Photo of Snowy Mountain and Fog

This snowy mountain wrapped in fog greeted me as I traveled the road to Milford Sound.

Auckland Artist Keith Townshend Joins ArikiArt

On a recent trip to New Zealand, I was able to sign up another great New Zealand artist. Keith Townshend lives, works, and paints in Auckland, and has a career in graphic art and painting behind him. Currently Keith is painting seascapes with a passion. Over the next few days we will be adding images of some of his paintings to Keith Townshend's online gallery.

Virgin #71

Pulling no punches at all, Max Emadi completes two series of paintings that have been running concurrently over the last couple of years with a painting of the 71st Virgin, a woman in Islamic veil and dress holding an AK47. The title is a reference to the virgins that greet Islamic martyrs upon their arrival in heaven.

You can view this and other paintings in the series in the flesh in May. Terrorists and Freedom Fighters Exhibition by Max Emadi

Check out our political art swicki at eurekster.com

4 Years Later Is George Bush Sleeping Soundly?

With the passing of the 4th anniversary of the commencement of the invasion of Iraq this week on Tuesday April 20th, we continue to wonder if George Bush is sleeping soundly. Although this mixed media piece was completed by Max Emadi in 2004, it is still just as timely, and perhaps even more so.

Max Emadi has featured George Bush in three works. Sleeping Soundly, the work seen to the left, Portrait of George Bush After JFK, and George Bush in the Emperor's New Clothes.

Check out our political art swicki at eurekster.com

Affordable Art in Scottsdale

Can that be possible? If you've visited the Scottsdale area you'll probably be familiar with the high-end galleries with high-end prices. But Gallery 360° at Pinnacle Peak and Pima roads in Scottsdale actually specializes in affordable art. As the owner, Tim Hovde, says, people appear willing to hand over princely sums for reproductions but pass by cheaper originals. I guess it's something to do with the comfort of name recognition when people do that, and then pay a large sum to frame the reproduction too. Anyhow, next time you're in Scottsdale, check out Gallery 360° and see if you can't find some affordable original art that you like.

Photo East Valley Tribune: Tim Hovde at Gallery 360

Roadscape Mountain Valley With Fog

Photographers know that the best photos are often captured at the beginning and end of the day. For a start with the sun low you get more shadows that add interest to your photos, plus the color of the light at the beginning and end of the day typically has more gold and red in it. And then to cap it all, there is often fog in the early hours of the day that adds an additional ineresting feature to your photos. While driving the road to Milford Sound I came upon this spot where the fog was still lifting out of one of the mountain valleys.

Please feel free to post any comments.

Photo of Grassland Meadow and Mountains

This grassland meadow was actually an intense gold color but it appears washed out in this jpg file. Unfortunately a lot of color information is lost when converting the uncompressed image file to allow for fast internet download.

More information about the photo and location and a larger image can be viewed by clicking the image.

I appreciate any comments you care to make about this and any of my photos posted at ArikiArt.

Photograph Lake Te Anau

The famous Milford Track in New Zealand's Fiordland National Park starts at Glade Wharf on Lake Te Anau where this photo was taken in the early morning. The Milford Track is a 4-day hike from Lake Te Anau to Milford Sound and passes through some of the most spectacular scenery in New Zealand.

Photograph of Lake Wakatipu, New Zealand

New Zealand offers some of the finest scenery in the world for landscape photography. I had the privilege of growing up there, but have only recently seen much of its most beautiful places going back to my homeland as a tourist visiting from my adopted home of California.

One of the most popular, and now in my opinion a "victim of its own success", is Queenstown, an alpine resort town sitting on the edge of Lake Wakatipu.

This photograph of Lake Wakatipu was taken from Highway 6 en route from Queenstown to Kingston which is located at the southern end of the lake. The photo was taken about half-way from a view point at the side of the road.