Sunday, February 18, 2024

My Journey

 


11 X 14, oil on canvas board. Abstract reflecting my life.  I have been struggling with Parkinsons and can no longer paint the way I want to, but I still enjoy playing with the paint.  The black background reflects my lifelong struggle with depression/anxiety. The butterfly shows that I can fly at times. The hearts are for a life filled with love and gratitude. The white is for my white hair.  The zig zags are for my thorns, the moments when I am making sarcastic or pointed comments. The horsehead and flower reflect my attempt at kindness. The branches from my yard were my original inspiration.



Recently I received some lovely comments from a group I belong to on Facebook. 

From Facebook:

Hi, everyone! Happy Friday! I hope your week is going well, as we are now past the middle of February. Spring is just around the corner!

Since it’s Friday, we also know that it’s time for our Friday morning shout-outs, when three AAM members are chosen for what they contribute to this group. Posts of work, comments, advice, suggestions, questions, or sending invitations can all help our group remain interesting, relevant, educational and strong. So, without further delay, here are this week’s shout-outs. . .

Linda Feinberg - Not only does Linda share posts of her work, but she shares interesting, informative articles, humorous posts, opportunities for artists in her area, and inspiring work from other artists. Linda is a valued member of AAM and is an inspirational member herself. She continues to realize the importance of painting as she deals with hand tremors, and, to me, that’s a gutsy, positive approach to keeping the faith and allowing the art to take you in different directions. Linda, I can’t even tell you how motivational you are! So happy you are on AAM with us!

So I'm happy that I am motivating/inspiring other artists while I continue to attempt to be creative and make art myself. As I am not a professional artist and do not need to earn a living from my art, it is good to know that I am helping others. I do enjoy selling a few paintings from time to time and sharing my art that way, but being inspirational to someone else is a good reward for me too.



Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Winter scene

 

Windy Day on the River, Oil on canvas board 8 X 10, palette knife & brush.  I am still struggling with shaky hands (from Parkinsons). I picked an easier scene to attempt. This doesn't have any real detail.  I am pleased with the outcome and I just have to get my brain to accept that I can't paint the way I used to. I'm not giving up though I will be posting fewer paintings on this blog.


Wednesday, December 27, 2023

Starting again

 

Oil on oil paper. Red flowers. Inspired by an online video, but not copied from it.

I have not been painting for a few months. I've had medical issues I've been dealing with and decided to mount some oil paper and put it on my easel, hoping for inspiration. 


This is an Osprey on a branch, acrylic.  I found that I can't do detail work any more due to my hand tremors from Parkinsons. Even typing is hard.  I'm trying not to get discouraged. Meanwhile, life continues on.  I did enjoy painting the red flowers, that was more abstract.

Wednesday, November 1, 2023

Misty Day

 

Misty Morning (in Cascade Idaho). 8 X 16, oil on canvas panel. I couldn't figure out how to paint mist. I guess I will need more practice. Painted from my photo when I was at the Y camp in Cascade (see previous post).

My head has been preoccupied with health problems as my husband and I get older. I haven't been doing much painting, but when I do sit down at my easel and paint (sometimes I stand), I do enjoy it.

We only had 9 kids last night for Trick or Treat. That was sad. Now I have leftover candy to give away or eat. Looking forward to Thanksgiving at the end of the month.


Thursday, October 5, 2023

Rainy Weekend at camp



 The YMCA had a Women's Wellness Weekend at their camp in Cascade, Idaho this past weekend. Unfortunately it rained most of the time. I still had an enjoyable weekend and it was nice to get away to the mountains since I live in the city. This was the dirt road to the archery site.



I could still hit the target. I did archery in high school, over 60 years ago. Many of my arrows hit, but then bounced off. One stuck in the target so I could get a photo.  Several went over the top of the target. I would definitely need more practice if I took this up again. It was fun to try it.




Luxury camping. The cabin had some heat, bunk beds with mats (I brought my own sleeping bag), indoor toilets and showers.  There were also yurts that did not have those facilities. The campers who stayed in the yurts had to walk out to another building for the toilet and shower. I was happy to be in a cabin with only 6 campers. We all had lower bunks. It was a 10-15 minute walk to the Lodge and meals, only a few minutes to walk to the barn where I took some classes. One was a guided meditation, excellent class. I remember doing that when I was seeing a therapist many years ago. Very relaxing and helpful.


Monday, September 4, 2023

Procrastination - unfinished work




 Study for larger work. I drew this in my sketchbook, used watercolor paints and started the pen and ink process. It has been sitting in my studio for a while.  I also did a palette knife painting of this image from Norway. I hope to get motivated to finish some art soon.


It was more enjoyable working with thick oil and wax paint and using a palette knife.  My view was from our balcony on the cruise ship (Sky Princess) to the coast of Norway.  The cliffs reminded me of the cliffs I saw in Alaska along the coast.


"Enjoying the view" was also painted with oil, but with a brush, not palette knife. It's an old memory, when we hiked Mounts Morgan and Percival in the White Mountains of NH. The view was of the lakes in that area.  I don't usually paint people and I was not happy with my daughter's image. I might try to adjust it a bit more.


Friday, August 4, 2023

North Sea

 

I took a trip to the North Sea, departing from Southampton in the UK via cruise ship (Sky Princess) to Norway and Denmark. I had never been to those countries before although I lived in Belgium from 1969 to 1974. During those years I was working as a secretary and did not have enough money to travel although I did make it to the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France and Spain.


The sea was calm, it was cool (a great relief from the hot weather in Idaho), and it was a comfortable experience.


Our greeter at the first port, Kristiansand. He looked a lighter color than the moose I had seen when I lived in NH. There are moose in Idaho too, but I have only seen elk here so far. We took a bus trip to a mineral museum. I found the scenery reminded me of Alaska, NH and McCall, Idaho. I saw lots of green trees and granite cliffs.  The museum was fascinating if you like rocks and minerals (I do). There were old houses with grass roofs and also a park/playground/lake for families.


View from the balcony of the ship as we left the port to go on to Denmark (I will post more photos another day).






Friday, June 23, 2023

Painting experiments

 

                            Koi fish at the botanical garden, Acrylic on canvas panel 11 X 14.

I had fun painting on a black background with acrylic paint. I've always enjoyed painting fish. I have some of my earlier paintings in watercolor of Koi hanging in my house. I think these have a good sense of movement. I liked the way the bright colors appeared on the black background. I enjoyed watching them at the pond at the botanical garden.  It reminded me of our trip to Israel in 2012 when we visited the kibbutz where they were being raised for sale.  Beautiful fish.

Sitting by the Snake River. 9 X 12, mixed media on paper. This was done in my sketch book with gouache, pen and ink. I also used a brayer (a type of roller). I was just having fun without making too much of a mess.  The woman sitting on the rock was another artist painting in watercolor a couple of years ago at the Swan Falls Park along the Snake River in Murphy, Idaho.  I have done very little painting with gouache, but I had a few tubes to play with.  I actually prefer painting with oils, but they take a long time to dry and I don't always have the patience for that so I decided to do some paintings that would dry quickly.


Wednesday, June 7, 2023

Memorial Day

 


Although we have lived in Boise, Idaho for 6 years now, we had not visited the Warhawk Museum in nearby Nampa.  They were open on Memorial Day and advertising a flyover. This was definitely a worthwhile trip. We enjoyed looked at all the war memorabilia, the engines and the planes. It made me think how essential mechanics were to the wars (yet how many people encourage their children to study mechanics?).




I found the cut apart engines interesting even though I had no idea what I was looking at. I am not a mechanical person.  I actually enrolled in mechanical drawing in middle school (1950s) and was told that girls were not welcome.  The teacher said he never had a girl in his classes and I was intimidated so I didn't take those classes.  Now we have women engineers and pilots. I'm glad things changed.








If you are vising Idaho, this is a good place to browse. I remember we went to an airplane museum one time in Nova Scotia and got to climb aboard an actual plane and look at the displays. That was a long time ago (2003). I don't remember the name of that place, but I think it was near Halifax. Here is an old photo I found on my computer from 2003.



Wednesday, May 17, 2023

Low tide with verse

 

I have always loved this verse. We sing it in Hebrew at the synagogue. I decided my last painting was a good background for it.

More information on this poet, Hannah Senesh: https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/szenes-hannah

Link to this print: https://linda-feinberg.pixels.com/featured/low-tide-with-verse-linda-feinberg.html