After I found Jerry Jones, aka “skeletalmess,” aka “ghostbones,” of Shadow House Creations, a whole new digital image world opened up. I was able to figure out how to make the images more painterly and give them atmosphere and create a mood.  I was elated. And what continues to astound me about this digital process is that I can change an image in minutes, changes that as a painter would take me months, even years.

Garden at Maudslay, digital image © Mary Baker

The digital image of the “Garden at Maudslay” was one of my first attempts. Another “Ah Ha” moment on this digital enterprise. It was difficult for me to comprehend what could be accomplished, and so quickly with this new medium.  The “Garden at Maudslay” has a ghostly quality that I wanted, that reflected that semi-abandoned area of Maudslay State Park. I’m not sure that I ever could have imagined painting this particular place this way.

Red Doors and Pansies © Mary Baker, digital image

I couldn’t believe what I could accomplish with “Red Doors and Pansies.”  The image finally had the painterly quality I was looking for, and captured for me, what Newburyport, the seacoast town where I live, looks like in the spring.  And it also made an attempt to reflect the charm of Newburyport’s historic district.  I never would have taken the time to paint this on canvas.  It would never have happened.

Stackyard Road 2 © Mary Baker, digital image

I painted a lot of versions of Stackyard Road in Newbury, MA as a painter.  Many are in collections all over the country.  So, I thought I would try and do some digital images. This is one of the first ones that I came up with.  And again, I was so excited, it was different than the paintings, but also interesting, and it had a painterly quality and a sense of texture in the sky that I would never have created as a painting. Another “eureka” moment.”

Boat, Newburyport Dock © Mary Baker, digital image

As a painter I painted boats like this that were “dry docked,” but never one in the water. And with the new digital art medium, I could experiment, and if I didn’t like it, it didn’t matter because creating the image took hours not months and years. I ended up liking this version of the “Boat, Newburyport Dock,” which was down by Newburyport’s waterfront, in front of the Firehouse Center for the Arts.

I was creating images that I had always wanted to paint, but was never sure if I could make the paintings work. It was a wonderful feeling and an exciting visual adventure, In many ways I felt liberated, and had a hard time imagining going back to traditional painting, when I could accomplish so many interesting pictures and experiments in such a short amount of time.