Virtual Painting Tractors

In the fuzz of being laid horizontal on the couch with a flu that feels worse than covid, I glanced at the phone noticing an app I had not opened in maybe 8+ years (is there a name for these apps we just leave dusty on devices). It’s called “Virtual Painter” and is in a folder with a few other iOS apps that were more commonly used a decade ago to do creative fun with images- you upload a photo, and chose from a set of maybe five styles, and it turns a photo into an image that looks like it was painted say watercolor style or oil paint style. Just for the heck of it, I loaded up a photo I took of our old yellow tractor (her name is Matilda, does anyone else also name all their vehicles?) rendering it with the style “Purts”. It’s rather nifty to my untrained art eye. iPhone photo of Matilda, the yellow tractor. Soon to be uploaded to flickr shared CC0 Using “Purts” style with the Virtual Painting app. It’s described in the app as “Oil Painting: This is a conventional oil painting with a…