Gimp alternative

Hi,
Back in PC world,I would have used Gimp to scale up drawings(as in art as opposed to draught), greyscale, cropping and a few other arty related tasks.These were usually done to photos taken with a few to painting.Now in Mac world I gather that there is a bit of an issue with Gimp and Lion and it is enough to keep me away for now from installing.So are there any suggestions for alternative programmes which are relatively easy on the pocket? Photoshop is overkill and too expensive for me for what I need.Even PS Elements is a bit pricey at $80 as I only need it basically for the tasks listed above.All suggestions appreciated.Regards

What is the issue with Gimp and Lion? I just changed to BW and cropped on my MBA in about 15 seconds. Are some other functions disabled?

Pixelmator comes highly recommended around here. You may also be interested in Paintbrush - it may or may not meet your needs but it's free so it's worth a look.

I dont think those pictures really help much, Glock's make every picture better.

+1 for Pixelmator. Gimp is a pain to setup and get working right but you can't beat the price - free.

Another +1 for Pixelmator, especially now that they FINALLY added basic shape drawing to the product. As far as I'm concerned, it's a viable alternative to Photoshop at this point.