Thursday, January 26, 2012

Pear Tree Point Beach, 1961


I happen to work with a lot of talented people. You'd think having a full-time job – and in today's world that means more than a 40-hour work week – wouldn't afford people the time to have a full-time hobby, or should I say, alternate career. But I've found that not to be true, over the 20 plus years I've worked for this company. Maybe it's because it's a publishing company, where most of the people are creative by nature. I know some very successful painters, photographers, authors, singers, musicians, and even stand-up comedians, who spend their days discussing line item budgets and corrected page counts. This blog post is about one of them.

Ann Gorbett, who can be found just down the hall in the design department of my company, is an award-winning artist who works in oil, specifically using the palette knife as her medium. She has a blog too, appropriately called Ann Gorbett Palette Knife Painting. I encourage you to check it out and see what else she has done, as this is just a small sample. She also does paintings on commission – if you're looking for that perfect gift for someone.

A couple weeks ago I posted a couple of photos on Facebook showing how one of my parent's 50-year old photos can be transformed using color correction in Photoshop. The photo below is the uncorrected scan of a slide from 1961 that had seen much better days. (Unfortunately, many of the slides I'm finding are in this lovely shade of pink, and not all of them are easy to fix.)


This is the corrected image, using a few filters and other adjustments. I think it really turned out pretty well. Ann thought so too, and asked permission to paint it. I love the painting, and so does my brother Bob (Robert), on the left. I am amazed by such talent. Thanks, Ann!


2 comments:

  1. Wow-thanks so much Sarah! What a wonderfully written and thoughtful post. I agree with your assessment of the amazingly talented people we work with. This painting was so much fun to do and the ultimate flattery is that you and brother like it too.

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  2. A wonderful story and a great painting! All Houghton (and ex Houghton people) are multi talented!

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