The Artist

Welcome to my site.                     

For me artistic expression is a passion that began in early childhood.  At first it was bringing home a pretty shell or feather, and then it advanced to oil painting lessons at age nine.  Because my school years had an academic emphasis, art classes continued, but became a secondary focus.  An education at Stanford, Harvard-Radcliff, and Florida State, prepared me for a diverse 22-year career, mostly in computers. Throughout this period, along with marriage and children, artistic expression touched everything I did, my clothes, my home, my office.  However, photography played no role except for casual family snapshots. 

This changed in December, 1991 when I went to Malaysia on a supercomputer project.  To recharge my artistic interests I bought a Nikon6006 a few hours before departing.  After that trip I was hooked on photography and the Far East. Soon the supercomputer project finished and I left for Asia with a backpack filled with my camera and film. I traveled alone for nine months taking thousands of slides.  After a stint at a Malaysian university in North Borneo, I quit the work world and embraced photography.  It is now my passion.

Thank you for visiting,      Beverly LaRock

Vision

What I find fascinating with photography is how we can reflect reality as it is or easily alter it to create something entirely new, something with a bit of mystery.  Just changing the lens opens up a myriad of possibilities. Changing settings and processing techniques allows us to follow other creative paths.   And, then there’s digital processing with the wonderful tool called PhotoShop.

This website is arranged to reflect my own progression in photography, from creating images of recognizable objects to creating abstracts. Being a lover of nature, my first serious photographic subjects were from nature, thus, I included The Naturalist portfolio of landscapes.  Very soon I was traveling the world and capturing scenes and people as I walked the streets at dawn and dusk.  The Traveler and Memorable Faces reflect this body of work. The Space Between begins moving in closer, but still shows what the naked eye can see.  The images in all of the above portfolios are uniquely my view, but didn’t alter reality. 

As I moved more into macro photography, what the lens could see, my eyes couldn’t see.  It was a new world and Nature Up Close reveals what the lens showed me.  The next step in creating my view of the world is shown in Reality Enhanced. Here I have digitally manipulated images, often making composites from several photos.

Currently I’m interested in following abstraction into oblivion, or at least into a view which tweaks reality.  The Reality Dissolved portfolio includes my newest work.  It is still evolving.  My goal is to create exciting images which move away from recognizable elements.  It is the mystery in a photographic image which makes the viewer linger and want to know more.

Awards & Exhibits

2012 The Southwestern Artists’ Association 11^th Annual Juried Art Show, Balboa Park, San Diego – First Prize, One Foot Show, Beach Pattern No. 3

2012 B&W + Color Magazine Spotlight Award, June issue – Nine Images, Color Portfolio Moonlight Beach Patterns

2011 San Diego County Fair International Exhibition of Photography – Six Photos Accepted, Two Honorable Mentions

2011 The Southwestern Artists’ Association 10^th Annual Juried Art Show, Balboa Park, San Diego – Two Color Images

2011 San Dieguito Art Guild, Off Track Gallery Monthly Show, Encinitas – Two First Places, Five Honorable Mentions

2008 Visual Literacy- Juried Exhibit, 2^nd City Council Art Gallery, Long Beach – One Color Photo

2005 London Salon of Photography Annual Exhibition – Color Portrait Priests

2005 Solo Exhibit Tapestry of Life in India, Santa Barbara Library Faulkner Gallery Juried Exhibit – 24 Color Images of India

2005 Santa Barbara City College School of Media Arts Showcase – Third Place, Editorial Category, Color Photo

2003, 2004 & 2005 Buddha Abides, Caruso/Woods Fine Art Gallery, Santa Barbara, Juried Exhibits – Three Color Digital Composites

2003 Solo Exhibit, The Gallery at Fresco! – Ten Color Landscapes

2003 – 2008 Channel City Camera Club, Santa Barbara,  Twice Annual Juried Exhibits – Color and Black & White Photos

2000 Channel City Camera Club, Santa Barbara, Photo of the Year, Nature – Color Photo Tidepool Ballerina

1998 Channel City Camera Club, Santa Barbara, Photo of the Year, People – Color Photo Mother and Daughter

Gallery Representation

Off Track Gallery, 937 South Coast Highway 101, Encinitas, CA 92024

Pricing

Please contact Beverly at [email protected] for print sizes and pricing.