Santa Cruz
I smell the salt and redwood trees
Mixed gently by the coastal breeze
A natural scent that guarantees
To always place my mind at ease
On coastal meadows flowers bloom
And sway in breeze like nature’s broom
While all about the bees do zoom
So much for my eyes to consume
The vast Pacific adds more still
As backdrop to this flowered hill
Across this landscape colors spill
To give my heart and soul a thrill
The redwoods stand behind me tall
To touch the sky with mighty sprawl
Not even violent ocean squall
Can make these giants bend or fall
All this in place named Santa Cruz
Where nature paints with all known hues
To leave behind such scenic views
To treat our eyes, and soul infuse
This fractal artwork was inspired by the Santa Cruz area of California. Santa Cruz lies at the northernmost point of the famous Monterey Bay. I lived in this area for awhile about thirty years ago, and the beauty of this place remains vibrant in my mind. There is a wonderful biodiversity of animal and plant life on both the land and within the sea along this coast, that is unique to any other place I have been.
I lived in an old Airstream trailer on some beautiful land here, right where the meadow met the forest. Just to the east of the trailer a thick, redwood rain forest began, and to the west were the gently sloping meadows that ran to the sea. This artwork shows the view across that coastal meadow, with all the wildflowers in bloom. I think one of the reasons it has remained so strong in my mind is you don’t usually encounter a flowered meadow with the Pacific ocean as the backdrop, with both the smell of the forest and the salty air of the sea mingled together.
This was artwork created in Incendia. This was my first artwork with the new version (1.2) of Incendia that was just released this week. The fractal is exactly as it was rendered. The only post-processing was to crop it just a hair to bring it to a more common printing size. The original artwork is 3000×3000 pixels at 300 pixels per inch. The details are difficult to see over the internet, so I have included a few detail cutaways to give you a better idea of the overall detail of the artwork. The cutaways are at 50% of the original size.
Santa Cruz belongs to the following groups:
Complex Simplicity of Art, ! 100% !, ***♂♥♥QUORN♥♥♀, ABSTRACT DIGITAL ART AND WRITING, All About Flowers, All Around the Styles, All Things Poetic, Artistic, Philosophical, Americas ~ Rural, Urban, Wild, Free, Art in Math, Beach Art, Contemporary Professional Painters and Sculptors, Digital Art Compilations (No Nudity Allowed), Everyday Life, Fabulous Flowers, Fractal Art Frenzy, Fractal Perception (3 per day max please) , Group Incendia, Horizons, Light In The Darkness, Live, Love, Dream: , Nature's Wonders, Old farts of redbubble, Peace Love & Happiness Hippies, Safe Haven, Seasonal 'Scapes, The Graphic Room-Graphic and Digital Art, The Patchwork , The true beauty, Unconventional Artistry - 3 per day, Vibrant and Vivid Color, Western United States Artists and Photographers and Who are YOU to Judge? Available for sale asGreeting Cards, Matted Prints, Laminated Prints, Mounted Prints, Canvas Prints, Framed Prints and Posters
CanDuCreations
Marvellous work
ArtByDrew replied
Thank you so much, Thea!
dominikanac
Amazing photo!
ArtByDrew replied
Thank you so much, dominikanac!! As well as the fav!
These new fractal cameras are amazing! LOL ;)
dominikanac
See the very strange but beautiful photograph!
mltrue
gorgeous!
ArtByDrew replied
Thank you so much, Michelle!!
Sensiworld
Great !
ArtByDrew replied
Thank you so much, Sylvia!
Laurie Search
Beautiful!!
ArtByDrew replied
Thank you so much, Laurie!!
KcranmerArt
I adore this image Drew!! I remember Santa Cruz Boardwalk so clearly…plus my favorite movie “The Lost Boys” was filmed there…sigh such memories…course that was probably 15 years ago I last visited, lol!!! This image is absolutey breath taking!!! I’ve spent endless hours trying to find the perfect flower filled fields…but unfortunately have never been able to see one by the ocean (that I miss so much), this art definately speaks to me…another masterpiece Drew!!!! Keep em’ comin’!!! xoxo
ArtByDrew replied
Thank you so much, Kellie!! Now you have seen a flowered field by the ocean! LOL One of my favorite spots was right at the point by the lighthouse, where I would go surfing with the seals despite the warnings that great white sharks would frequent the area because of the seals.
Ya do crazy stuff when yer young!!
Big Hugz
Drew
LjMaxx
Beautiful indeed!!! WoW! Love this…
ArtByDrew replied
Thank you so much, LjMaxx!!
LudaNayvelt
beautiful art
ArtByDrew replied
Thank you so much, Luda!! Just starting to look at your gallery, and I can tell you have a great gift, talent, and eye for photography!!
zooreka
Lovely work Drew – well done! If you want to use a custiom background saw it at 256×256px in bmp format and follow the tip I gave you….
ArtByDrew replied
Thanks so much, Zoo!! I have a much better technique I have discovered for the background images in Incendia. I’ll bubblemail you with the details, and I’m thinking about creating a tutorial about it for IncendiaSpace as well.
Bunny Clarke
Gorgeous work! Splendid creation!
ArtByDrew replied
Thank you so much, Bunny!!
Lucindawind
wow fabulous work Drew ! :)
ArtByDrew replied
Thank you so much, Elaine!!
Lauren Zorn
Fabulous Incendia render Drew ! It’s like something out of The Wizard of Oz, I swear. ;-)
ArtByDrew replied
Thank you so much, Lauren! Now that you mention it, it does remind me of the scene in Oz with the flower field… I’m getting sleepy… :)
DevineDayDreams
Fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ArtByDrew replied
Thank you so much, Daisy!!
rocamiadesign
This reminds me of Santa Cruz too. I have many fond, childhood, memories of Santa Cruz, although we actually stayed in my mom’s beach house in Aptos, a few miles south. We spent much time in Santa Cruz, though, because there was so much to do there. I especially loved the boardwalk.
I am amazed that you were able to produce such a beautiful landscape scene in Incendia. I don’t think I’ve seen any other Incendia users do this.
ArtByDrew replied
Thank you so much, Kathleen! I know that being in Montana makes you yearn for the coast, as I did when I lived in the Rockies of Colorado. Once you’ve lived on the coast, it always beckons you back! LOL
I have some very unique Incendia pieces coming soon, as I have been teaching myself how to create my own dmaps for use with the program. I am going to bundle all of these and send them to Ramiro so he may include them with the next version of Incendia.
LjMaxx
Congratulations on this stunning featured image~
ArtByDrew replied
WOW!! Thank you so much, LJ!!
kenspics
Astounding work!!!
Congratulations on a well deserved feature and excellent verse to match!!!!
What pray tell is a fractal camera????
ArtByDrew replied
Thank you so much, Ken! ...and thank you especially for taking the time to read the poetry, as to me that is as much a part of my artworks as the image they accompany !
The ‘fractal camera’ was just a playful jab at dominikanac above that called the artwork an ‘amazing photo’ in his post above. :)
lilian marshall
once again great words beautiful capture . You are so talented .!!!
ArtByDrew replied
(Blush!) Thank you so much, Lilian!!
autumngirl
Wow! I had no idea that was a fractal, until I read your description! Wonderful!
ArtByDrew replied
Thank you so much, AutumnGirl!! I am really suprised by how many viewers also did not realize it was a fractal the first time they looked at it!! Many even thought it was a photo!! Everything was rendered, and there are no photographic elements to the artwork at all!
autumngirl
Well, I’ve had no experience with Incendia, except that now, I’ve downloaded it. I still have to open it up and get it set up in my computer, and try it out! I normally use Ultra Fractal, and every once in a while, Apophysis. I tried XenoDream before, but it was pretty hard to use, and quite different than what I’m used to. So I hope that Incendia is easier than XenoDream!
ArtByDrew replied
That is one of the nice things about Incendia, is that you can become familiar with the program using gradients and diffraction maps that come packaged with it, and then continue on at a more advanced level later by making your own gradients, diffraction maps, and parameters for the fractals types. I hope that in new versions of Incendia it will also allow you to import your own baseshapes from standard 3D meshes that can be created themselves in quite a number of other programs.
Most of all… just have fun at the beginning, by exploring what the program can do. And if you have an trouble or need some pointers, then feel free to shoot me a bubblemail! :)