“Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.
For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.
And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.”
Isaiah 60:1-3

I created this for Easter, but it's also appropriate for Christmas

From Handel's Messiah
O thou, that tellest good tidings to Zion (Arise, shine; for thy light is come)
For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth

A fantasy winter landscape created in Vue. I wanted a winter scene that focused mainly on the landscape but was obviously fantasy. This was also an experiment in working with snow, getting it to sparkle and reflect the light for an “other-worldly” effect. It was an extremely long render on account of all the lights and reflective and translucent surfaces, but I was able to just run it in stops and starts over about a month.

A simple Christmas desktop made in Vue. I like to reuse my abstract designs as textures, so the sky texture comes from Chaos Tie-Dyed, and the red and gold balls from Rubies & Gold.

I made two 3D renders of this virtual chandelier model in Vue, this warm "sunset" version, and another with cool evening lighting that I called Twilight in Crystal.

I found this virtual chandelier model and decided to render a close-up of it in Vue. I made a couple versions, this one with cool evening lighting, and a warmer, more colorful version I called Sunset in Crystal.

Not more than one person in five hundred years finds this tiny island. It doesn't stay in one place very long. But anyone who is drawn to these mysterious lanterns, and comes to get a closer look, vanishes into another world, and never comes back. The question is, do they want to?

This was an experiment in digital reflections and refractions.

Light rays are one of those things that appear rarely in nature but frequently in art. But I guess in a sense that's what art is - a selective view of nature. And the rays do add some nice depth to a lot of scenes.

This image was made almost entirely in Paint Shop Pro, but I thought a subtle fractal background made the water more interesting.

“The blue rose means mystery. An appreciation for the enigmatic, the inexplicable is expressed by the blue rose. A tantalizing vision that cannot be totally pinned down, a mystery that cannot be fully unraveled is the blue rose. A person who receives the blue rose is the subject of much speculation and thought. A complex personality that does not allow easy interpretation is what the blue rose indicates.”
— FlowerMeaning.info

“Due to the absence in nature of blue roses they traditionally signify a mystery, or attaining the impossible, or never ending quest for the impossible. They are believed to be able to grant the owner youth or grant wishes..”
— Wikipedia

This was my first “professional” image created with Vue software. I had tried out the beginner versions of the software (with all the limitations such as size and watermarks that come with that type of software) and decided I wanted to invest in learning this program and making extensive use of it in my future artwork.

For this piece I took the same ZaoS fractal I had embossed for Rubies & Gold and laid it over a green Apophysis fractal design. The result was a calmer image that reminded me of the light patterns - caustics - under rippling water. The pearl seemed an appropriate addition.