Blossoms and other paintings

I never did learn the names of all the beautiful flowers and blossoms I saw while on my vacation in Ein Hod, Israel. The village is built with old stones, stone buildings, stone walls etc. I painted the blossoms above in my studio from a photo, but I had also done a small study while there. I posted the new image on my website so that you can order cards or prints. Acrylic on canvas board, 8" X 10"

I played with Liquitex light modeling paste on the wall to make it look more three dimensional. I used Liquitex, Winsor & Newton and Atelier artist grade paints.

This is an earlier study I did while in Israel (from a different photo). I brought small tubes of Soho acrylic paints with me and I was not happy with the texture and quality of the paints.  I bought a set knowing I needed some for travel, but they were not really artist grade. The colors were pretty though. The study is 5" X 7".

 

In order to travel with paints, you need to have a data sheet from the manufacturer along with the tubes of paints in your luggage (to prove to TSA that they are not flammable). I requested one from Jerry's Artarama where I bought the paints and they supplied me with the document.  I gave the tubes of paints to an artist friend for her students rather than bringing them back.  I already had enough stuff in my luggage! Another friend advised me not to sign any of my studies, just leave them as studies. I did not have an issue with this in Israel, but I understand that can be a tax problem in some countries.

 

I am working on the bottom study now. I did the top one while I was there. I need to fix my drawing. I was a little too lax when I put in my shapes on my canvas and lost the second arch on the right. The small painting on the right is another earlier study done in Israel of the pretty blossoms on the wall.

 

The views in Ein Hod were beautiful. I found painting this very challenging and I'm not done with this 16" X 20" painting yet. I still need to adjust the colors a little, but I think I got a sense of the place.  Always more to learn.

 

To learn more about the history of Ein Hod: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ein_Hod

To learn more about the village: http://www.ein-hod.info/

 

We rented an apartment through airbnb, but I checked it out with artist friends first. It was a great choice! Please contact me if you would like details.

 

Birds and animals at Ein Hod, Israel

We are finally back from our month long vacation in Ein Hod, the artist's village near Haifa, in Israel. It was a wonderful vacation and I am still tired and have not completely adjusted to the time zone. Meanwhile, I took around 600 photos so I have organized a few to show here.  The birds were not terribly cooparative as far as my photography skills went, but I got a few photos. I wasn't quick enough to photograph the lizards I saw, but did manage to photograph one snake.

The cats walk around like they own the place. They are not really pets. Someone does feed them and make sure that they get neutered, but basically they are in the village to keep down the population of scorpions and snakes. We didn't see any scorpions there, but I checked our shoes every day before putting them on. The dogs also wander and are very friendly and well behaved. It is pretty safe in the village for them since the only car traffic is from the people who live there (there is a gate to come into the village, also a visitor's parking area outside the village for everyone else). I think the village has about 500-800 people living in it. To buy a home or apartment there, you have to be juried in as an artist or photographer.

The cats wandered around the back yard and patio

 I'm not sure why this mirror was in the alley, but the birds didn't seem happy with it.

 The bamboo grows very tall there. I watched this bird and enjoyed his singing.

 Ceramics from the Magal studio in Ein Hod. I bought a few small things there.

 The small doves seemed very similar to the ones we have at home.

 The little dog across from our apartment finally got used to us walking and stopped barking at us every time we walked by.  He looked like he is guarding the whole neighborhood in this photo.

 These two dogs barked at me as I walked by on the street. They were quite loud, but did not come out on the street. Other dogs I saw on my walks were friendly.

 This dove on the next rooftop was quite large, larger than the ones I see here. It was also very loud and had a different song than I am used to.

 A pretty calico cat was watching us as we sat in the cafe and had some coffee and snacks.

 Several people had chickens in the village. I also heard peacocks and roosters, but I did not get a picture of them.

 The cats came right up on the patio. We noticed that they liked to drink the water from the drain pipe after the rain.

 One of my favorite statues. There were so many it was hard to decide which ones I liked the best, but I like dogs so I took several photos of this statue.

This photo was taken at the Dado Beach near Haifa. Our friend took us there on our last evening so we could get some photos of the sea and the sunset. The village has warm and friendly people and almost everyone spoke some English. Now we are back to winter in New Hampshire, with cold temperatures and snow.  Next week I'll try to organize some of my flower paintings and put them up. I loved all the bright colors and pretty flowers (and so much green!) in Ein Hod in March.