Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is one of the most polarizing politicians in the country. Fans love his attacks on public education, transgender kids, and the press. Detractors despise those same moves with equal intensity. But one thing unites citizens of the web throughout the political spectrum: Asking just how tall Ron DeSantis is.
While many political figures’ heights are a matter of public record, others are notoriously tight-lipped or deceptive about their true stature. In the former camp, you’ll find President Joe Biden (6’0″), Chris Christie (5’11”), and Jeb Bush (6’3″). In the latter, there’s United States Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, former President Donald Trump, and now DeSantis.
Many politicians’ heights are listed on their Wikipedia page. Not DeSantis. His Wikipedia contains no mention of his height. One site noted that estimates of his height vary from 5’9″ to 6’2″. Others say he’s closer to 5’7″.
Height obviously has no bearing on a person’s ability to govern. It’s also true that taller candidates are more likely to win the U.S. presidency. And while DeSantis isn’t technically a candidate, he’s expected to enter the 2024 race after Florida’s spring legislative session.
Taller men are generally more likely to be president. During the 2016 presidential race, the Washington Post reported that the last president who was shorter than 5’9″ was William McKinley (5’7″). McKinley was president from 1897-1901.
This may explain why some presidential candidates have been accused of using various means to fudge the numbers on their height. For example, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is officially 5’9″ or 5’10”, but is rumored to actually be closer to 5’8″, which he may conceal by wearing a bit of a heel.
How tall is Ron DeSantis?
DeSantis’ footwear choices have inspired similar speculation that he’s aspiring to greater heights than nature provided.
There’s nothing wrong with men wearing heels. Yet DeSantis’ supporters do not take kindly to people accusing him of wearing heels.
When someone asked why DeSantis was wearing what he thought were high heels in the photo, former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis snapped back, “You haven’t seen cowboy boots? Have you even BEEN outside the beltway, like… ever?”
Others came running to the comments to give DeSantis a boost.
DeSantis could well be wearing an average pair of boots. He could also have chosen them specifically for a generous heel.
Some allege that he wears lifts, which are insoles that increase your height without the obvious tell of a heel.
A much, much stranger rumor is that DeSantis went under the knife to ensure he towers over the competition.
Josh Marshall of the political site Talking Points Memo recently ran a joke Twitter poll asking people how much they want to know DeSantis’ true height “prior to any surgical leg extensions, if they occurred.” Nearly 85% of the over 3,000 respondents chose “we need the truth now.”
There is no evidence that DeSantis had surgery to make him taller. But people think it’s hilarious nevertheless.
“The rumors that Gov. DeSantis has had height-enhancing surgery are unfounded and despicable and should be spread across the internet,” @DwightMccabe responded.
The subject of DeSantis’ height has inspired more than one poll.
As arguably amusing as the polls and commentary may be, none of it answers the question at the heart of the matter: Exactly how tall is Ron DeSantis?
Howtallis.org says that Florida’s governor is 6’1″. Celebheights.com claims that DeSantis is 5’11”. World-wire.com has him pegged at 5’9″. One Twitter user placed him closer to 5’7″.
Photos offer limited guidance. As one Twitter user pointed out, DeSantis looked to be about the same height as 6’1″ Tiger Woods in a recent picture—but photographic evidence is negated if he’s wearing heels and/or lifts.
DeSantis height remains a mystery, one which is certain to keep coming up, particularly if he jumps into the presidential race. The subject has already reportedly inspired one of the nicknames Trump is workshopping for him: Tiny D.
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*First Published: Mar 6, 2023, 2:11 pm CST
Claire Goforth
Claire Goforth is a staff writer at the Daily Dot covering all things politics and technology with a focus on the far right and conspiracy theories.
A picture of a mud-caked crocodile lurking in the waters of Mana Pools National Park in Zimbabwe has won the top prize at the World Nature Photography Awards.
The winning picture was shot by German photographer Jens Cullmann, who spotted the crocodile’s piercing yellow eye peeking over the top of the muddy waters.
“I had to be very careful not to disturb the crocodile, even though it was buried in dry mud,” he said. “They will launch themselves with tremendous speed and power at any animal foolish enough to come too close.”
Cullmann took the top award and a $1,000 prize, however, there were several other category winners selected from the thousands of entries received from 45 countries around the world.
Scroll through the gallery above to see all of the winning images
Other standout images included a shot of a red crab sitting perfectly still as a wave washes over it on La Gomera island, Spain. The picture, shot by Javier Herranz Casellas, took the top prize in the Behaviour — Invertebrates category.
The winning image in the Behaviour — Amphibians category, shot by Ikuma Norihiro, shows Japanese stream toads hitching a ride on each other as they swim over a tangled mass of egg strings, creating an otherworldly underwater scene.
Two of this year’s winners were from the UAE — Sascha Fonseca won gold in the Animals in their Habitat category thanks to her stunning image of a rare snow leopard captured in the Indian Himalayas.
Nitin Michael, meanwhile, took bronze in the Ubran Wildlife category for his picture of two white-tailed sea eagles fighting mid-air in Vladivostok, Russia.
Adrian Dinsdale, co-founder of the awards, said: “We congratulate all our winners and offer our deepest thanks for capturing such spectacular images of our precious planet. Once again, we hope it provides great motivation to us all to do everything we can to protect the Earth for future generations.”
Upon announcing the winners of the 2022 competition, the team also officially opened call for entries for this year. Pictures can be submitted via worldnaturephotographyawards.com/enter
The process of ‘return’ is one that many creatives have tried to grapple with; the process of returning to one’s roots and facing memories, attachments and maybe even fears from years long past. This is the focus of Gleeson Paulino’s Batismo, an enchanting series which documents his return to Brazil, and the way nature provided him with a new home.
At the age of just 17, Gleeson left his hometown of Eldorado and made the near 5,000 mile move to London. The journey was a means of escaping the “strict” religion Gleeson grew up in – one he likens to the environment of the Amish community. “I always felt very caged, especially the guilt of being gay in those communities,” Gleeson shares. “When I came to London, I finally had the feeling that I could be myself, and experience life more freely without fear of rigid rules.”
However, after a number of years living in London, Gleeson began to have feelings of restlessness, and a desire to return to his home country. “It was becoming clear to me that I had to return to face the traumas and fears I’d still been holding,” he expands. The decision wasn’t what you may call a thoroughly considered one or, as Gleeson puts it, a “rational” one. Instead, it was one driven by intuition, much like his decision to move to the UK.
The winners have been announced in the third annual World Nature Photography Awards. A haunting glance from a mud-crusted crocodile lying in wait takes the top honors, but there’s a visual feast to enjoy from the other winners and runners-up.
Based in London, this completely independent contest aims to encourage people all over the world to take in different perspectives, and change their own behavior and decisions for the good of the planet and its other inhabitants. To put its money where its mouth is, the World Nature Photography Awards team plants a tree for every one of the thousands of entries it receives.
The overall World Nature Photographer of the Year for 2023 is Germany’s Jens Cullman, who shot the winning image below. Crocodiles are well known for their fast strike and savage power, but Danger in the Mud highlights their other key weapon: patience. This yellow-eyed fella has lain in wait long enough for the mud on his snout to bake into a cracked crust.
Danger in the Mud: the patient eye of a mud-caked predator Shot in Mana Pools National Park, Zimbabwe – Gold in Animal Portraits and winner of this year’s World Nature Photographer of the Year grand prize
Jens Cullmann
Another that caught our eye was The Ghost of the Rocks, which took out the Gold prize in the Behavior-Invertebrates category. Spainiard Javier Herrantz uses a long exposure to turn a wave washing over a stationary red crab into a misty and atmospheric veil.
The Ghost of the Rocks: a red crab sits stoic as water washes over it Shot on La Gomera Island, Spain. Gold in the Behavior – Invertebrates category
Javier Herranz Casellas
Then there’s the extraordinary work of Japan’s Norihiro Ikuma, whose shot Ride on You, below, takes us to an underwater landscape that may as well be an alien planet. A stacked pair of Japanese stream toads strike an imperious pose as they watch over an impossibly huge mass of loosely tangled egg strings stretching off into the distance.
Ride on You: Japanese stream toads watching over a tangled mass of egg-strings Shot in the Owase Mountains, Mie, Japan – Gold in the Behavior – Amphibians and reptiles
Ikuma Norihiro
And it’s not all about the category winners. Portugal’s Antonio Coelho may only have taken out Bronze in the Plants and Fungi category, but his image Foggy Morning, below, is another example of how sometimes a different perspective on planet Earth can place the familiar in a spectacularly different light.
Foggy Morning: Mycenas fungi in gorgeous half-light Taken in Recarei, Paredes, Portugal – Bronze in the Plants and Fungi category
Antonio Coelho
Check out the image gallery for the rest of the winners and a few of our favorite runners-up. Pop back and check out last year’s winners if you need a little more of nature’s beauty up your optical nerve today.
With the announcement of the 2023 winners, the World Nature Photography Awards has also opened up entries for next year’s competition, with an entry fee of UK£30 (~US$36) getting you six entries – and six trees planted.
The glitz and glamour of casinos and theme parks probably come to mind whenever someone mentions Genting Highlands, but things may take a turn starting this September.
From hiking trails that are fun for the whole family, to trails along the contours of the 1,800-metre hill for the most seasoned hikers, Genting Highlands is opening up a total of 24 hiking trails over the next few years.
Awana Trail — which is also known as the Fashion Forest since 2017 — and Clearwater Way, which opened in 2022, are currently available for hikes with a private guide to preserve the forest.
While they’re open daily, these hikes still aren’t top of mind for most Genting Highlands fun-seekers.
Come September, they can look forward to exploring two new hikes known as the Heritage Trail and Memorial Trail. One of the toughest among the 24 trails — the Dragonback Trail, which follows through multiple ridges of the hill — will open in January 2024.
Heritage Trail, Memorial Trail, and along with Awana Trail and Clearwater Way suit hikers of varying levels, with some even suitable for kids to explore.
If you are used to the glitzy parts of Genting Highlands, you may be wondering where did they even manage to find space to carve out so many new walking trails.
To that, Genting Nature Adventure’s in-charge Eddie Chan tells us that developments for roads and hotels take up less than 10 per cent of the forest.
What can you see in this 130-million-year-old rainforest?
Reputed to be 130 million years old, Genting Highland’s forest is separated into three main ‘parks’ — Awana Bio Park at 3,000ft with its upper dipterocarp forest, Chin Swee Bio Park at 4,500ft with its montane oak forest, and Genting Bio Park at 6,000ft with its montane ericaceous forest.
Barely 30 minutes into our exploration and Eddie points us toward ‘Bob Marley’. Not the king of reggae, but a palm tree with clustering fruits that’s just as iconic and aptly named by the naturalist.
“Its fruits are so sappy that even our gibbons don’t even eat them,” explains Eddie.
Among its flora and fauna popular among naturalists are also their pitcher plants which are endemic in this region.
Compared to the ones we see at places like Gardens by the Bay, Eddie shares that the pitcher plants in Genting Highlands don’t look as “perfect” due to them being in the wild and cross-pollination between species.
Animal lovers may also want to keep a lookout for Charlie, a black panther that lives in the rainforest, slow loris Slowie, siamangs (black-furred gibbons), large moths, and various species of butterflies.
Whether it’s a leisure walking trail or a back-breaking half-day hike, Genting Highlands’ forest is bound to take your breath away.
A sea turtle glides through the water as a lone diver propels herself beside it. The moon rises above a forest so snow-covered it looks like a drawing from a fairy tale. These and other finalists from the 2023 Sony World Photography Awards capture what’s magical about nature and the world around us. Judges chose the finalists from more than 415,000 images taken in over 200 countries and territories. Winners will be announced April 13.
Some of the best nature photos in the contest appear below. For more images and to learn more about the awards, go to worldphoto.org/sony-world-photography-awards.
DULUTH — Dawn LaPointe calls herself a “free range” photographer, and it means pretty much what it sounds like.
“It means I go wherever I want,” said LaPointe, of Hermantown.
Free range is different from freelance, she adds. “It’s just immersing myself in nature rather than going on specific assignments to specific places.”
Free range and also “organic,” LaPointe quips, meaning there’s “no artificial color or additives” in her photos. What you see is what she saw.
LaPointe doesn’t necessarily plan her exact photos, and she loves surprises. But the effort — and the results — are far from haphazard. She seems to have a knack for going to just the right place at just the right time to capture stunning photos of nature in the raw, from pounding Lake Superior waves, to a tiny flower blossom, to a serene Boundary Waters paddler at sunset.
The bright blossoms of the hepatica, sometimes called liverwort or liverleaf. “The rich purple blossoms of the hepatica bring a smile to my face,” photographer Dawn LaPointe said. “Each spring I enjoy hiking on trails in search of a variety of emerging or blooming spring ephemerals. Finding and photographing them feels like meeting up with long lost friends.”
Contributed / Dawn M. LaPointe
“It’s being mindful, watching the weather forecast, knowing what the temperature and the sky conditions will be … knowing when there will be some clouds to help paint some color on the scene,” she said. “Then I go prepared.”
Take, for example, one of LaPointe’s many shots of ice formations along the winter shores of Lake Superior in and around Duluth. It’s not just the rising sun, which many of us would focus the photo on. She’s also keenly aware that what’s in the foreground of the scene is also important.
Ice near Brighton Beach in Duluth at daybreak. “The bling was abundant as the sun rose and painted the thousands of Lake Superior ice shards along the shore,” photographer Dawn LaPointe said. “I composed this photograph such that the viewer’s eye would meander along the zig-zag of pink, glowing ice plates through the center of the photo, finishing at the sunburst near the top.”
Contributed / Dawn M. LaPointe
Before the sun rises over the horizon, “I think about how the light might paint that object in the foreground, maybe that plate of ice,” she said, adding that she tries to imagine “how the viewer’s eye will travel through the photograph.”
“The sunrise paints the scene, makes it more interesting,” she noted. “But there’s a lot more going on.”
At this point in March, while many of us may be eagerly anticipating spring, later winter, when the ice forms, is one of LaPointe’s favorite times of year to be around Lake Superior taking photographs.
“There’s a different feel along the shore in winter,” she noted. “I have kind of a quiet respect for Lake Superior … a humbling feeling of respect being along the lake in dramatic ice or waves.”
Sunrise over Minnesota Point beach. “Duluth’s 7-mile-long sand spit known as Minnesota Point provides interesting views during winter,” photographer Dawn LaPointe said. “Waves from storms deposit Lake Superior’s ice along the beach, and the sand dunes become covered in snow drifts.”
Contributed / Dawn M. LaPointe
One photo LaPointe posted on Facebook earlier this winter was taken at dawn, the sun just above the horizon where lake meets land, along the Minnesota Point sand dunes on Lake Superior in Duluth. She managed to capture mesmerizing patterns of dune grass, sand, snow, ice and sky all in one frame. When asked to explain the photo’s allure, she paused.
“There’s a path of color and light that runs through the photo, up through the sand dunes to the sunburst,” she explained. “It’s a journey through the photo.”
Falling in love with water and shore
LaPointe, 55, grew up in Prairie du Chien, in southwestern Wisconsin, just two blocks from the Mississippi River. She was drawn to water even then, she noted, but not necessarily to take photos.
Her first camera was a red Polaroid, a gift from her parents, which shot out the film and the photo developed before your eyes.
Her first 35 mm camera was a Canon Snappy 50, she recalls, which used film. She liked taking photos, but it wasn’t her life’s ambition at the time.
LaPointe graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she focused on political science and music, playing saxophone. She never studied photography, but her political science classes were a good prep for her current day job as a paralegal for a Duluth company.
After college she spent three years in Newport, Rhode Island, where she said she lived “like a tourist,” taking in everything the region’s seascapes and back roads had to offer.
Dawn LaPointe.
Contributed / Dawn LaPointe
“That’s where I developed a real love of water and the shore,” she said, noting she would sit for hours, in sometimes awful weather, watching the Atlantic Ocean waves roll onto shore.
She also loved the White Mountains in nearby New Hampshire. “That’s when I really started taking serious nature photographs,” she noted. “I was all over New England.”
In 1996, she came to Duluth and stayed, following her then-husband to his new job.
“I fell in love with this place immediately, especially Lake Superior, but also the wilderness of the Boundary Waters,” LaPointe said of the Northland.
Moose on Saganaga Lake in fall. “A cow moose and her maturing calves were feeding at a campsite we hoped to utilize,” photographer Dawn LaPointe said. “I enjoy creating photographs that show the natural behavior of wildlife, and take steps to avoid disturbing or stressing the subjects, whether large or small.”
Contributed / Dawn M. LaPointe
To this day, LaPointe is drawn to the big lake’s waterfront for her photography, often Brighton Beach — where the ice tends to form and morph and move — but also the sand and ice dunes of Minnesota Point and up along the North Shore rocks.
“The waterfront here is so accessible. … And the ice conditions change so frequently that it’s never the same twice,” she noted. “So I keep going back.”
In 2009, she met Gary Fiedler, a Duluth-based photographer who encouraged her to dive deeper into digital photography. (The two later married and have since divorced, but are still friends.)
“That’s when I began shooting with more intention,” she noted, and when the couple set up her
Radiant Spirit Gallery
online. “I consider myself a part-time professional photographer now.”
The gallery’s name “reflects the intention to capture and convey the radiant spirit of nature through photography, videography and articles.”
A canoeist enjoys a sunset paddle in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. “The silhouette of the paddler effortlessly gliding along the river illustrates the peace and serenity I relish in wilderness canoe country,” photographer Dawn LaPointe said. “This photograph was chosen for the ‘Wilderness Forever Exhibit’ at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, where it was displayed as a 40-by-60-inch wall-hanging in 2014-2015. The special exhibit celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act.”
Contributed / Dawn M. LaPointe
In 2014, LaPointe’s photo of a paddler in a canoe at sunset in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness was chosen to hang in the Smithsonian Institute’s exhibit marking the 50th anniversary of the federal Wilderness Act.
“That gave us a lot more eyes on our work, a lot of media interest, and that’s when things started to take off for my photography,” LaPointe noted.
Her photos have been used in many magazines, including Backpacker, The Boundary Waters Journal, Canoe & Kayak, Canoeroots, Nature’s Best Photography, Northern Wilds and Lake Superior Magazine. Last year, some of her best North Shore photography hung in exhibit in the Split Rock Lighthouse State Park visitor’s center.
A Lake Superior wave hits the North Shore. “During the memorable Oct. 10, 2018, storm, the cliffs of Lake Superior’s North Shore looked like waterfalls,” photographer Dawn LaPointe said. “The relentless waves battered the shoreline and the gale force winds whipped the spray far and wide. It is humbling to witness the power of Lake Superior’s waves and hear the thunderous crashes along the rugged shoreline.”
Contributed / Dawn M. LaPointe
Despite the quality of her still photos, however, LaPointe may be best known for a video she captured. In February 2016, LaPointe was making one of her many trips to the Duluth waterfront when she recorded video of shards of broken Lake Superior ice being pushed onto shore by wind and waves, capturing motion and sound as they tumbled and jumbled together. The mesmerizing video, “Lake Superior Ice Stacking,” went viral — viewed millions of times — and appeared on TV shows and websites worldwide. It was also a highly honored video in the 2016 Windland Smith Rice Awards.
It was no accident that LaPointe was in that place at that time. In fact, she went to the frozen waterfront expecting to see some sort of incredible ice formation. On that Saturday, a day off from her day job, she spent eight hours on the waterfront in below-zero temperatures.
As usual, she was prepared with two tripods: one for still photography cameras and one for video.
“I decide when I see what’s happening which one (stills or videos) will best convey the scene at that moment,” she noted.
On that day, video won.
Several of her video clips have been sold for use in nature documentaries worldwide. But, while LaPointe has become an accomplished videographer, she says video editing can be very time-consuming for someone with a full-time job who would rather spend her free time outdoors.
Northern lights over Saganaga Lake. “My favorite place to view the aurora borealis is in canoe country wilderness, where the skies are dark and expansive,” photographer Dawn LaPointe said. “Occasionally, the surreal scene is accompanied by the calls of nearby loons or distant wolves. Long-exposure night photography requires a steady camera, so my tripod always earns it space in my canoe and on portages.”
Contributed / Dawn M. LaPointe
For still photos, she tends to do her “editing” more in the field, using her lenses as tools, and less on the computer. “I keep my editing very simple and basic,” LaPointe noted.
That’s part of being a free range photographer, she said.
“I try to convey a natural scene,” she said. “Nature is the artist, really, and I’m just its messenger.”
Fall ruffed grouse along the North Kawishiwi River in Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. “As I was setting up for dinner at a BWCAW campsite, I heard the familiar sounds of a ruffed grouse rustling in the brush,” photographer Dawn LaPointe said. “Much to my surprise, it strutted into plain view atop the granite outcropping of the campfire area.”
Contributed / Dawn M. LaPointe
For 2023 LaPointe is embarking on a self-inspired project, using both videography and photography, that she hopes will convey her love for nature in winter in the Northland and encourage others to develop that same love.
“To inspire folks to layer up and enjoy winters in our region,” she said. “And appreciate the beauty in this challenging season.”
A frog on a lillypad. “While canoeing in the BWCAW, I was drawn to an area with abundant water lilies in bloom, and noticed a frog resting on the thick, vibrant lily pads,” photographer Dawn LaPointe said. “I steadied my canoe to capture its portrait from a distance, so as not to stress or disturb the critter.”
Contributed / Dawn M. LaPointe
To see more of Dawn LaPointe’s work, order her Minispriations calendars or order prints, go to her online gallery at
radiantspiritgallery.com
or follow her on
Instagram
or
Facebook
. You can also see and buy her photographs at The Frame Corner & Gallery in downtown Duluth, the Two Loons Gallery in Duluth’s Lincoln Park business district and at Piragis Northwoods Company in Ely.
A plethora of art styles have existed since art became a concept, but abstract art is often one of the most misunderstood styles of today’s age. Some people love abstract art and some don’t, but this unique method has influenced many artists and in addition, abstract art has been used to develop additional styles and forms.
Take a look at what abstract styles have given the art world and while covering the topic, we’ll go over ten abstract artists of the past couple of centuries.
Abstract Art & Its Mediums
The focus of abstract art is to distance the idea of the artwork from the object that it references. This means that abstract art aims to skew realistic images and mold something unique out of the person, place, thing, or concept being represented. In very simple terms, abstract art is a piece of art that doesn’t have to look like the subject it captures.
Abstract art most commonly takes the form of a painting, and several painting mediums are used to create abstract pieces. These mediums include oil, acrylic, pastel, and watercolor. However, abstract art can also be created through drawing, sculptures, glasswork, and the like.
Let’s take a look at ten of the most famous abstract artists of all time, and in reading about these individuals, you might feel encouraged to visit their galleries and examine the artworks they’ve produced.
Bands formed over millions of years ripple out in a domino effect creating a mesmerizing symphony of line, color and shape in this high grade Laguna Agate Specimen from Mexico. Fine Art Limited Edition of 50.
1. Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily Kandinsky was one of the first artists to create pieces using abstract concepts. He was born in Russia in 1899 but didn’t start painting until he was in his 30s. In addition to becoming a successful artist, Kandinsky also helped create the Art Culture Museum in his hometown and contributed to the art world through his theoretical writing pieces as well.
His artistic influences included music and spirituality.
Famous Works: Rain Landscape, Untitled (First Abstract Watercolor)
2. Mark Rothko
Mark Rothko was born in Latvia but moved to the US as a small child. He was intelligent and attended Yale, but dropped out because he found the institution to be an elitist one. He began painting as an adult and moved to New York City soon after discovering his talent. Several of his paintings were exhibited at the Museum of Modern art and the Opportunity Gallery. It’s worth noting that after meeting Milton Avery, Rothko’s paintings went from darker-themed to vibrant and colorful.
Famous Works: No. 2, Green, Red, and Blue / White Center
A sprawling floodplain is threaded by the scars of a braided river in southern Iceland. Erosion of the dark sands reveals the golden beds of clay beneath, creating a diaphanous aurora across the landscape, bordered by columns of orange fire. Fine Art Limited Edition of 50.
3. Jackson Pollock
Jackson Pollock is a well-known name for even those only moderately familiar with the arts, as several of his paintings are still quite famous today.
He joined the Art Student League at eighteen and studied under fellow artist Thomas Hart Benton. His biggest influences came from Mexican murals he observed and as his artistic career flourished, he developed his famous “drip technique” where he took to painting on canvases that were laid horizontally. He combined this technique with abstract painting methods, which is what produced his unique artistic style.
Famous Works: Convergence, No. 5
4. Helen Frankenthaler
Helen Frankenthaler was an American artist whose abstract paintings emerged around the Abstract Expressionist era. She developed what’s known as the “Soak Stain” method, which she used in her paintings to set herself apart from other artists of her time. Soak staining involved pouring paint over an untreated canvas so that it would soak through and produce vibrant color combinations.
Famous Works: Mountains and Sea, Cameo
A bed of colorful river stones glitters beneath the clear waters of a high mountain stream. The interference of crystalline ripples forms a web of light hung with jewels of emerald and amber. Fine Art Limited Edition of 50.
5. Cy Twombly
Even in his early teens, Cy Twombly was interested in painting and attended painting lectures. Eventually, he attended the Boston Museum School and his art style was influenced by the German Expressionist pieces he discovered during his enrollment. He was also influenced by other artists, especially those who embraced Surrealism in their paintings.
Famous Works: Leda and the Swan, Quarzeat
6. Georgia O’Keeffe
Georgia O’Keeffe is known as the Mother of American Modernism and began her pursuit of art at eighteen when she attended the Art Institute of Chicago. After meeting Arthur Wesley Dow, she was influenced to move to New York City and work as a full-time artist.
Her flower paintings are one of her most well-known collections and many figures in the feminist movement have found inspiration in them. Even now, she is one of the most accomplished female abstract painters in history.
Famous Works: Sky Above Clouds IV, Blue and Green Music
A dense grove of aspen, suffused by a parade of bright gold and scarlet in the heart of winter is transformed by sudden motion. The fecund undergrowth becomes a raging brushfire snarling the grecian fantasy of floating columns like an animate miasma. Fine Art Limited Edition of 50.
7. Gerhard Richter
Gerhard Richter was born in the Weimar Republic in 1932 and left school in his teen years to work as a set painter for stage productions. He then attended the Dresden Academy of Fine arts and became a professor before relocating to Cologne. Richter continues to paint today at 91 years old and some of his best pieces are done in photo-realism and abstract.
Famous Works: 180 Farben, Abstrakte Bild 809-1
8. Robert Motherwell
Robert Motherwell was a 20th-century American artist who followed the abstract expressionist style. His painting, The Mexican Sketchbook, is one of his most famous artistic creations. He was skilled in both abstract art and realistic portraits.
Famous Works: Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 110, The Mexican Sketchbook
The crumbled soil of a dry desert flat is inspired by the low light of the sun into a bed of jewels. Sitting like the precious beads in a brooch, the alkaline baubles are woven by a spider’s web of fissures into a fractal tapestry of rainbow color. Fine Art Limited Edition of 50.
9. Piet Mondrian
Mondrian was considered a pioneer of the abstract art form and many of his paintings embrace extreme abstract styling, using various shapes and colors to illustrate his messages. Unlike many other artists, Mondrian was exposed to art at an early age, as he was a second-generation artist in his family. His father was also a painter who taught his son how to draw and practice art.
Famous Works: Tableau I, Broadway Boogie-Woogie
10. Lucio Fontana
Lucio Fontana was also the son of an artist, though his father was a sculptor in Argentina. Fontana moved to Italy to study at the Accademia di Brera before returning to Argentina to start his own art academy. His art style utilized Spatialism and he put a lot of emphasis on shapes and dimensions in his work.
Famous Works: Spatial Concept, Attese
The desert sun shines down through an iridescent portal in one of Antelope Canyon’s famous slot canyons. Over the eons, the solid rock has begun to take on the shape of the wild rivers which have carved their way through it. Fine Art Limited Edition of 50.
Why I Love Abstract Art & Photography
Since my very first days with a camera in my hands I have gravitated towards abstract nature photography and still find great joy in creating it today. The shapes, patterns and colors found in our natural world are amazing. These patterns are often similar. For example, visually striking & similar patterns can be found both looking down into the worlds greatest canyons and the surface of a 5 cm agate.
With nature photography, the scene itself, made up of natural elements and the available light dictate to a certain degree the available compositions and imagery that can be captured at any one time. With abstract photography, the opportunities are endless. To me personally, the challenge of finding order and purpose in what looks like a mess at first glance, is incredibly fun and rewarding. If one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, it is also true that one man’s mess is another man’s masterpiece.
A bubbled baubled wall of cerulean ice refracts the murky rays of the sun’s warmth like the core of a giant sapphire. Veins of frozen crystal swarm across the surface, recounting stories of warmer days gone by. Fine Art Limited Edition of 100.
Plates of chromed steel are woven together into a living fabric, stretching from a fiery sodium-vapor inferno below to the pastel rescue of the sky above. Caught in the warped space of the iron cavern, the walls seem almost to move. Fine Art Limited Edition of 100.
The World Nature Photography Awards has revealed its winners for 2022, and the final selected images are pretty damn awesome. High standards are always present for this annual competition, but this year it’s safe to say they’ve been exceeded.
A beautiful Snow Leopard, a tall Antillean Iguana, and a huddle of Japanese macaques monkeys are just a few of the images that struck Gold in this year’s edition of the competition, showcasing nature and animals in a new light.
• These are the best cameras for wildlife photography (opens in new tab) in 2023
Awarded Gold in the prestigious Animal Portraits category of the World Nature Photography Awards (opens in new tab) (WNPAs), as well as the Grand Prize-winning title was photographer Jens Cullmann, from Germany, for his striking image that shows a crocodile submerged in some thick and cracked mud… it looks like it had been turned to stone, with glaring yellow eyes staring directly into the camera.
The image is titled Danger in the Mud and was captured at the Mana Pools National Park in Zimbabwe. Interestingly, Cullmann actually found out about his competition win via a satellite messenger (opens in new tab) whilst in the middle of a shoot at the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana. He has shared that getting this shot took patience:
“I had to be very careful not to disturb the crocodile, even though it was buried in dry mud. They will launch themselves with tremendous speed and power at any animal foolish enough to come too close.” The extended drought in Zimbabwe had reduced the large pool to consist of rapidly-drying mud.
“During the dry season, temperatures can reach 45° C and crocodiles will attempt to reduce their body temperature by burying themselves in mud. A giant crocodile such as this one could survive submerged for months without eating, by living off its fat reserves. This is a process known as aestivation” he explains. The winning image was shot with a Canon EOS-1DX Mark II with a Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Extender 1.4x lens, at its maximum focal length of 540mm.
Other winners of the competition include Hidetoshi Ogata from Japan, claiming the top spot in the Behaviour – Mammals category, with their image of some baby Japanese Macaques monkeys forming a huddle with their mothers, captured on Awaji Island in Japan. The image is titled Playgroup.
The Behaviour – Amphibians and reptiles category winning image also featured a Japanese species in the form of the Japanese stream toad, which is said to live deep in the mountains of Owase in Mie, Japan, only travelling down from the mountains reaching the river when it is time for them to spawn. The photographer of the image titled Ride on You was Norihiro Ikuma.
Adrian Dinsdale, the co-founder of the WNPAs, has said: “We congratulate all our winners and offer our deepest thanks for capturing such spectacular images of our precious planet. Once again, we hope it provides great motivation to us all to do everything we can to protect the Earth for future generations.”
The 2023 edition of the competition is now open (opens in new tab) and accepting entries before the closing deadline of 7pm ET/midnight GMT on June 30, 2023. Be sure to check out the full winner’s gallery (opens in new tab) for some amazing examples of the best nature photography from the 2022 competition.
• You may also be interested in the best portable hides and camouflage gear (opens in new tab) for photographing wildlife, as well as the best action cameras (opens in new tab), and the best spotting scopes (opens in new tab) to never miss a moment.
• Take a look at our guide to the best lenses for bird photography and wildlife (opens in new tab), as well as the best trail cameras (opens in new tab) and the best cellular trail cameras (opens in new tab) to capture the more easily spooked or timid subjects.
PAIGE SPIRANAC has revealed that she is not planning on posting nude pics on her subscription website OnlyPaige.
The golf influencer started her website after being begged by fans to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Paige VanZant, Ebanie Bridges or Elle Brooke in making an OnlyFans page.
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Paige Spiranac has insisted she will not post nude pictures on her website OnlyPaigeCredit: Instagram / @_paige.renee
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The website is subscription-based where fans can see VIP contentCredit: Twitter – @Paigereene
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She believes ‘implied nudity’ is sexierCredit: Twitter – @Paigereene
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Paige has a massive online followingCredit: Instagram @_paige.renee
However, her site is used for content such as golf tutorials and gives fans VIP access to 100+ pieces of content.
Although she did insist that she would not be posting adult-themed content on the website similar to that of OnlyFans.
And now Spiranac has doubled down on the recent episode of the Playing around with Paige podcast.
She said: “No, there is no nudity on OnlyPaige. I think some people get confused because it is OnlyPaige and it was a cheeky name to make fun of OnlyFans.
“Because I get asked to do OnlyFans all the time by people. So I wanted it to be very tongue-in-cheek. There is no nudity, and that is on purpose.
“I also think that implied nudity and not showing everything is actually sexier, so people can use their imagination.
“And that is something I will always continue to do, I have no issues with implied nudity at all. I just never want to show those parts of my body and I never will do that.
“I also just think it is not beneficial to my business schools and how I see my career unfolding in the next five, ten, 15 years.
“It is not a knock on anyone that does that. It is just a preference that I never want to do and also because I had such a traumatic experience with the picture that got leaked and that was really hard on me.
“So for that reason, there is no nudity, and also there is more value on OnlyPaige than just seeing a nipple.
“I try to provide so much value on OnlyPaige as the instructional content really shines. We are also doing giveaways.
“There is so much more on there that brings value than just seeing a t***y.”
Spiranac refers to a picture that was leaked by an ex-partner to his friends, and before long the image had circulated beyond control, with Spiranac having to face a barrage of messages from strangers that had seen the image.
As can be the horrible nature of social media, Spiranac received disgusting abuse, including death threats – with trolls telling her that the torment was her own fault.
She has gathered an enormous following on social media.
Paige regularly leaves her fans open-mouthed with her incredible pictures.
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She also does not want to post nudes because of a previous ‘traumatic’ experienceCredit: Twitter
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Her ex-partner leaked a picture of her to his friendsCredit: Twitter – @Paigereene
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Spiranac is a former golf pro, having also played at collegeCredit: TikTok/_paige.renee
