I had the pleasure of photographing artist Max Hayslette's exhibit at Almost Candid's Fine Art Gallery this afternoon. He showed off his new series, The Rugged Coast. All his paintings are remarkable, gorgeous. Max and his husband Don are very kind men who were generous with their time with me today.
Max is from West Virginia. He showed me a painting he did of the mill where his father worked. He is very pleased that his collection will be donated to the university from his home state after his passing. I asked him how he works. He says he keeps an extensive file of pictures that interest him...a few trees here, a landscape there. When he's ready to begin a new work, he selects pictures from his file. He then cuts and pastes the pieces from different images that he likes to create something to look at while he paints. I was relating to him how I was so very happy to get some nice lighting at my friend's house this morning for pictures of her flowers. He replied, with a wave of his hand, "That's not a problem for me. I can just create the right light." And, well, that really sums up his work. Everyone who walked through the door into the exhibit commented on Max's wonderful use of light in his paintings.
Don is a sweet man with a sense of humor--a Swedish-Lithuanian Jew. I love it. I enjoyed chatting with him as we watched Max interact with the guests. I was also happy to see friendly, familiar faces: Frank Portello and his friend Mike, Annie LaValle, and artist Carrie Goller and her husband.
I was using my trusty Pentax K10D with an old Pentax-A 50mm prime lens for most of the pictures I took. Near the end, I switched to the kit lens that came with my Pentax *istDL. I tried to use the Rokinon 85mm, but it refused to communicate with my camera body today.
Max is from West Virginia. He showed me a painting he did of the mill where his father worked. He is very pleased that his collection will be donated to the university from his home state after his passing. I asked him how he works. He says he keeps an extensive file of pictures that interest him...a few trees here, a landscape there. When he's ready to begin a new work, he selects pictures from his file. He then cuts and pastes the pieces from different images that he likes to create something to look at while he paints. I was relating to him how I was so very happy to get some nice lighting at my friend's house this morning for pictures of her flowers. He replied, with a wave of his hand, "That's not a problem for me. I can just create the right light." And, well, that really sums up his work. Everyone who walked through the door into the exhibit commented on Max's wonderful use of light in his paintings.
Don is a sweet man with a sense of humor--a Swedish-Lithuanian Jew. I love it. I enjoyed chatting with him as we watched Max interact with the guests. I was also happy to see friendly, familiar faces: Frank Portello and his friend Mike, Annie LaValle, and artist Carrie Goller and her husband.
I was using my trusty Pentax K10D with an old Pentax-A 50mm prime lens for most of the pictures I took. Near the end, I switched to the kit lens that came with my Pentax *istDL. I tried to use the Rokinon 85mm, but it refused to communicate with my camera body today.
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