Playing...

...is the only way to learn.  Any child will tell you that, any parent.  Any artist, come to think of it.  Picasso said that it took him four years to learn to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to learn to paint like a child.  So, I spend a lot of time playing with things.  This morning, it was an image of a rose.  I love roses, my grandmother had a garden full of them; I have a lovely climbing rose in this garden that goes from pink to yellow to white... amazing.  I particularly like overblown roses.  This one was in a friend's garden...

I think it's beautiful.  Partly, I think, it's the colour, pinks to purples to golds.  Partly, it's the movement through the piece, from left to right, the curling of the individual petals.  And just look what happens when you turn it round...

Suddenly, it becomes a spiral; it makes me think of seashells.  Or Flamenco dancers, skirts whirling round them.  Even more movement in this version.  I tried  turning the image the rest of the way round, but the other two options were not balanced enough to consider.

I'm reminded that just because an image, or a piece of work, starts out one way, it doesn't mean that it has to be that way for good.  Sometimes it will look better a different way.  If it is well designed, it will look good any way you turn it, regardless of the subject matter.  It's worth trying, if you're stuck with a piece.

Meanwhile...I need to work out what I'm going to do with these images...