Russ Heinl - Aerial Photographer
Russ Heinls’ professional photography career began in Toronto where he made a name for himself photographing famous rock stars. It eventually became apparent that his creativity was being stifled by the confines of studio work. In 1990 an overpowering urge to fully explore and indulge his creativity lured him to British Columbia. Here, he fulfilled a lifelong desire to be surrounded by snowcapped mountains and the Pacific Ocean. His new studio and source of inspiration then became that of the great outdoors of the west coast.
To better understand his new environment on Vancouver Island, a number of small aircraft where chartered for sightseeing purposes. So impressed was he with the magnificent scenery he saw on these flights, that he instantly knew that the only way to effectively share his vision of this Pacific jewel with the world was through the eyes of an aerial photographer. Hence the " Eagle " took flight.
"The Home Coming", Pacific Rim, Vancouver Island, BC.
Three years later, Heinls’ first aerial coffee table book "Where the Eagle Soars" was released and became a top ten regional best seller. Using only helicopters to shoot from, the book shares with the viewer his vision of stunning coastal seascapes as well as powerful, dramatic close up aerials of Victoria's charming architecture.
The success of his first book quickly lead to other aerial projects. The 1996 release of his second book, "Over Beautiful British Columbia" received critical acclaim as another regional best seller and was a nominee for The Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice award. This book was shot as a companion to an equally successful one hour television special of the same title, filmed by the world renowned aerial film crew at KCTS-9 Seattle Washington.
The following year saw the release of two more critically acclaimed aerial books, "High Above the Canadian Rockies" and "Portugal , An Adventure of Discovery". The Portugal project saw Russ once again shooting along side the same KCTS-9 film crew that he worked with on "Over Beautiful British Columbia".
More recently "Over Canada" the aerial picture book (and a one hour television special filmed by KCTS-9 Seattle) was completed. The release of "Over Canada" coincides with Russ’s sixth and seventh books, "Vancouver from the Air" and "Vancouver Island from the Air". Russ Heinls’ work has been in constant demand by high profile international clients as well as various publishers. Aerial projects now take him to Europe across Canada and through out North America. He is especially proud to have been under contract for over six years as the aerial photographer to Canada’s world famous air demonstration squadron "The Snowbirds".
Aerial digital videography has now become a vital part of his aerial adventures. Recent developments in digital video cameras and customized, gyro stabilized mounting systems has allowed him to provide his clients with high quality, silky smooth aerial imagery at a fraction of the price previously associated with such endeavors. During the summer and fall of last year, Associated Aerial Adventures (jointly owned by Russ Heinl and Jim Wiltshire) completed production and post production on five aerial videos shot over British Columbia and Alaska. These programs are of broadcast quality and are now being represented through out North America and world wide to both home video distributors as well as TV broadcasters and cable providers.
Heinl photographs with customized Nikon still and Canon video gyro stabilized camera systems and uses only helicopters as his choice of aerial platforms. Armed with an artist's keen eye for detail and composition, and a master photographers sense of color and precision, aerial picture books and videos have become the vehicle for his inspired vision. He has produced a considerable body of work including 10 aerial picture books and 5 aerial video programs.
"Winter Solstice"Vancouver Island, BC
"The Grand Prismatic"Yellowstone National Park
"Freud"Alberta Tar Sands
Metallic Foil fine art prints, custom created by "burning" the images on to a 20" X 30" metallic foil paper. The images represent the true state-of-the-art in leading edge fine art prints. The metallic foil lends a luminescent quality to the images that allows them to appear to "float" above the media. A 3 dimensional effect. To fully appreciate their extraordinary qualities and nuances, they must be viewed first hand.
Influences
The 2 people who really worked with me and who encouraged and support me are Robert Bateman (Bob wrote the foreward to my first book "Where the Eagle Soars" and the other fellow is Ted Grant. In case you do not know Ted, he is one of Canada's pre-eminent photographers and photojournalists. There is even a "Ted Grant Award". Ted has covered everything from war stories to many Canadian teams at the Olympics to the Russian nuclear meltdown at Chernoble.
When I moved here in 1990 from Toronto I was able to talk my way into Ted's place to show him my portfolio and ask for his suggestions and guidance. I was nervous and worried he wouldn't like my portfolio. After spending a few hours with him, and he usually only gives 20 minutes of his time for this I asked him what he thought. I'll never forget his words as they changed my life and gave me the strength to go forth an be an aerial photographer. Ted said these exact words, "My son, you've got a natural talent here and you just don't know it yet". After that Ted often reviewed my latest aerial work and gave me helpful suggestions and encouragement. But I can say in all honesty that Ted Grant gave me the confidence to do what I have done. It is also remarkable when you stop to consider that my entire body of aerial photography has all been done in 10 years.
Another great influence was Robert Bateman, the internationall renowned nature artist. It started when I first called his office asking to show him my work. We do not live far apart so they sent over Alex (a wonderful young lady), Bob's assistant, and Alex was impressed enough to tell Bob he ought to see the work. This was followed by an invitation to take my portfolio and the rough draft of the book "Where the Eagle Soars" to the Bateman residence. Bob and I got along great and he too left me with a wonderful statement when I asked him what he thought of my work. Bob said "If I was a photographer I wish I could photograph like you". We have been good friends since then I have on numerous occasions been invited back for slide shows and or just a visit. Robert Bateman gave me an incredible lift and confidence too. Plus his endorsement helped verify my work in the art community.
Another influence is my love of helicopters and aviation. I just have to be up in the air to be able to enjoy myself. But that is part of the "rush" with me. The more demanding and hostile the environment the more determined I am to get "that shot". Please understand that I often work in dangerous situations at high altitudes with the doors off in sub zero temperatures and sometimes in heavy turbulence. It is truly challenging.
Future Goals
Future goals are to expand on my aerial filming abilities. Not every "still" photographer can make a successful transition from "still" to "motion picture or film". The discipline is different but they share many of the same principles such as composition. For the record, I have many 1,000s of hours helicopter time on me, as a photographer, I do not fly. One of the basics of good aerial photography, "still or motion" is an excellent working knowledge of the aerial platform, the helicopter. You must understand that particular machine, what it can do and it's limits, what to expect from it in difficult situations and how to translate your mental images into commands so the pilot will put you where you see yourself being.
I have done a number of cross country promotional public relations to support my books, most notably "Over Canada'. In doing so I have been interviewed on many radio shows, live TV including "Canada AM" and also participated in autograph sessions.
Russ Heinl’s aerial work includes:
AERIAL PICTURE BOOKS PUBLISHED
"Where The Eagle Soars"
"Over Beautiful British Columbia"
"Portugal - An Adventure of Discovery"
"High Above The Canadian Rockies"
"Over Canada"
"Vancouver from the Air"
"Vancouver Island from the Air"
"Above the Atlantic Provinces"
"Portland from the Air"
"Island Edens"
"Seattle from the Air" (releases fall of 2002)
AERIAL FILMS SHOT
"Russ Heinl’s Alaska & The Inside Passage"
"Russ Heinl’s Vancouver to Whistler"
"Russ Heinl’s Victoria & Vancouver Island"
"Russ Heinl’s Canada’s Eden"
"Russ Heinl’s Queen Charlotte Islands"
DOCUMENTARY FILM PROJECT
"Messerschmitt Me262 Luftwaffe Pilot Check-Out Film"
RELAXATION DVDS
"Soothing Surf at The Wickaninnish Inn"
"Sunrise Over The Aeris"
To view more of Heinl's incredible work or find out more about his aerial work please visit his website by clicking here
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
Cubism - Alive and Well and living in Australia
Cubism - Alive and Well and living in Australia
D. M. Ross and the Cubist Muse
Egypt: Oil on Board
2000 - 76 x 60 cm
Guitar: Oil on Canvas
1999 101 x 76 cm
Can a school of art which burst onto the art scene almost 100 years ago still be replenished and given new vitality in a time which is a world away from the one where it first emerged? The artist, D. M. (David Martin) Ross firmly believes that it can. For him cubism is not only alive and well, it is offers new and uncharted opportunities for exploration.
Houses after the Rain: Oil on Canvas
1999 - 151cm x 90cm
Untitled: Oil on Canvas
2000 - 122cm x 90cm
In a short, incendiary period between 1908 to 1914 Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso in a unique partnership took painting by the scruff of the neck, gave it a good shaking and spat it out. They built on what Cezanne had begun and what they invented – cubism – meant that art would never be the same again.
The flat plane of the canvas could no longer contain its subject. Mandolins, newspapers, pipes, glasses vases and the bric-a-brac of Parisian cafés were presented as fractured, anxious entities; as if they’d been analyzed by Freud or subjected to Einstein’s theories. It was the edgy, neurotic world of pre-war Europe made tangible.
Houses and Trees: Oil on Canvas
151cm x 91cm
Cubism was modern. It was taken up with gusto by Robert Delauney, Fernand Leger and others. But by the time they were exhibiting, Picasso and Braque working like ‘two mountaineers on the same rope’ had already moved on to delve ever deeper into the form creating synthetic cubism, which aimed to capture the essence of its subject rather than simply playing with its surfaces. Braque along with Juan Gris explored this for the rest of their careers, Picasso would return to the idiom to varying degrees over the next 60 years. But largely cubism, although recognized as a major art form, languished as other isms took center stage in the frantic race to stay at the cutting edge; to stay modern.
A new apostle of cubism
Synthetic cubism is the territory that D. M. Ross has staked out for himself.
The question is: is cubism relevant to today and can it be made fresh. Ross firmly believes in the power of cubism as a means to communicate the world around him.
‘I have strong belief in the analytical style and beauty of cubism,’ says Ross, ‘and that has made me pursue the possibilities of it to the exclusion of all others.’ With this single-mindedness he has been painting and perfecting his style for close to 30 years.
This Australian-based artist is a cubist in the truest sense; like his earlier counterparts he is obsessed with his immediate environment – his subjects are those things he intimately knows; everyday mundane things – chairs, guitars, houses and trees – recur in his work. Once in his sight, he will return time and again to the subject to try to extract new and deeper meaning from it. The more he views the subject the less superficially apparent it becomes; it can become a series of modulated lines or it can fragment into a helter-skelter rhythm of disconnected surfaces applied in dense palette knife strokes.
‘It’s more to do with the color and the shape rather than the subject,’ says Ross, ‘I am finding that the older I get the less I want to paint "objects" and find myself heading in a more abstract direction.’
More than meets the eye
But like his predecessors, the starting point is always reality: the view from his window across the red roofs of inner-city Melbourne (Houses and Trees, 2000); a guitar sitting in the corner of his studio (3D Guitar, 2001); the shapes and tones of a Cairo alleyway remembered from a holiday (Egypt, 2000).
‘I firmly believe there must be more to a painting than initially meets the eye,’ says Ross, ‘An inner calm and balance should be evident beyond the subject matter.’
These images are not simply pleasing patterns based on the subjects (a la the Futurists), they are explorations into the nature of the subject. The roofs in Houses after rain (1999), are pictured as shields, the trees as unwanted invaders encroaching and disturbing the suburban symmetry. In Richmond (2001) the rooftops have won out and become a dense barrier allowing no flora to intrude.
Likewise, the re-occurring images of guitars (3D Guitar, Guitar 102, etc.) are informed with an intimate knowledge of how the instrument works – the paintings are as much as products of Ross the musician as Ross the visual artist.
The guitars have a musicality about them that is almost audible.
The color of new cubism
Ross’ paintings are no mere homage to the gray-brown, Gaulois-reeking works of Picasso, Braque or Gris. His paintings are as airy as the earlier masterpieces are claustrophobic, as vibrant as their works are monochromatic.
The new cubism of D. M. Ross takes sudden shifts across the color wheel. A burst of ultramarine blue may find its way into a field of earth tones, or cadmium red may suddenly bounce against an electric yellow field. On those occasions where he resorts to dark interiors such as Café (1999) there is always the sense the glaring Australian light is just behind the door ready to break through, ready to bleach the canvas.
His colors are applied in thick layers, mostly using a palette knife. He works solely in oils for the depth of color they impart as well as for their workability.
"I find the thick application of the paint and the ability to have a hard edge to lines very appealing,’ he says. The result are surfaces of rich buttery texture, glossy and tactile. For the sheer enjoyment of paint applied to a ground look no further than his untitled paintings where the motif has long since ceased to be important.
A long process
The final images are wrought over long periods of time. Few of the paintings that we view are ‘first layer’. They have often been worked over and over, over long periods.
‘Some of my pieces can sometimes linger unfinished for years as I wait for the picture to come together in my mind,’ Ross explains, ‘It’s not unusual for them to be "modified" months after I believe they are finished.’
Some of these "modifications" are dramatic: ‘I have been known to repaint over 90 per cent of a piece because only a small portion of it seemed worth keeping.’
He continues: ‘I have some pieces that may never be complete. Each time I drag them out to "fix" them, I realize that I can’t pin down what’s wrong with them, but there is something not right yet. And so they go back against the wall and wait until I find the solution – if I ever do.’
This laborious process of revisiting a work means that his output is not huge and this is compounded by the fact that he is own worst critic and will not release a picture until he’s totally satisfied with it. Quality, not quantity has been a hallmark of his work.
Mostly his work sells through word-of-mouth and more recently, by displaying his work on the Internet, he has sold work internationally to collectors in Japan, USA and within Australia. This has meant that his exhibition history has been limited, with his successful first and only solo show so far taking place in Melbourne in 2002.
The journey continues
When we have been confronted with endless Monet and Van Gogh pastiches at local art shows, it’s easy to dismiss artists who revisit earlier styles as being irrelevant, mere copyists. D. M. Ross is an artist who unashamedly decided to continue the journey started by Braque, Picasso, Gris, et al at the beginning of last century and, along the way, he has bought a fresh, modern sensibility to the idiom.
With Ross as our travel guide for the next stage of the journey, there is every reason to believe he is going to reveal to us new and wonderful sights. You can see some of the ‘postcards’ he has already sent back from his travels on his website.
D.M. Ross has shown us cubism can indeed still be relevant, and can offer new and uncharted opportunities for exploration.
D. M. Ross and the Cubist Muse
Egypt: Oil on Board
2000 - 76 x 60 cm
Guitar: Oil on Canvas
1999 101 x 76 cm
Can a school of art which burst onto the art scene almost 100 years ago still be replenished and given new vitality in a time which is a world away from the one where it first emerged? The artist, D. M. (David Martin) Ross firmly believes that it can. For him cubism is not only alive and well, it is offers new and uncharted opportunities for exploration.
Houses after the Rain: Oil on Canvas
1999 - 151cm x 90cm
Untitled: Oil on Canvas
2000 - 122cm x 90cm
In a short, incendiary period between 1908 to 1914 Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso in a unique partnership took painting by the scruff of the neck, gave it a good shaking and spat it out. They built on what Cezanne had begun and what they invented – cubism – meant that art would never be the same again.
The flat plane of the canvas could no longer contain its subject. Mandolins, newspapers, pipes, glasses vases and the bric-a-brac of Parisian cafés were presented as fractured, anxious entities; as if they’d been analyzed by Freud or subjected to Einstein’s theories. It was the edgy, neurotic world of pre-war Europe made tangible.
Houses and Trees: Oil on Canvas
151cm x 91cm
Cubism was modern. It was taken up with gusto by Robert Delauney, Fernand Leger and others. But by the time they were exhibiting, Picasso and Braque working like ‘two mountaineers on the same rope’ had already moved on to delve ever deeper into the form creating synthetic cubism, which aimed to capture the essence of its subject rather than simply playing with its surfaces. Braque along with Juan Gris explored this for the rest of their careers, Picasso would return to the idiom to varying degrees over the next 60 years. But largely cubism, although recognized as a major art form, languished as other isms took center stage in the frantic race to stay at the cutting edge; to stay modern.
A new apostle of cubism
Synthetic cubism is the territory that D. M. Ross has staked out for himself.
The question is: is cubism relevant to today and can it be made fresh. Ross firmly believes in the power of cubism as a means to communicate the world around him.
‘I have strong belief in the analytical style and beauty of cubism,’ says Ross, ‘and that has made me pursue the possibilities of it to the exclusion of all others.’ With this single-mindedness he has been painting and perfecting his style for close to 30 years.
This Australian-based artist is a cubist in the truest sense; like his earlier counterparts he is obsessed with his immediate environment – his subjects are those things he intimately knows; everyday mundane things – chairs, guitars, houses and trees – recur in his work. Once in his sight, he will return time and again to the subject to try to extract new and deeper meaning from it. The more he views the subject the less superficially apparent it becomes; it can become a series of modulated lines or it can fragment into a helter-skelter rhythm of disconnected surfaces applied in dense palette knife strokes.
‘It’s more to do with the color and the shape rather than the subject,’ says Ross, ‘I am finding that the older I get the less I want to paint "objects" and find myself heading in a more abstract direction.’
More than meets the eye
But like his predecessors, the starting point is always reality: the view from his window across the red roofs of inner-city Melbourne (Houses and Trees, 2000); a guitar sitting in the corner of his studio (3D Guitar, 2001); the shapes and tones of a Cairo alleyway remembered from a holiday (Egypt, 2000).
‘I firmly believe there must be more to a painting than initially meets the eye,’ says Ross, ‘An inner calm and balance should be evident beyond the subject matter.’
These images are not simply pleasing patterns based on the subjects (a la the Futurists), they are explorations into the nature of the subject. The roofs in Houses after rain (1999), are pictured as shields, the trees as unwanted invaders encroaching and disturbing the suburban symmetry. In Richmond (2001) the rooftops have won out and become a dense barrier allowing no flora to intrude.
Likewise, the re-occurring images of guitars (3D Guitar, Guitar 102, etc.) are informed with an intimate knowledge of how the instrument works – the paintings are as much as products of Ross the musician as Ross the visual artist.
The guitars have a musicality about them that is almost audible.
The color of new cubism
Ross’ paintings are no mere homage to the gray-brown, Gaulois-reeking works of Picasso, Braque or Gris. His paintings are as airy as the earlier masterpieces are claustrophobic, as vibrant as their works are monochromatic.
The new cubism of D. M. Ross takes sudden shifts across the color wheel. A burst of ultramarine blue may find its way into a field of earth tones, or cadmium red may suddenly bounce against an electric yellow field. On those occasions where he resorts to dark interiors such as Café (1999) there is always the sense the glaring Australian light is just behind the door ready to break through, ready to bleach the canvas.
His colors are applied in thick layers, mostly using a palette knife. He works solely in oils for the depth of color they impart as well as for their workability.
"I find the thick application of the paint and the ability to have a hard edge to lines very appealing,’ he says. The result are surfaces of rich buttery texture, glossy and tactile. For the sheer enjoyment of paint applied to a ground look no further than his untitled paintings where the motif has long since ceased to be important.
A long process
The final images are wrought over long periods of time. Few of the paintings that we view are ‘first layer’. They have often been worked over and over, over long periods.
‘Some of my pieces can sometimes linger unfinished for years as I wait for the picture to come together in my mind,’ Ross explains, ‘It’s not unusual for them to be "modified" months after I believe they are finished.’
Some of these "modifications" are dramatic: ‘I have been known to repaint over 90 per cent of a piece because only a small portion of it seemed worth keeping.’
He continues: ‘I have some pieces that may never be complete. Each time I drag them out to "fix" them, I realize that I can’t pin down what’s wrong with them, but there is something not right yet. And so they go back against the wall and wait until I find the solution – if I ever do.’
This laborious process of revisiting a work means that his output is not huge and this is compounded by the fact that he is own worst critic and will not release a picture until he’s totally satisfied with it. Quality, not quantity has been a hallmark of his work.
Mostly his work sells through word-of-mouth and more recently, by displaying his work on the Internet, he has sold work internationally to collectors in Japan, USA and within Australia. This has meant that his exhibition history has been limited, with his successful first and only solo show so far taking place in Melbourne in 2002.
The journey continues
When we have been confronted with endless Monet and Van Gogh pastiches at local art shows, it’s easy to dismiss artists who revisit earlier styles as being irrelevant, mere copyists. D. M. Ross is an artist who unashamedly decided to continue the journey started by Braque, Picasso, Gris, et al at the beginning of last century and, along the way, he has bought a fresh, modern sensibility to the idiom.
With Ross as our travel guide for the next stage of the journey, there is every reason to believe he is going to reveal to us new and wonderful sights. You can see some of the ‘postcards’ he has already sent back from his travels on his website.
D.M. Ross has shown us cubism can indeed still be relevant, and can offer new and uncharted opportunities for exploration.
Spectrum brands files Chapter 11
Atlanta-based consumer products company Spectrum Brands Inc. on Tuesday filed for Chapter 11 reorganization, unable to make a $25.8 million interest payment on its debt.
The company said it is $4.4 billion in debt.
Spectrum said it inked agreements with noteholders that represent 70 percent of the face value of its outstanding bonds to pursue a refinancing that could cut its outstanding debt and put it in a stronger financial position for the future. A refinancing would let the company slash the amount of debt on its balance sheet by $840 million (or about 33 percent), eliminate $95 million in annual cash interest payments for at least each of the next two years and free up additional cash to reinvest in its business.
The refinancing would come through the cancellation of $1.05 billion in existing bond obligations and the issuance of new bonds in an amount equal to 20 percent of the total unpaid principal and interest on existing bonds together with shares of new common stock to be created under the plan. Existing common stock would be extinguished and no distributions will be made to holders of the current equity.
The restructuring would take four to six months, Spectrum said.
Spectrum Brands has landed commitments for $235 million in debtor-in-possession financing from some existing lenders with a participating interest from some existing noteholders.
"Our businesses have attractive growth prospects that have been encumbered by the level of debt the parent company is carrying,” said Kent Hussey, CEO of Spectrum Brands, in a prepared statement. “After careful consideration, we decided that the approach announced today would be the most effective and expedient path for us to develop a more appropriate capital structure to support our long-term business objectives. We estimate that when this refinancing has been completed, the company will generate in excess of $100 million in annual free cash flow."
Spectrum ended fiscal 2008 with a net loss of $931.6 million and a loss per share of $18.29, compared with a net loss of $596.8 million and a loss per share of $11.72 in fiscal 2007.
Spectrum (Pink Sheets: SPC) makes Rayovac batteries, Tetra pet supplies, Remington shaving and grooming and personal care products, household insecticides and lawn and garden care products.
The company said it is $4.4 billion in debt.
Spectrum said it inked agreements with noteholders that represent 70 percent of the face value of its outstanding bonds to pursue a refinancing that could cut its outstanding debt and put it in a stronger financial position for the future. A refinancing would let the company slash the amount of debt on its balance sheet by $840 million (or about 33 percent), eliminate $95 million in annual cash interest payments for at least each of the next two years and free up additional cash to reinvest in its business.
The refinancing would come through the cancellation of $1.05 billion in existing bond obligations and the issuance of new bonds in an amount equal to 20 percent of the total unpaid principal and interest on existing bonds together with shares of new common stock to be created under the plan. Existing common stock would be extinguished and no distributions will be made to holders of the current equity.
The restructuring would take four to six months, Spectrum said.
Spectrum Brands has landed commitments for $235 million in debtor-in-possession financing from some existing lenders with a participating interest from some existing noteholders.
"Our businesses have attractive growth prospects that have been encumbered by the level of debt the parent company is carrying,” said Kent Hussey, CEO of Spectrum Brands, in a prepared statement. “After careful consideration, we decided that the approach announced today would be the most effective and expedient path for us to develop a more appropriate capital structure to support our long-term business objectives. We estimate that when this refinancing has been completed, the company will generate in excess of $100 million in annual free cash flow."
Spectrum ended fiscal 2008 with a net loss of $931.6 million and a loss per share of $18.29, compared with a net loss of $596.8 million and a loss per share of $11.72 in fiscal 2007.
Spectrum (Pink Sheets: SPC) makes Rayovac batteries, Tetra pet supplies, Remington shaving and grooming and personal care products, household insecticides and lawn and garden care products.
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