Granada in 1970 - finished

Finished this one over the weekend. Just touched up a couple of spots. I posted it on my website too. I am working on several other paintings at the same time, some acrylic, some oil and do not have any other finished work to post this week. (See September 3rd post for more information about the painting.)

I'll be out and about with my camera this weekend. The fall foliage colors are just beginning in our area of New Hampshire. I hope to get some good pictures and post them next week.

Oil & Acrylic - WIP

I think this painting is almost done. It was inspired by the wild flowers in the spring at Emek Hashalom in Israel. (We were there in 2012.) There were more flowers than what I show here. It is 16" X 20", acrylic painting on stretched canvas.  As usual, I'll leave it for a few weeks, then I'll decide if I need to do something else to it.  I may bring it in to my painting class and see what the teacher and other students think about it.

This is my first serious try at a landscape in oils. It is 8" X 10", also on stretched canvas.  I have been a bit frustrated with the media, but I want to learn how to use it.  I bought water mixable oils so I don't have to deal with solvents and bad smells.  The view was from a photo I took last month while we were on retreat in Rindge, NH.  There was a dirt road that we walked on where we saw some farm houses and Mount Monadnock in the background.  I will bring this back into class next week and continue on it.  The sky needs another coat of paint, the farmhouse chimney is too bright and I still need to put in the foreground ferns. My teacher has suggested that I need to do about ten 8"X10" canvases in oil before I will feel comfortable with it.  I hope I will have enough patience to continue.

For my readers who celebrate Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) at sunset tonight and fast, may it be easy for you as we begin another year (5774).

Granada in 1970

I've had a camera since I was a little girl. My parents gave me a small brownie camera in the 1950's when I was about 6 or 7 years old.  Every once in a while I look at my old photos and several years ago I scanned some old 35 mm negatives into my computer too. This painting was from a photo taken in 1970 when I was on a car trip from Belgium (where I was living at the time) through France and down to Spain.  We stopped at many of the famous tourist sites and I took pictures.

This view of Granada was taken from the Alhambra.  I thought it would be very challenging to make into a painting.  I'm not sure it's completely finished, but I like the way it came out.  I'll leave it for a few weeks and see if I want to do anything else to it.  It is an 8" X 10" acrylic painting on stretched black canvas.

I've also learned that I don't need to buy black canvas if I want a painting on black.  I bought some black gesso (Bob Ross brand) and that works just as well.  It is better than black paint over white gesso.

Photo above is also from 1970, the same trip.  I haven't been back to Spain since then, but I still hope to take a trip there in the future.

Sunrise, a new day

I think this painting is done now. I always hesitate to varnish it for a few weeks until I'm sure I won't want to change anything.  I start back in classes in a couple of weeks and will review the painting with my art teacher before I varnish it and declare it "done".  I had a hard time getting a good photo without shadows.  I think my camera lens is not working quite right as I noticed some areas of light where there shouldn't have been light. I moved the canvas to several different areas in my studio and did not use a flash for this photo.

More details on this painting are on last week's blog post. I will probably make some cards from it and post them on my website. This painting was inspired by a beautiful sunrise I saw in Costa Rica last February.

A little marketing note for artists: If you are selling cards, prints or originals, make sure you keep track of your customers and collectors.  The Jewish new year (Rosh Hashanah) is next week. I looked back through my past order of Rosh Hashanah card customers, sent out some e-mails with links to images of my current cards and received several new orders.  In business remember, it’s always easier to sell again to an existing customer, they are already happy with your work.

On my easel today -- Sunrise, WIP

Sunrise, a New Day.  This is an acrylic painting in process. The canvas is 16" X 20"  I am happy with the way it looks so far and will work on the details when it dries a bit more.  This painting will be donated to Families in Transition, a wonderful organization in New Hampshire.

I am participating in a painting project organized by Friends of Art Manchester.  I am the treasurer (and chief blogger) of this organization and we are trying to get more public art downtown.  Families in Transition has some residences that have bare walls.  It's a match! We have artists and they have walls.

FIT is paying for the canvases and the artists are donating their time and expertise to create paintings to beautify the walls.  You can find the details on the FOA blog (link above).  We are starting with six 16" X 20" canvases and two 8" X 10" canvases. Some are already reserved.  We hope that this will be an ongoing project and will encourage some local artists to join our organization.

Meanwhile, I have a display of paintings, prints and cards at the Derry Public Library.  This will be up until the end of September.  I had a wall display there in April and now I have my paintings in their beautiful display case.  This is in Derry, New Hampshire.  I lived there from 1979-1984. The library has expanded and has a different exhibit each month.

The display case is quite large and I went back a second time to fill in the extra space with cards.  I didn't realize how many paintings would fit into the case. Photo below shows one section of it. I received some positive comments while I was arranging the paintings. That's always nice to hear.

Time and the month of Elul

One of the courses I took on retreat was about time and art. We studied various biblical and talmudic verses. We talked about linear and circular time.  We are in the Jewish month of Elul now, which is the month before the Jewish new year (Rosh Hashanah).  This is a time of reflection, meditation and looking inward so that we forgive ourselves our imperfections, ask all those in our lives for forgiveness in case we have wronged them, and pray with the intention to do our best in the future.  We listen to others with compassion, try to stay in the present moment and try to understand who we are and where we are going. This is also called "cheshbon ha-nefesh" which is the Hebrew for a spiritual accounting.

I listened to the meditation from the teacher on the last day of class and visualized the Hebrew letters going vertically that spell out the tetragrammaton, the unpronounceable word for God (there are various pronunciations now).  She talked about colors going up and they were the rainbow colors I learned in Biology 101, ROYGBIV (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet).  I didn't have all the right crayon colors with me so I approximated the colors for the letters.

Psalm 27 is read every day during this month.  It seemed appropriate for the visualization.

I am a visual artist. I paint what I see (with some adaptation for composition, color etc.).  I found this class very difficult.  We were talking about a non-visual concept (time).  I brought watercolors with me as I found that easier to transport than my acrylics.  I visualized a sunrise, mountain, river for Genesis (creation story) and put the Hebrew words on the mountain from the morning liturgy (Blessed is the One who spoke and the world came into being).  The bottom words (English) are also from the morning (daily) liturgy.  We had spoken in class about our traditions regarding both birth and death and the hevra kadisha (holy burial society). I have written about that on this blog several years ago. So this painting was about beginnings and endings (circular time).

We also looked at Dali's paintings and Monet's treatment of light changing during the day on his haystack paintings.  I prefer to paint what I see so I'm not sure I would take a class like this again, but it was interesting.  My morning class was an introduction to the Qu'ran (Koran). That was fascinating and I hope to continue to learn more on this subject.

If you are interested in a Jewish retreat next year, this group (about 300 people) is usually the first week of August.  You can find out more information at http://havurah.org/

The theme of the retreat was from Psalm 90 - notice my artwork on the right.  I have had this phrase on my blog from the very beginning in 2008. I've also posted a poem about Elul. The poem was posted 8/27/08. I'm hoping this link will work for you: http://avisiblevoice.blogspot.com/2008/08/first-of-elul-september-1st-this-year.html

On Retreat

On retreat this week. That is a view of Mount Monadnock (in NH) from the parking lot.

Lots of lakes in this region of New Hampshire (southwestern part of the state)

Canada geese like it here too.

Mendenhall Glacier - Alaska

This is a small 8" X 10" acrylic painting on stretched canvas of the Mendenhall Glacier in Alaska.  I painted it from a photo provided by a family member.  She requested the painting and I think it is finished now.

This is really the first time I've done any type of commission for someone.  It was interesting working from someone else's photo since I have never been there (but would like to go!). First we had to decide on a composition since her photo was a panorama type and she wanted an 8" X 10" canvas.

I made several sample compositions using Photoshop.  I made several other painting decisions too. She told me that the ice was bluer than in the original photo and I knew this from other friends that had been there. I looked online at other photos and paintings to get an idea of colors.  As always, you can click on any of the photos and you will get a larger image.

I took a digital photo of my painting and noticed that the colors are not quite accurate with my painting.  I always struggle a little to get a good photo, but this is fairly accurate. I will let the painting set for a few days to make sure I don't want to change anything else, then buy a frame for it.  The other possibility was putting a canoe in the painting (to show scale), but I felt it would detract from the painting and would be too small so I opted not to do this.

Here are some of the original photos I was working with. The top one is the original panorama.

Notice the color of the ice. I thought it was really beautiful.

And the canoe that didn't make it into the final painting:

On my easel today

I decided to make a comparison as I am learning how to use different kinds of paint.  The photo of the Bird of Paradise flower (strelitzia reginae) was cropped from one of the photos I took in May while I was in California. (Photo upper right)

The painting on the upper left is my first attempt to use oil paint on a canvas paper. Just trying to get used to the flow of the paint, I made a color wheel. This was done from an example I saw online.  The outer colors are put down and gradually mixed with the next color. The inner circle is white. Then the outer colors are brushed into it to see the tints.

The painting on the bottom left was done with acrylic paints.  I'm not sure if I like the 2 color background, but I'll leave it for now.  I can always change it to black later.  Both paintings are on stretched canvas (not canvas board).  I did the acrylic painting first.

The painting on the bottom right is my attempt with oil paint.  I used black gesso first as the background.  I had to use some again after I finished the oil painting to darken the background.  At first I didn't have the correct colors and couldn't mix them from my beginner set.  Then I ordered more colors and attempted to finish the painting. I changed the composition a little, felt that some of the leaves in the acrylic one did not stand out well, were too small.

It takes a long time for oil paint to dry before it can be varnished and considered done.  I did enjoy the flow of the oil paint so I will continue to learn more. I am working with books and DVDs now, hope to go back to a class in the fall.  I am working with water mixable oil paint (Winsor & Newton Artisan) as I do not want to work with solvents and strong odors.

Currier Museum Poster Contest

The Currier Museum is having a poster contest based on the state motto ("Live Free or Die") from John Stark and the revolution. They changed the words to "Live Free and...."  I choose "Hike" since I love hiking and made a little collage with prints of two of my hiking paintings.

 I'm very happy today to report that the original painting of Franconia Falls has been sold!  It's always exciting to me to sell an original since I still consider myself a student, although I think I have passed on from the beginner level to something more interesting and semi-professional.  I enjoy selling the cards and prints too, but an selling an original gives me a sense of validation for my work.

The voting for the poster contest is on FaceBook.  Looking at the other submissions, I think there were definitely some professional artists there.  This is the link if you are on FB: Currier Poster Contest