Save The Planet

As I strolled through the South Coast Village Center, I checked out the Orchid Show as well as the European-looking cafes and restaurants. After chatting with some shop owners, I noticed an art gallery reception that will start in one hour.

An hour later, I entered the art gallery and checked out the artwork displayed on the walls. As I walked towards the other end of the gallery, I noticed mostly nature photography and oil paintings. Each artist had his/her own style, but each artist was equally talented. I walked by a man serving drinks, chatted with him about my photography, took a glass of sparkling apple cider, and realized that I had forgotten my business cards in my other purse as I dug my hand inside my purse to search for a business card to give him. As I walked back to the other end, I studied each work until I reached the snack table, where I picked up a small blue paper plate, some assorted vegetables, a tablespoonful of assorted nuts and m&ms, two cookies, crackers and spread, and three small sandwiches that I had to pick out the meat to save it for my cat. I snacked on the food and continued to check out the artwork.

I met one of the artists, Rob Utz, and I chatted with him about his nature photography as I checked out his artwork. He told me that he put an acrylic glaze over the photographs to make the pictures shine and glisten. I told him that the pictures looked cool because the animals in the photographs looked wet as if they had just been splashed with water or they had just gotten out of a river or lake. We continued to chat about the wild animals in his photographs, which included a cute tiger, a close-up shot of a gorilla, a close-up shot of another tiger, and a rhinoceros that blends well with two large rocks next to it because it is the same color and same size. We talked about how some wild animals use their natural covering, fur or skin to camouflage themselves within their own environment. I also noticed some pelicans in another photograph. After Rob left to get his business card, I continued to check out his photographs of forests, a ghost town, and landscape scenes of mountains, deserts, oceans, beaches and canyons. In these nature scenes, I noticed buffalos, lions, zebras, meerkats, giraffes, bears, deer, horses, and seals as well as a cat, camel, and dolphin. There were also many birds, from penguins and flamingos to a duck and a bluebird. I saw some eagles and seagulls. The intricate details on the tree bark, sandy ground, flowers and cactus, where tiny bugs and insects are crawling on these backgrounds, were so close-up that I felt that I was looking at the insect and background through a magnifying glass because the surface was very detailed and clear, and the insect looked bigger than its actual size. I noticed various textures, colors, lighting and compositions, and they all worked well together in each photograph, making the two dimensional photograph appear three dimensional. The four seasons were also emphasized in these nature photographs by displaying multicolored Autumn leaves, lots of white snow of Winter, colorful flowers blooming in Spring, and the bright and hot sunlight of Summer. Other details included rustic and old fences in the middle of countryside scenes. More nature scenes included a lizard, koala and tortoise, and each of these animals was the main subject of a photograph. Each animal was well blended with the nature scene and background that sometimes it was hard to see the animal.

Furthermore, there were many landscape scenes as well as close-up photographs of flowers. Landscape scenes included sailboats and surfers in ocean and beach scenes as well as romantic sunset and sunrise scenes in the mountains and forests. There were also many rivers, lakes and creeks flowing through mountains and forests. Examples included a sunset of a long bridge as well as a daytime photograph of a small bridge over a river. Scenic waterfalls in the mountains and forests as well as scenic dirt paths and roads in the middle of nature looked very rustic. Some of these roads and paths extended out into the horizon, whether the photograph was of a desert, forest or countryside. These roads and paths seemed to endlessly go on forever until they disappeared somewhere in the horizon.

There were some miscellaneous photographs, such as of an autumn scene that has a kid playing in a park as he is mesmerized by a pond. In the background of this photograph, there are some birds and multicolored leaves. It looked very colorful but serene. There were also photographs of a playful cat, zoo animals, murals of farm animals, interesting shapes of rocks, trees and plants in nature, trains and tracks, and some natural shots of people. I also found the ghost town photographs to be interesting. The rooms looked old, abandoned and dark, but these rooms had only a couple of dusty, dirty and antique furniture that were placed in the room in not of any particular order to make it feel empty. But the pictures of this ghost town were of an Old West town, displaying an old and abandoned saloon.

After checking out Rob’s photographs, I noticed the artwork of a husband and wife team, the Engards. I enjoyed their photography of a South African safari. I noticed pictures of African landscapes, sunsets, African natives, and wild and majestic animals, such as tigers, elephants, lions, leopards and zebras. These photographs were mostly nature photography, but there were also some oil paintings. The oil paintings displayed scenes of nature, harbor, still life, landscapes and mountains. There was also a surreal photograph that looked unique because it had a certain ethereal quality.

I left the art gallery and walked towards my car. When I sat inside my car, I noticed that these artists had websites of their artwork listed on their business cards. I thought to myself that I should further check out their artwork because I enjoyed my African Safari journey as well as traveling to God’s natural creations and wonders in America.