Playing with Painter 12

Today I played around with Painter 12, which has been hanging out on my computer for a while. I made this piece by cloning two different versions of a photo I took today of some ferns. One version is color while the other was a b&w version of the same shot. I used a variety of cloning brushes to get different effects including a fibrous brush texture and a smeary oil effect. Painter is a really spectacular program for getting painterly effects with a mind numbing number of possible brushes and surfaces. I doubt I'll ever be worthy of its power.

A vision of crows

Asbury Park ruins

As a child I spent a lot of time at Asbury Park. My parents took us there to walk the boardwalk and ride the rides and play games. We went there on Christmas Day to visit a bit of my past. The place I remember is gone. There is one building on the boardwalk that is somewhat intact - during the holidays it had a Christmas tree and lights inside it but there didn't seem to be anything going on. Occasionally, I imagine they still have concerts there (I saw Elvis Costello there in the '80s).

This is what remains of the Casino:

Casino - Asbury Park, NJ

Not sure how much of the dereliction comes from hard times (which Asbury Park has had a lot of) and how much comes from Hurricane Sandy. Through the entry you can see a condemned building and a gap where a building once was. 

It's a beat place.