An abstract image created purely by using filters on top of one of PhotoPaint's fills. Sometimes I find myself feeling creative but not particularly energetic. At times like this I usually resort to Corel PhotoPaint.

I usually start the image by filling the whole canvas with a fill, quite often a relatively simple gradient fill. Then I just play around, applying effects filters. I have literally thousands of these available, but mainly I use the ones that came with PhotoPaint, the filters from PhotoShop 4, BladePro, and a a dozen or so others that I have picked up from some of the many free filter sites on the Web.

Often this process can last for hours, with much use of the undo button, or reverting to previously saved versions. Quite often the whole thing gets dumped because it isn't working. But sometimes something usable appears.

I find the whole process very relaxing and I really enjoy my periods of lazy creativity. Whether anybody else likes the images is irrelevant. And even if I don't have anything to show after a couple of hours work, I do at least feel very relaxed.

Actually it is quite amazing the things that people read into images such as this. One person swears that this picture reminds her of a cottage garden that she used to visit as a child.

To be honest, the most difficult task is coming up with a title for the image, maybe I'll just start calling them Abstract 1, Abstract 2 etc. etc.