Sunday, June 20, 2021

It's still still life

This is the glowing grill of Terry Sewell's beloved 1948 Chevy sedan. It was shot in low light inside his Scottsdale, garage.

Peggy and I sat in the patio of a now-defunct café on Santa Monica's Ocean Avenue. We were having a late breakfast with our friend Jamie Hindman whose house was several blocks away. Maybe it's because of my long restaurant career that I'm drawn to table settings and backbars.

This is third and last still life post for now. Whereas last week’s entries were of the abstracted variety today’s are distinctly representational. A week ago, the photographs I offered were head scratchers as in “what the hell is that?” In this case what you see is what it is.

 
I shot Louisa McElwain's pallet while on a painting trip into Arizona's magnificent Canyon de Chelly. Louisa and my friend John Farnsworth were the instructors. Louisa was an enthusiastic teacher and a prolific painter who produced at least two huge pieces every day. I'm talking about 36" x 48" paintings at $25,000 per. Sadly she has left our midst.

Some of us rode the length of the canyon astride Navajo ponies. This is tack that was hung over a fence at our camp site. Señor Farnsworth was fond of this shot. He thought it could be the start of a series of tack and cowboy paraphernalia. Unless one is a series, it wasn't.


I was on a photo jaunt to Mora, NM with my photographer friend Daryl Black. She introduced me to what is now the Mora Valley Wool Mill. It was Tapetes de Lana at the time. Tapete means rug and lana is wool. The mill produces spun yarns including those from Navajo Churro sheep. These gears are from a 19th century spinning machine in the backroom. 


It was Halloween in the village of El Rito, NM. This inventive scarecrow did it's darnest to make me a scaredy cat. Or as my Scottish friend David Wilson would say "Feardy cat."

Truth told I had hoped to write about the Maine Coast’s magnetic Monhegan Island. But so far, I haven’t found the hard drive where most of my photographs of the art colony live. I shall persevere, however, since it’s a matter of some import. I intend for the Monhegan story to be my article in Shadow and Light Magazine’s July-August edition. The final cut is due in two weeks.

2 comments:

Blacks Crossing said...

This is a wonderful grouping, Steve, for a couple of different reasons. The first, of course, is the selection process. Second, is the flow you established with them. They just seem right on your blog page. The 1948 Chevy sedan seems to mesh beautifully with the breakfast setting. Your restaurant and table setting photographs continue to be some of your best. And the tack (which I do not remember seeing before) moves right into the gears. Fiber and mills. They are made for each other. Thanks for the mention about the Mora mill jaunt. The scarecrow seems to be startled by the gears, making it the Feardy Cat. Inspiration abounds at Casa Immel. Keep up the good work and keep cool.

Steve Immel said...

Thanks for noticing the flow, Daryl. That was more instinct that good planning. I just put them where they seemed to fit. That tack shot lived as a color image for years. But it fit with the representational work so well that it had to be included.