Undressing of the Heart

She was deeply in love with him, but he got killed while trying to save a girl during the Great War. Devastated, she retreated into the Temple of Sirius Crest, at the foothills of the Himalayas, and was accepted into the nunnery. There, she found healing and solace. In turn, many victims of war and the sick also found healing in her gentle loving hands.
Then one day, she found his spirit in the temple compound! He appeared to her in human form only towards nightfall. Their love was rejuvenated! But, as all Heaven’s decrees have been sanctioned from eternity, he was finally spirited away.
His love was needed for a greater cause …..

Mountains sxc.hu #1026796
Temple sxc.hu #467488
Waterfall sxc.hu #917829
Waterlilies sxc.hu #309693
Fabric texture cgtextures.com
Image canvas texture sxc.hu #1051930

and finally, model is Filipino artist Jasmin OK, used with her permission.

Hair, eagle and spiral clouds are painted.

©2009 hiddenstream.blogspot.com

Thank you v much for watching.

Deep hidden treasures

A mermaid begs for the guardian turtle to allow them a few more moments to luxuriate in their newfound discoveries...

FULL VIEW much appreciated.
Thank you for watching

Age of Disbelief

© 2009 hiddenstream.blogspot.com

She is the last of the legion of angels to survive in this age of disbelief, but she knows that her time is up. Soon she will be transformed into stone, like the others. She will have her freedom again but not after another thousand years when she will be released by the sheer miracle of prophetic words.

Thanks much for watching! In FULL VIEW, it may look better

Kiss The Rain

Emma was devastated since she heard news about the death of her foster mother. For she had not known her biological parents ever since the government banned all forms of natural procreation due to a radiation leak that had attenuated the reproductive system of more than three quarters of the male population.
The whole world was plunged into dark ages since the social unrest and civil wars that occurred after the Greater Depression in 2010. She had been living in the poor, as it was with many people, in the slums near an abandoned 21st century industrial plant for as long as she could remember, and her now deceased foster mum and one other sister were her only family.
Not much technological advances had occurred for the past 100 years or so, except for prosthetic implants and gene therapy that could help the population live a better life towards their twilight years and prolong life. Climate migration too had been taking place, as the population strived to survive on whatever little resources that were available on this dwindling earth.
But Emma wasn't into all these! For her, she had been born into the wrong reality. The government had prohibited all forms of close proximity between the opposite sexes which had made life difficult for many young people in their productive lives.
Life held little meaning for Emma, until she met this man who had escaped from a health quarantine facility in the neighbouring zone. She had found the man she had been waiting for - someone to protect and comfort her. But their bliss was shortlived, as the Gestapo, a government arm that flushed out all forms of activities against the Code of Conduct quickly got wind of their tryst, and Emma could find herself in the convict chamber for the rest of her life. Welcome to the brave new world....

Story mine (c)
Is Big Brother watching? :-)

Model is courtesy of my sporting artist friend. Male model painted, using reference from posermaniac
Others are photomanipulated, some are painted

Music for inspiration Kiss the rain

Free at last

Due to be married to the Dark Prince Camulus , Eshara belonged to a royalty of god and goddesses that ruled the sea and land of Kingdom Earth. She was always wary of her father, King Teutates who has been given dominion over the coastal population and sea creatures, for being part of the scheme of non intervening in the affairs of humans despite numerous wars and famine, tribal rivalry, jealousy, rebellion, and lately the killing of each others’ children that threaten to wipe civilization from the face of this world. She had always supported her father’s decisions with pride but sometimes, they stood on the verge of apathy to the plights of the people, almost to the point of cruel silence.
One day, in the quiet of dawn,as she was looking down at the fishing village of Inuit, a sweet sorrowful music from a lute being played by a lonely sea hunter captivated her. Heartstriken for the people of the war torn country and desirous to know the man better, she tore herself from her lofty abode, and made the floor of the ocean her permanent home. Due to her immortality, she could only live as a mermaid (she was worshipped by the sea creatures as a goddess), but that was enough to get her near to the people that she loved and the hunter everytime he went to sea for his catch.


Story mine (c)

doves
rocks
Model image belongs to an artist friend doing her yoga pose
Dolphins are digitally painted
Water and splashes digitally manipulated

Passion *2009*

The Final Goodbye

Model Ref: Jessica Trusscott

A long, long time ago, an angel dare to thread the forbidden path.....

Apart from the model, wings, hand, roses and rose petals, everything else including hair and accessories is digitally painted.

Listening to How to save a life (from Grey's Anatomy)

Thank you for watching! (FULL VIEW is required) :D

Stairway to Heaven

This is made for an artist friend of mine whose favourite tagline is 'Love hurts' but 'somewhere' there is a 'stairway to heaven'.

Model is her own photo
Statuettes from my Bali Collection
Moon is from sxc.hu
Others from various sources
Cloud,mist and hair are digitally painted.

FULL VIEW please.
Thank you for watching.

Quantums of joy

If giant jellyfish have souls, here's how their prophecy of rapture might read:

At the sound of the thunder, the dead shall rise first from the seabed. Then we who are alive shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet our Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with our Lord. And the humans shall be our witnesses.

These creatures have emotions too like humans. The woman, being very close to them, tried to guide them as they struggled out of the water for the first time with mixed feelings of ecstasy, fear and bewilderment,as they leave their world to meet their Maker.

The seascape and lighthouse is taken from my earlier work posted here.

I also use jellyfish images as reference, taken from sxc.hu

Thanks for viewing!

In solidarity we stand

This one's made for the people of Myanmar and for the loss, the grief and the silence that they have endured all thru the years.

Some facts about Myanmar, one of the poorest countries in the world:
*23 percent of the population had incomes that placed them below the poverty line.
*Many poor people are forced to send their children to work.
*The number of street children has also increased, and malnutrition among children is widespread.
*Large outlays of money have been spent on the military, while only meager funds have gone to education and health issues.
*The recent Nargis Cyclone have caused deadly flooding with loss of lives reaching 100,000.

All temples used in this work are located within Myanmar.
Temple1, Temple2, Temple3, Temple4

Clouds are digitally painted, freehand.

I'm a born-again free thinker. My only true religion is human rights. You can say that I'm a humanist who doesn't exclude animal rights as well. Praise Dog for that! I strongly believe in free inquiry and the freedom to choose. This post is about the evil of human oppression. Down with child labour!

Music for inspiration: Greatest love of all, sung by Whitney Houston

Far between us

You gave me a vision of Earth
It happened all too suddenly
We are of different worlds
Separated by empty space
Sadly now I must part from you
Holding onto treasured memory

If my words sound too depressing, please let me know!

Credit:
Floating island by rokatesh
Cherry blossoms by capetan
Roots by pakelius
Castle
Building lights by CraigPJ

Clouds, hair extension, tall grass, sticks and twigs are painted digitally.
Distant mountain is part of my oil painting.

This whole piece has taken up more than 500MB of my HD drive!

I realised I have not been posting for awhile! Hopefully this work will make up for lost time. This work received quite a favourable response when I posted this to an online digital art community. So, I hope you will enjoy this as much as I do working on it! ;-)

Model Ref: Jessica Trusscott

Song for inspiration: 'This is my now' by Jordin Sparks

Pondering

©2008 hiddenstream.blogspot.com

A rustic Chinese rural scene.
A photograph of real people in real setting would have been better but I leave it to your imagination to make up little stories from my digital photo collage composition here.

Stocks from sxc.hu, deviantart.com and cgtextures.com.

Partly inspired by this song:

The Colors of Love

Copyright ©2008 hiddenstream.blogspot.com

Love is the only reason we make art. Art without an initial passion to create is not art. The only colors we use to paint is called love....

Just walk away
Don't say goodbye
Don't turn around now you may see me cry
I mustn't fall apart
Or show my broken heart
Or the love I feel for you

So walk away
And close the door
And let my life be as it was before
And I'll never never know
Just how I let you go
But there's nothing left to say
Just walk away

Just Walk Away: Sung by Celine Dion.

Stock image credit:

Female Model
Male Model
Tree Tunnel

The Color of My Love (lyrics and composition by David Foster, sung by Celine Dion)

Blown Away

Copyright ©2008 hiddenstream.blogspot.com

Cyclones and hurricanes, anyone?
Lately, I've been dreaming of people being blown away, roof tiles yanked off piece by piece and flying objects.
This is not a very difficult work although it took me a great deal of time to blend it all together.
I get the greatest pleasure pulling shingles off the roof!

I'm also doing this with the hard hit people of Myanmar in mind - the recent Nargis Cyclone have caused deadly flooding with loss of lives reaching 100,000, apparently because of lack of mangroove cover in the coastal line. The deathtoll in the aftermath of this storm could be even worse due to widespread pollution and infection, either water or air-borne.

All stocks from sxc.hu

Mystery of the Crystal Necklace

Just watched Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Since 'Sex and the City' edged out the latest Indy flick at the recent weekend box office, I thought I'll do a female version of it. Let's call it The Mystery of the Crystal Necklace!

This is a digital/traditional combo. The mountain range, sky and distant trees are part of my oil painting, Blu-Truth which I have posted much earlier

Except for the beautiful model, all other stock images are taken from sxc.hu.

Ships that pass in the night v.2

Copyright ©2008 hiddenstream.blogspot.com

Did some alteration to my previous posting. I decided turn the image into grayscale and layer a golden colour filter on top it. I wasn't happy with the main tall ship (too low resolution) so I've decided to replace it with another stock image.
Stock credit for this posting remains the same as the last one here.

Ships that pass in the night

Copyright ©2008 hiddenstream.blogspot.com

We sat and watched the distant light
Two ships that pass in the night
We both smile and say its alright
We're still here
It's just that we're out of sight
Like those ships that pass in the night

(Lyrics by Barry Manilow)

I'm really shocked today to learn that an acquaintance of mine had passed away due to a cardiovascular event last evening. He was undergoing follow-up in the National Heart Institute. I was halfway thru this when I heard the news. In fact, I just saw his son 2 days ago. He's working in a cafe/bakery while on his school break.

This is a moment of great sorrow. I hope the grieving family will stay strong in this time of tribulation. I shall email this to them real soon.

To the whole family, this one's for you. Listen here

Farewell, my friend.
As for me, this will be another soul searching journey.

Stockroll:

Puffin birds
by http://www.sxc.hu/profile/horsch
Ships
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:TheEnduranceInFullSail.jpg http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Cisne-2g.jpg http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Alex_von_Humboldt_%28ship%29_Grosssegel.jpg
Mountain island church
Galaxy

Wind beneath my wings

Copyright ©2008 hiddenstream.blogspot.com

Some of the stocks used:


Stock credit:
sxc.hu :
middle mountain by vxdigital
temples
temple 1
temple 2
eagles
eagle 1
eagle 2
eagle 3

Wikimedia Commons
foreground mountain


Inspired by Bette Midler's song of the same title.
This is a Mother's Day Tribute.

In good company

Copyright ©2008 hiddenstream.blogspot.com

Initially I was thinking of doing some sort of sky parade with hot air balloons and all that stuff but decided against it later as it would obliterate the city skyline. Maybe I'll try again in my future posting.

All stock images from sxc.hu including gargoyle statue.

Autumn in my heart

Copyright ©2008 hiddenstream.blogspot.com

Inspired by the song with the same title.

Stock images from sxc.hu
Autumn Tree
Lake
Horses

Earth Day

Copyright ©2008 hiddenstream.blogspot.com

Blessed are the weak for they shall inherit this lovely Earth.

Yesterday was World Earth's Day. Of course there are a host of environmental issues that comes with this celebration like the thinning of the ozone layer and raising sea levels. However, we should not forget that this Earth is the only planet that we have - at this moment, that is. So let us cherish it while it lasts and while we are still alive!

All stock images from sxc.hu.

Song that inspired me: