Reality to Abstraction - photomanipulation

The initial photograph is an old church near my home. The above version is not the original. It has already been "improved" by two processes. The first is to make a softer image by blurring the original using a filter which scrapes the image (in the style of Richter), first left-and-right and then up-and-down. This blurred image has then been overprinted with the original to make a double exposure. The intention was to give the photograph the ethereal effect of an impressionist painting.

Next, I took the original image and overprinted with itself four times in each of the four rotations of a square. This produced the image above, which while technically satisfactory was not what I had hoped. This time blurring of the original image hasn't been as effective as I had hoped. And I don't too much like the unattractive cross that appears in the centre of the image.

The next attempt is better (above). This time I have applied the Richter-style squeegee to the four-times rotated image, so that the cross almost disappears. This is probably what I was expecting to achieve originally. As an image I find it very satisfying on its own, but my immediate reaction was to be reminded of some of my favourite Rothko paintings.

So finally, I tried an even harsher Richter squeegee effect, arriving at the above abstraction. The colours are inherited from the church as is the rectangular shape of the object in the centre of the image. I particularly like the fact that it has inherited a tilt.

If you stare at the final image fairly intently (you may wish to enlarge it) then you do get a little of the Rothko experience. You will need to put your face very near the screen. You need to exclude all peripheral light. Remember, Rothko recommended standing only inches from his enormous paintings in a dimly-lit gallery.

As with a Rothko, your eye/mind has to adjust to the situation in front of you. Then the illusion appears.  Is that an opening in the gloomy distance? Is it a solid door? Is it some large object in the gloom? I reckon if I printed this 2 metres by 2 metres, hung it on the wall of my study, switched the lights off and stood about 0.5 metre from it I would achieve something of the isolationistic effect that Rothko intended from his paintings. But, would the effect be compromised for me, knowing that there is a church somewhere there in the gloom?