Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Jim's painting


I think this painting by Jim (a friend) is pretty special. (Click on it for larger version.) Copyright Jim St John 1991
Jim tells me everybody from toddlers to pensioners love the painting, and he has a standing offer of $18,000 on it. So it you want it, just offer more than that. :)
(Am I the only one who sees the white vortex center "blink" when I look at the left side of the painting?)
Visit Jim's site.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great picture! Congratulations to the painter.

As to the blinking effect. Yes, I see a bit of it, not very strongly. This optical illusion is nothing to write home about, though. With some Googling you can find better examples of this particular illusion. Looks like it may even have been unintentional (a happy accident) here.

In any case, I find the painting as a whole much more interesting.

P.S. Got my D80 a few days ago. Lovely gadget!

Monsieur Beep! said...

I also like the painting, gonna make it my desktop background pic for a while (see you later, Vera ;-).

As to the blinking effect - I'd suggest it has to do with the "black spot" in our eyes: close or cover your LEFT eye and with your right eye focus on the area to the left of the whirl. See how the whirl disappears? Use enlarged version of the painting for this experiment.

Take care,
grtgs/Gen.

PS/ Photographers, start dreaming of the new digital-though-conventional-style LEICA M8!! See Leica's website for details. But don't ask the ferryman for the price of the ticket..........
:-((

Anonymous said...

I don't know what it is, or even what it ISN'T, but it's pretty.

Regarding the "blinking" effect (quite moderate), there's another possible explanation, besides the eye's blind spot. The brain recomposes the images it receives, and in the processing of visual information it not only "fills up" the area of the retina's blind spot, but could just as well do the same with an unnatural neutral blank in the peripheral visual field. Hence the tendancy of the empty zone to disappear when you're looking partly away from it. Peripheral vision is essentially for rough data and detecting motion.

Anonymous said...

I see the "Four Seasons" in a single image,when you are teen and full of hope,but could mean EVERYTHING and maybe for that so many people want it,everyone can see what he wants, exactly as in the real life, where everyone has a different viewpoint to see the world.
Paul Alexandru Cazacliu
artmanro@yahoo.com

Anonymous said...

Whit all the risk to be considered a child or a half-wit I can't notice the blinking effect,but the "emperor" remains an "emperor" no matter what.
With great respect and admiration,yours Paul Alexandru Cazacliu artmanro@yahoo.com