Outside the wall, Jerusalem

Acrylic painting done from my photo while we were walking outside the wall in Jerusalem. Painting is 11" X 14" on canvas board (unframed) and available for purchase ($175 plus shipping). Just contact me if you are interested. I don't sell anything or use advertisements on this blog, but I can post it on my website which uses Paypal.

I'm enjoying using my Israel photos from the trip this year as a basis for painting. The tree on the left in the painting is an olive tree and I am working on painting a larger one from a photo of an old olive tree near Tzfat (northern Israel).

My painting classes are going well and I hope to take another drawing class during the summer months. I would like to improve my skills in that area too. This weekend we hope to start hiking again so next week I'll probably have a couple of photos from the great outdoors. Maybe we'll get to see some wild turkeys too.

Pop-Up Gallery

We had fun at the pop-up gallery this past weekend. It was held at the White Birch Brewery in Hooksett. They enjoyed having the artists there and will host us again another time. I sold many cards and one print. I have another show on Wednesday, but that is just a display of one painting at a senior center. Photo is by artist Patricia Schaefer who was also displaying at this gallery.

Artist Aline Lotter did some sketching while she was hanging out with her paintings. I enjoy looking at her blog every week as it is quite interesting. This was a 15 minute sketch of Joe.

Drake's Brook and Ruth's Barn finished

I started painting class again this week with instructor Kim Roth and finally finished these two paintings I had started in the fall. I'll be bringing them to the pop-up gallery this weekend in Hooksett at White Birch Brewing and hope that goes well.  I'll be bringing cards too as well as originals. The theme is "New Hampshire Proud" -- my work certainly fits into that category! (Drakes Brook is accessed from hiking trails in the Waterville Valley/Campton area of NH.)

Ruth's Barn is located in Hollis, NH.  If you have been reading this blog for a while, you may remember the smaller picture I painted with the view from the front. This is the view from the side. It was quite challenging to paint.

Both paintings are acrylic paint on 11" x 14" canvas board and are available for purchase.

Waiting for her ride

Waiting for her ride

at Mount Scopus (Jerusalem), Israel

Watercolor painting with pen and ink from photo I took at Hadassah rehab center in Israel (late winter). This was the original Hadassah Hospital before the new one was built. It has been changed to a rehabilitation center now and we had a good tour.  While we were outside listening to the guide, my eye was drawn to this woman patiently waiting for her ride.

It disturbs me that so many people falsely believe that Israel is an apartheid state. We saw everyone being treated with respect at the hospitals, no matter how they were dressed or what their belief systems were. I don't know if this woman was an Israeli citizen or not, but it didn't matter. The  citizens of Israel also have full voting and democratic rights, that includes the non-Jewish citizens. We rode on buses and went into supermarkets while we were there and everyone was civil.

I liked my photo but wasn't sure I wanted to spend the time making a painting of it, so I just did a little sketch and then put some watercolor on it. Sometimes I do the color first and the pen and ink second, but this time I did the drawing with pen and ink first and colored it second. That seemed to work for this painting.  I am not going to do an acrylic painting of this image since I like it just the way it is. I have many other photos to work with for acrylic painting and I still need to finish up the ones I started earlier. When I scanned it in, I noticed that the colors did not come out accurately. I'm guessing that is due to the watercolor pigment and I don't know how to correct it. The fence has more blue in it (cobalt) and the driveway is actually turquoise. The wall in back is golden deep (more toward orange, than yellow). I used Yarka pan watercolor paints on Arches 140 lb. hot press paper. The painting is 8 X 10 inches.