Tom Donald
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tomclearwood.bsky.social
Tom Donald
@tomclearwood.bsky.social
190 followers 210 following 59 posts
I'm here for the Indy: hope & community
photographer, fifty years behind the shutter developing prsonl styl
safe behind the fluffy barrier of obscurity
diversity - equity - inclusion: but Scottish, so more so.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/clearwood/
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tomclearwood.bsky.social
Tom Donald @tomclearwood.bsky.social · 11h
the so-called real world's harsh but its shapes harmonies and tones can be worked into the still safe silent space of a picture. I prefer to see the outside world as Unmade Art than what I fear it might really be.
Another new one for #ArtAdventCalendar day12
an abstract townscape in bright colours, the buildings are irregular and human-scale, there are trees and railings and chimneys and windows, many of which appear lighted. The overall impression is of kinda cosy domesticity, largely through colour choices, oranges and reds towards the centre of the picture, with more blues and shadows towards the trailing edges. Another photo of Lisbon was the basis for this one but I don't remember what I mixed it with although it was only yesterday. Something Belgian I expect.
Reposted by Tom Donald
mythbri.bsky.social
Decided to try a self portrait, which I pretty much never do. I’m always more interested in how everyone and everything else looks than I am in how I look.

#ArtAdventCalendar
Digital painting of a woman wearing mirrored aviator sunglasses. The frames are rainbow colors. The woman has short dark hair in a curly style, with a white steak. The woman is painted in shades of gray against a chaotic many colored background.
December 12, 2025 at 1:56 AM
tomclearwood.bsky.social
the so-called real world's harsh but its shapes harmonies and tones can be worked into the still safe silent space of a picture. I prefer to see the outside world as Unmade Art than what I fear it might really be.
Another new one for #ArtAdventCalendar day12
an abstract townscape in bright colours, the buildings are irregular and human-scale, there are trees and railings and chimneys and windows, many of which appear lighted. The overall impression is of kinda cosy domesticity, largely through colour choices, oranges and reds towards the centre of the picture, with more blues and shadows towards the trailing edges. Another photo of Lisbon was the basis for this one but I don't remember what I mixed it with although it was only yesterday. Something Belgian I expect.
December 12, 2025 at 7:39 AM
Reposted by Tom Donald
snp.org
Polls are now open in the Fort William and Ardnamurchan by-election.🚨

🗳️Vote Norrie MacLean before 10pm tonight! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
Poster reads: SNP ALWAYS ON SCOTLAND’S SIDE • Your Local candidate • Hands-On Community Worker • Lifelong champion for Lochaber ELECT Your SNP candidate NORRIE MACLEAN BY ELECTION – 11 DECEMBER Promoted by S Sinclair on behalf of Norrie Maclean both c/o SNP HQ, Gordon Lamb House, 3 Jackson Entry, EH8 8PJ.
December 11, 2025 at 7:32 AM
tomclearwood.bsky.social
A new picture for day11 of #ArtAdventCalendar

Ghent garage + lovely Lisbon hillside buildings:
2 photos mixed with a "difference" blend mode
+
theshold layers for whites and blacks
+
compressed colour areas by histogram adjustment
+
fabulously tasteful colour edit
=
another pretty picture
hello
a checkerboard of orange roofing and white and blue walls abstracted and idealised to an indistinct geometry. It's a human scale environment with a seaside or holiday vibe. The colours of wade pottery glazing on my grandmother's turtles. No AI got I.
December 11, 2025 at 7:59 AM
tomclearwood.bsky.social
Lisbon! There's a lot been going on there for a thousand years and it looks it, a proper old town built on hills and FRIGHTFULLY Portuguese. Here's an old house with some lovely southern European vibes... It's my picture for #ArtAdventCalendar day10
An irregular old building sits on a cobbled street on the side of a hill. There are trees and plants in pots, and some building work is going on because there's a skip! Photographically this is very unrealistic, I've messed about with the colours and the textures, as usual.
December 10, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Reposted by Tom Donald
indyposterboy.scot
"How much better off we would be - financially and in terms of public policy - if we had an independent Scotland in the EU having first ditched the Monarchy and the House of Lords.”
indyposterboy.scot/scottish-rep...
Scottish Republic - Indy PosterBoy
"How much better off we would be - financially and in terms of public policy - if we had an independent Scotland in the EU having first ditched the Monarchy
indyposterboy.scot
December 8, 2025 at 8:53 PM
tomclearwood.bsky.social
cogs elevate a museum here's some
from glum
berlin
compositionally it's a cloud machine for
#ArtAdventCalendar day9
big cog wheels the colours of tomato soup seen through a jumbled iigsaw sky. The colours bring a little summer into the otherwise oily browns of the so-called real world. crossing the channels xxx
December 9, 2025 at 8:51 AM
Reposted by Tom Donald
markrich68.bsky.social
Whenever booking a hotel in Scotland, ensure that it’s owner doesn’t support fascism

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺
December 9, 2025 at 4:21 AM
tomclearwood.bsky.social
I don't really do people photographically
1) stealing their souls
2) shapeshift
3) rude to point
but when I'm actually married I'll give it a go so here's
Mary under the watertower
for this UXORIOUS
#ArtAdventCalendar day8
a triple exposure remix
Portrait of a sideways woman. Somewhat abstract, she shimmers and is fringed with colour. There's a feeling of movement or vitality. Is she looking at her phone? Or taking another photo of the dog? Who knows. She is THE PRESENCE in the picture
December 8, 2025 at 5:25 PM
tomclearwood.bsky.social
More travel photography. I took pictures from Berlin and made this. Flowers and machines! two of my favourite subjects. Anyhow this is my kind of robot with notes in the ALT xxx
for #ArtAdventCalendar day7
it's abstract, see, made of flowers and machinery with red bits and flowing wires. Photographically it's all about composition, balanced containment within the frame. The content of the image has flavours of adventure and resolutely facing into the wind with courage. see also the creative optimism of nuts and bolts
December 7, 2025 at 7:27 AM
tomclearwood.bsky.social
Oooooohh dogs in Scotland land of windy mud wee mammals and dogpeople walking about for a chat and a biscuit
Healthy you know?
this is chloe, a handsome black labrador in the pretty collar that denotes domestication. She is sitting in some nice fluffy grass on a country hillside. As pretty as a picture, she is in this case a pretty picture. Woof! The main photographic element here is compostion. I love my wee fold out screen that means I can put my camera at ground level without having to go there with it.
December 6, 2025 at 7:56 PM
Reposted by Tom Donald
nycjayjay.bsky.social
This week’s Just for Skeets and Giggles is out! Have a great weekend. statuskuo.substack.com/p/just-for-s...
December 6, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Reposted by Tom Donald
sculptedreef.com
🥰 Larger Pacific Striped Octopus 🐙 Hand sculpted from clay and lovingly painted 🎨

#ArtAdventCalendar #ArtYear #Art #ArtGallery #Sculpture #Octopus #MarineLife #CoralReef #ArtSale #BSNM #Invertebrates 🦑🐡
A mixed media artwork featuring three hand sculpted Larger Pacific Striped Octopus attached to a vintage tea cup. Larger Pacific Striped Octopus are dark brown with white. Their iconic pattern is instantly recognizable. A white mantle with dark stripes that move across the eyes and down to a dark brown arm web and arms, which are covered in white spots.
December 6, 2025 at 2:22 AM
Reposted by Tom Donald
hauntedbees.com
#ArtAdventCalendar Day 5. When I originally drew this, the NFT bubble popped not long after. May reposting it bring the AI bubble the same fate.
A man wearing a shirt with "opinion haver" written on it smiles as he shows a woman a portrait of him. The portrait is extremely pixelated and distorted, and looks very old and ugly. The man explains, "And so I sold my soul for this NFT, and now it ages instead of me!" The woman, horrified, exclaims "Holy shit, you must be ancient!" The man chuckles and replies "What? No, this is just how NFTs look."
December 6, 2025 at 2:43 AM
tomclearwood.bsky.social
ok ok ok the leaves aren't blue.
reality's inadequacies.
texture texture, it's photography of a better woody world
#AbstractLenspressionism
#ArtAdventCalendar day6
a tree lifts barky branches like elegant fingers into blue leaves it's knightswood park baby, and I've shuffled the channels and revolved the colours and so on to make dick the druid's imaginary plantscape: cornflower colours at woodland scale
December 6, 2025 at 5:47 AM
tomclearwood.bsky.social
Choosing a picture for day5 of #ArtAdventCalendar has been strangely difficult... I actually put a picture up earlier, then deleted it because I wanted something a bit more... FLAMBOYANT!

Then I found what I needed in November, it's a burned out car: Out of the strong came forth sweetness right?
Colour sweeps over the picture, tiger stripes in blues and gold. We may see that the colours obscure the underlying shape; a burned out car but the abstraction is the meaning of the picture
December 5, 2025 at 8:52 PM
tomclearwood.bsky.social
last week in california I saw the pacific ocean do this
#colour #photography
sunshine on the blue sea breaks luminous greens that crash to boiling foamy whites
December 5, 2025 at 3:07 PM
tomclearwood.bsky.social
bleep!
dark room enlarger me 1976
December 5, 2025 at 2:59 PM
tomclearwood.bsky.social
So @plantteaching.bsky.social travels the world... sometimes I tag along.
This time Belgium. Ghent! I loved it.

plenty of raw material.. I like to make the world look GOOD in my photography because it is, if you look carefully.

This picture's all about SUNSHINE
for #ArtAdventCalendar day4
A pedestrian crossing, buildings in Mediterranean city style, this could be any sunlit old city. There are broad bands of bright balcony above and in front, and shady places. Peeping in at the edge A TREE. The style is high contrast! black and white and soft pastel colours. the vibe is stillness in the sun. If you start off with a nice composition then you can boil it down to its elements. I so love a threshold layer for this with a darken blend mode and another one for brightness, then histogram adjustment for the band of colours in between. The aim of these adjustments? To make a pretty picture actually. I think this is closer to the direct visual effect of the original scene, than an unedited photograph would be.
December 4, 2025 at 7:21 AM
Reposted by Tom Donald
jayispainting.earthskyart.ca
HEY YOU. STOP DOOMSCROLLING.

Right click or press and hold this > #ArtAdventCalendar and choose "See #ArtAdventCalendar posts"

It's a portal to a beautiful place that has nothing but art made by real humans.

DO IT.
December 3, 2025 at 4:02 AM
Reposted by Tom Donald
cityspaceastro.bsky.social
IC-1805 -The Soul Nebula. HOO process
40 mins from 10th November 2025.
ZS61, ASI 585MC, L-eXtreme filter.

#astronomy #astrophotography
November 11, 2025 at 1:17 PM
tomclearwood.bsky.social
This year I went to Berlin; didn't like it.

But there were some nice engines in the technischen museum; here are two of them in my picture called "An Artist's Tribute to Professor Branestawm". #RoleModel

This is my #ArtAdventCalendar day 3 pic. I was trying for "cheerful" with this edit.
the shapes of machinery, the colour of parrots, abstract, visually evasive, fills but is contained in the frame. It's a bit indescribable actually. I used my usual technique for this, spitting images into RGB and HSL channels and remixing, then colour editing for a bit of harmony. With dull metals in shades of brown I find that the saturation channel can often be usefully remixed as the hue channel of a new image. Or sometimes hue makes an interesting lightness. And these components can be mixed in layers using various blend modes... After working on this for twenty years I've almost got a grasp of how to do it.
December 3, 2025 at 6:41 AM
Reposted by Tom Donald
bylines.scot
"Many disabled people need adaptations made to cars before they can use them – anything from adjusting the controls to work around limb impairments, to removing the driving seat so that a wheelchair can fit into that space. They need to pay for these themselves."
#Motability
#Disability
#WelfareCuts
What government Motability plans mean for disabled people - Bylines Scotland
Planned restrictions on the Motability scheme will cost some people their jobs and see others trapped at home
bylines.scot
December 2, 2025 at 6:56 PM
Reposted by Tom Donald
eileen4ever.bsky.social
I love this so much.
Black and white photo cropped to two fashionable women on the deck of a navy ship for a change of command ceremony.
December 2, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Reposted by Tom Donald
mrspowersdayjob.bsky.social
Sometimes I think it’s going to be the librarians who will save us all.
A large (maybe 3 feet wide by 5 feet tall) sign on the end of a row of bookshelves that tells the “address” of books that have sensitive content.
November 25, 2025 at 1:47 AM