Portland, Maine (again)

Back to the beginning of the blog. My first post in 2008 was about Portland, Maine and our trip there to hear some music at One Longfellow Square http://www.onelongfellowsquare.com/.  This past weekend, we went back. This time to hear my son's band play in the same venue.  The band is a tribute type band to Steely Dan. They picked a play on words and are called Deely Stan.  http://www.deelystan.com/  The concert was sold out and we had a great time.

Of course, I'm a proud mom, but I think there were many people who were not related to the musicians and just loved the music. Lots of applause.  Jake (Freedman) looked so happy playing keyboards and singing.  I loved watching him!

I noticed that since I've been taking the drawing class this semester on portraits, I am really looking at faces differently.  I could imagine a series of woodcuts, or linocuts, with musicians and their instruments, or singers & microphones.  White lines on black backgrounds.  I was watching  the shadows on the faces (from the lighting at the show) very carefully.

We went back to the Portland Museum of Art as well.  Again, I was looking at portraits and faces differently.  The museum has an exhibit of prints up now. That's what made me think of the woodcuts.  Joe has been studying Impressionism (American, I think) with Kim Roth. He was looking at the Impressionist painting at the Museum in more detail this time.  A good trip.

Happy Thanksgiving to my readers. I probably won't post again until after the holiday.

Belle Feinberg, of blessed memory

Originally uploaded by LHFeinberg

Pencil drawing done in class with Jeanne Lachance. This was from a photo of my mother on her wedding day, January 27, 1935. Jeanne had us trying out Bristol Smooth (plate finish) paper. I did not like the paper and will try a different one on my next project.

I was happy with the result, though. This is my first drawing class where we have practiced on faces. I think I like flowers, landscapes and animals better, but I enjoy the challenge of the class.

I tried scanning and the original and using Photoshop.  I came out with some different results.  I posted the others on the Flickr website Flickr.

Deciduous Trees - can you identify?

Most of the autumn leaves are down and we are busy raking.  These trees at Dorrs Pond are still very beautiful, but I don't know what they are.  If you can identify, please let me know.  Thanks.

Honorable Mention

Picatso was my first "conceptual drawing" done for a contest in Manchester promoting the play "Cats". I was pleased that I received "honorable mention".  Some of the winners of the contest are professional illustrators and they certainly deserved to win.  I had fun coming up with the idea.  The French words at the bottom are a play on the "cat" theme, they say "The artist Picatso (Pichatseau) in open air"; the Spanish words on the "easel" say "el gato" - "the cat" -- just playing around with language.

I am actually getting to use some of my rusty French now as I am tutoring a woman from Algeria. We manage to understand each other with my broken French and her broken English.  I haven't really used the language since 1974 (when I returned to America from Belgium), so this is a good review.