Role of Adobe Express in Fine Art Photography

Photo via Adobe Stock

In the artistic domain of fine art photography, the true spirit of creativity extends beyond merely capturing images; it is finely crafted in the post-production stages. Adobe Express emerges as a crucial instrument in this creative odyssey, offering an array of features that empower photographers to bring their artistic vision to fruition. This article hosted by Zone Three Gallery delves into the ways fine art photographers can leverage Adobe Express to enhance their artistry and weave compelling visual tales.

Streamlining Complexity: The Intuitive Interface of Adobe Express

Adobe Express distinguishes itself with its straightforward and approachable interface, making it a boon for users across the technological spectrum. Unlike the intricate platforms of Photoshop or Lightroom, Adobe Express provides a simplified environment where fine art photographers can swiftly master and implement a range of editing skills from basic to sophisticated. This simplicity does not detract from its functionality; rather, it allows artists to devote more attention to their artistic intent rather than the intricacies of software navigation.

Unleashing Creativity: A Comprehensive Editing Suite

The essence of Adobe Express lies in its extensive collection of editing tools designed to meet diverse artistic requirements. Photographers have at their disposal these tools to refine their images to perfection. Whether making fundamental adjustments such as contrast, exposure, and saturation, or delving into more intricate enhancements like selective color work and texture addition, Adobe Express furnishes a full set of tools. This suite not only aids in correcting small imperfections but also in artistically altering images to reflect a photographer’s distinct style.

Narrative Enrichment: Advanced Text and Typography Features

Adobe Express acknowledges the narrative depth that fine art photography often embodies, offering advanced text and typography options to embed textual elements effortlessly into images. This facility to incorporate captions, titles, or elaborate narratives enriches the storytelling power of fine art photography, proving invaluable for artists aiming to engage the viewer in a conversational exchange through imagery and words.

Inspiration and Customization: Templates and Design Resources

Enriched with an extensive assortment of templates and design resources, Adobe Express acts as a treasure trove for photographers aspiring to explore different artistic avenues. These customizable templates serve as creative springboards, while the array of design elements like icons and backgrounds further broadens the scope for artistic expression.

Fostering Collaboration: Community and Sharing Features

Adobe Express enhances collaborative efforts and sharing within the art community, an essential aspect for growth and exposure. Its efficient sharing functions allow photographers to effortlessly present their work to colleagues or engage in collaborative projects, promoting a culture of communal development. The ease of distributing works across digital platforms also significantly boosts visibility and engagement with a broader audience.

Versatile Accessibility: Cloud-Based Editing and Mobility

A key advantage of Adobe Express is its cloud-based architecture, facilitating access from any device and location. This feature is particularly advantageous for fine art photographers who frequently find themselves on the go, allowing them to edit their portfolios anytime, anywhere, without the need for advanced hardware.

Adobe Express stands as a gateway to artistic liberation for fine art photographers, with its blend of user-friendly design, extensive editing capabilities, and supportive community features marking it as an essential tool in the creative journey. As photographers embrace Adobe Express, they not only refine their visual narratives but also venture into new artistic territories, thereby contributing to the dynamic evolution of fine art photography. In the face of technological progress, Adobe Express is poised to remain a significant influence in the artistry of photography.

For collaborations or questions about purchasing art, be sure to utilize Zone Three Gallery’s contact page!

02/27/24

Well, it has been awhile since we have spoken. Many changes (mostly in locations) of Zone 3, which is being currently reinvented as an on-line gallery with pop-up physical locations from time to time. You never know where we might appear, currently, pop-up Zone 3 Gallery is located at ArtSight – 6 South Street Bristol Vermont. For 3.5 years I posted a daily weather blog via another media, and now, dreaming a new dream again, I thought I would share a post from that time. We are moving once again into mud-season, the time of spring rains, so I share this with you…

Degrees of Rain

I feel the whisper of water

all night long 

like your breath bowing my spine,

making my skin rise

and I can’t sleep for listening

to these subtle sounds of story, 

taking them in line by line,

by degrees of heat still carried

on these finely coiled threads;  

can’t decide whether to break them

or weave them deeper.

In the morning 

I open a window,

same as unhinging 

this wire cage; 

let out all the birds 

caught inside of me

fly into the rush of rain.

Profound discoveries, reshaped words from story to poem and new story, then story told

at the May Artswalk – two poets meet and read, Karla, the keeper of the dream and Zoe

telling of a new dream, a new day…. I sit mesmerized by the both of them, the sound of

their voices, the meter of their words, strung together into an enduring shape of memory.

Study Karla’s layered page on page and perfect hand stitches across story and image. A

magical night at Zone Three….Enter the zone, indeed.

The day after…Mandalas, lots of them, on beautiful big concrete walls with natural light streaming in – what is an artist not to like about that scenario?
Thank you to all my friends, friends I just met yesterday, and all who stopped by to walk the building and see the art, stop and chat, learn more about the concept and energy behind this series. This exhibit will be up at 1330 Exchange Street for a full year, so whoever sees this blog, I hope you get a chance to stop by sometime over the course, and see for yourself the synergy between architecture and art. – Rachel

HEARTS AND THIEVES – GROUP SHOW
The gallery is featuring the stolen heart this month

In honor of the blood of St. Valentine…

All art in the Main gallery is predominately red and black

Maybe a heart or two mixed in….

White and gold, frankincense, myrrh…. It is January and out the windows everywhere white, gobs of white.  In the gallery reflecting off all this light are the shimmer of a golden desert sky (implied), the movement across desert and time, cosmos and one bright star to follow – MAGI Jan. 6-30.  Come and be inspired.

Mary is definitely in the House….waking up, surrounded by Mary, what a powerful way to move through December – images of the mystical mother, the Virgin of Guadalupe, her namesakes in the flesh, all were at the gallery this past Saturday night, and what a joyous celebration of Mary it was – A feast for the eyes and a table overflowing with all manner of holiday gustatory pleasures.  We made merry long past the open studio hours and there was a sweet and steady arrival of friends and art lovers throughout the event.  Graziella Weber-Grassi’s sublime collages  fill the Main Gallery – from “Dizzy Mary” – featuring the Virgin with a gold tinsel halo on a psychedelic background to” Japanese Mary” – a more classic image surrounded by Japanese text, crepe paper and pleated cartoon sheets .  Once again showing her unique style and brilliant retro-surrealist vision – yes I am gushing – come and see for yourself  and be truly amazed – open Monday- Friday 8-6.   To view the riot of new mixed media Mary’s in the great, room, feel free to phone for an appointment.  The show runs through December 30^th.  All of us at Zone Three wish you a Very Mary Christmas!

Klara Calitri is a VT based Austrian multi-media artist.   A true renaissance woman, at 91, Klara speaks several languages and employs many art forms.

I recently sat down with Klara in her studio for an interview.  She described snapshots of her life, a succession of events that has lead her to Vermont and what she sees as a natural evolution in her life as an artist.

She began, “What you saw as a child and liked stays with you for the rest of your life.”  The refinement and sensibility evident in her work thus remains forever linked with Austria.

Born in Vienna in 1922, Calitri still draws inspiration from her Viennese background and childhood experiences:   As a teenager sent to study languages in the Moravian Highlands of Czechoslovakia.   Fleeing Nazi occupation in 1939 on a midnight train to Switzerland, Her family immigrated to New York City.  While on Scholarship to St. Michael’s University in Burlington, meeting her future husband Junius that summer at Orchard Beach – he was an Olympic swimmer, and lifeguard champion who taught her how to win a swimming medal.  Post World War II – While attending Cornell University, where she earned her Master’s Degree, She describes bi-monthly trips back to NYC.  In their beat up 34 Chevy, gas rations saved up, her Canary in the back of the car.  The car leaked when it rained – they had to cover the canary with a tarp.

Then came a life filled with children, teaching, and the layering of many art forms and experimentation into multi-media.

Drawing from her love of Asian art and the memories of fine European porcelain, she has created a number of works with these delicate elemental qualities.  However, Calitri is no one trick pony; letting the medium determine where she goes with it.  She describes her love of mixing it up and mastering new techniques:”  “Each work of art dictates its own life.”  On painting, “The story comes out of the brush, you have to let it come through, listen to the painting forming itself.  On delving into porcelain, “Such an intimate detailed process.”  She mentions Picasso mixing ceramics with his paintings, “Many of the great artists who had any kind of brain were multi-disciplined, otherwise, you get bored.”  On her love of variety, “My use of multi media is an extension of my personality:  My loves, likes, even dislikes, and most significantly, my deep involvement with and reaction to nature.”

This leads us to her discovery of the monotype process and resulting works.  Calitri’s monotype prints on paper offer a uniquely pre-modern glimpse vis-à-vis modern landscape.

When creating the Allegories series, Calitri deftly employed a process of richly layered printmaking she learned under the tutelage of renowned printmaker Sarah Amos.  In this environmentally friendly method, natural substances such as oils and techniques such as gravure scaring are employed to avoid the use of toxic chemicals in the printmaking process.  Each print is created by hand on a large etching press.  Successive layers of patterned image are laid down while the surface is still wet.  Within the complex formation of these patterns, a new language emerges in which Calitri reveals her life story.

“My abstracts are sculptural, palpable works,” Calitri states.  In “Voyage” and “Blue Voyage,” Gravure scarring creates a topographical vision of Lake Champlain, enveloping the viewer with patterns and trails that guide into the past and future of her imagination.

Calitri lets color lead this process, In “Three Reds, Red Mosaic, Shadows and Lost Letters” Calitri establishes a mood by using her affinity for the energizing dynamics of red and grounding with nuances in black to generate portals of memoir.  “Light and City” and “Waterfall” uses structural squares and tones of cooling blue, moving the viewer across a subtle dreamscape.

Calitri adds, “Monoprints are very freeing because you have to do it quickly.  You have to let everything through, listen to the story forming itself.  “Tree of Life” and “Woman” echo experimental mantles ala Rorschach, floating pools of black and white.  Through contrasting pale and warm tones in “Mesa Verde” and “Glow,” Calitri hints at a journey to the temporal Southwest.  She emphasizes, “Abstracts are so freeing, I have an idea that generates the image, but the ensuing art piece becomes many things, depending on each individual’s perspective.”  “A doorway opens wide for interpretation and feeling, connecting to us in a core universal language – through color, movement, light and shadow.”  “I believe this unites all of us in a very concrete way.”  “With realism, people are relating to the familiar and memory; through abstraction, others are willing to go deeper, let their imagination wander a bit, those are our people.”

“Klara Calitri:  Allegories,”  Zone Three Gallery, 152 Maple Street, 3^rd Floor, West Ridge Office Building – In the Marbleworks, Middlebury, VT,  September 10 through October 30.  Info: 802-989-9992, www.ZoneThreeGallery.com.

This article was written by Mirabelle Ross.