We love seeing our artists from across the globe. Today we’re featuring a Melbourne based artist, Mary K. Mary specializes in photographic art, and we enjoy seeing her unique blend of light and color in her digital art photography.

A picture of Mary K. specializes in Photographic Art

“I am a photographer who loves nature, the sea, digital art, and combining all of the above into interesting and unusual works of photographic art. I have always loved photography. The thought of being able to capture a mood, a fleeting moment in time, an emotion or an event has always held me captive. I love being able to get up close to photograph things from different perspectives with my macro lens. I also love being able to combine photographs to provide the viewer with fantastic and engaging works of photographic art that stimulate the imagination.”

Digital Art Photography

Photographic Art by Marky K.

How did you get started as a visual/digital artist?

Being able to capture a moment and immortalize a fragment of time has always held a fascination for me. The disappointment was that it’s not always possible to show what the particular moment made you feel. The image itself can be evocative but I wanted to know how to do “more”. Being able to compose a piece of art using several different photos of mine was a dream, until I discovered an online course run by Sebastian Michaels. This helped to teach me what I could do – to expand my vision if you will.  It gave me the skills I needed to bring what was in my head to life and put it onto a print, canvas, or screen.

 

Would you describe yourself as a photographer, digital media artist, or something else? How have these skills helped you on your path?

I am a photographer who loves digital art and also dabbles in mixed media. Being able to capture a great photo as my starting point is very important to me. I love then being able to add and remove things from that initial photo – to blend in textures and images from other photos to help to tell a story. Some of my pieces are also mixed media, with a piece printed and framed with added items included under glass – feathers, grasses, etc.

Art in Melbourne, Australia

Do you have a good artist community in Melbourne, or do you rely on online collaboration?

The art community is Melbourne is large, vibrant, and very competitive! Artists are quite often solitary people, so it can be difficult to find others who share the same kind of vision I do. I have found a fabulous community online through the Awake Courses. We recently met up in Melbourne for a four day get together. It was thrilling to finally meet the people whose art I have been admiring online, and to talk to them about how and why they do what they do.

photographic art by Mary K - reflections at sunset

How do you sell your art? Online? In galleries?

I have a Facebook page. I do several markets a year, and have sold smaller pieces there, and I have had one exhibition so far in the “real world” and sold three small pieces. It was exciting to have my art up where I could hear what people thought of it. Exciting, and scary too! As artists we all invest emotionally in what we create, so there is always a little fear that people either won’t understand or won’t like your art. Luckily I’ve not had that happen yet!

Photographic art - Cloud Walker by Mary K

What is your favorite project/piece of art that you’ve worked on?

My favourite piece is Cloud Walker. I had captured a heron fishing for food early one morning, and kept going back to it knowing that I wanted to do more with it. About 2 months later I had taken a photo of a beautiful sky full of dramatic clouds. I looked at it and had an ah-ha moment. The two together with various other photos, techniques, and textures became the finished piece. I love this one as I feel it truly shows the feeling I was going for – dreamy and ethereal. A large canvas of this was donated to the ANZ Bank here in Melbourne and was auctioned for their Staff Charity. It raised over $400, so I was very happy to have contributed.

To see more of Mary’s digital art photography, visit her Facebook, or Instagram.

If you’d like to print your own digital art or photos, visit ArtisanHD.com.