Creative
Creative Photography & Photo Art – Painterly and Abstract Interpretations
These images all start as photographs, but don’t always end up that way. Somewhere along the line, reality gets nudged aside in favour of mood, movement, and a bit of creative mischief. It also allows me a bit of creative license as far as colourblind me and poor-quality images are concerned.
If something here catches your eye, prints and digital versions are available.
I also offer custom creative treatments, so if you’ve got a photograph you’d like to resurrect, or reimagined in this style, I’m always open to seeing what it might turn into.
View more:
Pardon the overlaps and duplications!
My creative work is heavily influenced by impressionist painters such as Claude Monet, where form dissolves into colour and atmosphere. I was blessed, as a child, to have the wonderful abstract and impressionist art of my accomplished (step) grandfather, Alfred Krenz, gracing our walls.
I’m also drawn to the pictorialist tradition, and photographers like Léonard Misonne and Alfred Stieglitz, who treated photography as an expressive art form rather than a purely technical exercise.
Techniques such as intentional camera movement (ICM), long exposures, motion blur and selective focus allow me to move beyond literal representation. As I’ve written elsewhere, this approach “takes photography beyond the literal… opening up limitless possibilities.”
Much of this work is intuitive. Not every image lends itself to this treatment, and often it’s only in the moment, or even later in post-processing, that an image reveals its potential. My mood also plays a role. Some days call for restraint and clarity; others invite a more impressionistic or abstract interpretation.
Being far-spectrum colour-blind also shapes my approach. I tend to rely more on tonal contrast, structure, and composition than precise colour accuracy, which often leads to bolder or less conventional colour choices. In many ways, this constraint has become a creative advantage.
The result is a collection of images that prioritise feeling over fidelity. Works that, for me, sit comfortably between photography and fine art.
A backlit Arctotis flower
An old cellphone photo I resurrected. This dell of Arum lilies is on Noordhoek Common.
My favourite surf spot, from when I lived literally a stones-throw away. Kommetjie.
A black and white photo of a fluffy dog with a scruffy coat, sitting on a sandy beach with blurred rocks in the background.
Artist Beth Lowe.
A rural landscape with an old white house with a rusted metal roof in a field of golden grass. Rolling hills extend into the distance under a cloudy sky.
An old farmhouse in the Klein Karoo.
Painterly agapanthus in a Montagu garden
A forest scene with tall trees and a forest floor covered with branches, leaves, and some green plants.
I titled this photo In Solidarity. Taken near Elands Bay on the Weskus.
Minimalist beach scene, Noordhoek. Another old cellphone photo.
Artist Beth Lowe, Kommetjie.
Arctotis flowers in black and white.
Painterly touch to a photo of myself surfing at J Bay, taken by my friend Robbie Irlam.
Motion blur on Long Beach, Kommetjie.
A white house with a wooden door and small windows is situated in a yellow field of tall grass, behind large green trees under dark, cloudy sky.
Langebaan beach. Click image for more on Langebaan.
A woman standing on a beach, painting on a canvas set on an easel during sunset. She is wearing a gray hat, a dark jacket, and has a scarf around her neck. The ocean waves and mountains are visible in the background, under a colorful sky.
A backlit grass seen on a walk
Derelict, abandoned cottage. Click image for more.
A black and white landscape featuring a single utility pole with three power lines, a field of tall grass in the foreground, and distant mountains on the horizon.
A blurred image of a tree with pink blossoms on a grassy field.
A forest with tall, leafless trees standing over green grass and small white flowers on the ground.
Blurred landscape with purple sky, fields, and a small cluster of trees in the distance.
Incoming storm over George.
An old house with a weathered wooden door and window, surrounded by plants and outdoor laundry hanging on a clothesline.
A red tractor plowing a field during sunset, creating a dust cloud on the soil.
Nighttime mountain landscape of Table Mountain, colorful clouds, and city lights below.
A green public telephone booth with a black corded telephone, a card slot, and a keypad, mounted on a dark surface.
A close-up of a dog with a curly, tan and black coat, wearing a black collar, standing in a field of tall, golden grass.
Old abandoned barn with rusted metal roof under cloudy sky, surrounded by a wire fence and rocky terrain.
Open field with tall grass, a wooden fence post with barbed wire, and a distant horizon with a clear sky.
Painted image of a lush green garden with trees and a narrow stone pathway winding through it.
Multiple sailboats with white sails on the open sea with distant landforms and a purple sky.
Clothes hanging on a wooden clothesline at the beach with a sandy path, grassy dunes, and the ocean in the background.
Kiters at Langebaan.
A lush green forest scene with a large, gnarled tree leaning to the left, surrounded by dense bushes and white flowers, with a foggy or misty atmosphere.
A large stone sculpture of a person reading, surrounded by smaller sculptures, pottery, and wooden objects, outdoors under a clear blue sky.
Open rural landscape with yellow fields, a dirt path, and a wooden utility pole under a cloudy sky.