'A whole new creative medium': Island photographers discover digital paintings

Two P.E.I. photographers are going through thousands of pictures from their back catalogue, reimagining, rediscovering, and sometimes rescuing them through digital painting.

"It's just not photography," said Wayne Barrett.

"A whole new creative medium is there."

Barrett and his partner Anne MacKay are well known for their photos of Island scenes, with more than a dozen books to their credit.

Looking back over decades of work, there are countless images that did not turn out as they hoped or expected. New technologies in digital editing now allow them to revisit those images, changing them to be more like what they envisioned when they originally pressed the shutter.

"When you have a large volume of images that you've amassed over your career, it is so nice and rewarding to see them used and not end up out at the trash heap," said Anne MacKay.

"They have a whole new life."

The result is something between photography and painting. Barrett said the more he learned about what was possible, the more he was taken with the new art form.

"Texture, mood, improving composition, it was just incredible to see what could be done," he said.

Barrett and MacKay open their first show of digital painting on Saturday at Ellen's Creek Gallery in Charlottetown. The show runs until July 31.

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