3 more abstracts

 

Swimming in circles, Oil on canvas board, 10" X 10". Not totally abstract, but I decided my blobs of paint looked like koi fish. I remember seeing them in the ponds at Kibbutz Ma'agan Michael in Israel along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. They raise them for sale at that kibbutz. They also feed the wild birds in some of their ponds too.

Tied up in knots. Oil on canvas board 8" X 10". Sometimes I feel like this as I grow older. I thought those emotions would be resolved when I finished my adolescence, but I guess I deal with them better in my senior age.

Soul afire. 8' X 10" on gessoed hardboard. This was a fun exercise today playing with my free acrylic  samples from the Golden company.  The yellow paint reminded me of the flames from the Chanukah candles.  I see some other images in the abstractions too. 

Happy Holidays.

Rosh Hashanah 2020/5781

 

I was thinking about the Jewish new year which starts in September.  2020 hasn't been a good year for most people so I am hopeful that 5781 (the Jewish year) will be better.  The verse is from the Haftarah reading last shabbat.  This is from a series of haftarot from Isaiah about consolation (after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem (remembered on Tisha B'Av this month).  Isaiah is trying to console the people with hope for the future.  I can relate to that.

I will probably design something else for the holiday as I have time to think about it more. The photo was taken in Israel in 2012 when I was on an 8 week trip then. We were touring the Eilat area with a group and this was in a botanical park there. Eilat is at the southern end of Israel, after a long drive through the desert. While it is a big tourist area, I found something spiritual there too.

More fun painting

I enjoyed working on this acrylic painting during the snow storm the last few days.  The wind is really howling outside my window now although the snow is almost finished.  We had 13" on Friday and probably another 10" today. It's a good thing I really like snow!

Meanwhile I saw an image of brightly colored fish online and I knew I had many photos from my trip to Israel in 2012 so I pulled some of them out.  I combined several photos. There were many different kinds of fish in the aquariums at Eilat (Israel) and I enjoyed taking photos.  This painting is 11" X 14" acrylic paint on canvas board.  I used a brayer and fan brush at the top right to try to indicate some light coming in.

I don't want to start another serious painting until after I have my eye surgery next month.  Hopefully I will be able to see colors better once the cataracts are fixed. First the right eye will be done, then 2 weeks later, the left.  I have trouble seeing the different shades of green, also my night vision is terrible.  I'm looking forward to being able to see my toes without glasses!  The new lens that will be put in my eye will also correct my nearsightedness and I'll just need to pick up reading glasses.  I've been wearing glasses for 60 years so this will be a big change and I hope it works.

This one is not done yet. I'm not happy with the cirrus clouds and will need to work on them some more. These are hot springs at Yellowstone National Park. 16" X 20", Oil paint on gesso'ed hardboard.  I do enjoy working on this surface and I have one more board prepared, but have not decided what to paint on it yet. I'm leaning toward a more abstract sunrise or sunset idea, but need to think about it more.

Apparently I have always liked snow. This is a photo of me at almost 2 years old enjoying my sled in front of our house in New York. The storm was in February of 1948.

Painting and Designing

The Jewish new year (Rosh Hashanah) starts at sunset on October 2nd. I've started thinking about making cards as I have several people who like to order them every year. One prefers a customized image and that is easy to do with Photoshop. The paintings I've done this year are not really in tune with my thoughts about the holiday so I looked through some of my photos. To buy cards, just go to my website.

I took almost 600 photos in Israel while we were there in March. This one of musicians is from Ein Hod, by the sculptor Benjamin Levy. There are many of his sculptures in the village.

I also liked this sculpture of David and his harp by artist Victor Halvani, but the tree in the background kind of ruins the composition for me.  I did not put this one up on my website, but can make it available. Looking at his web page, it looks like he made several of this sculpture, possibly in different materials. It is beautiful.

When I switched over to a new computer this year I lost all my beautiful Hebrew fonts. I found that the old Hebrew word processing program I had did not work with the new computer even though both are on the same operating system (Windows 7). While Microsoft Word does work in Hebrew, it seems to be a lot more work for me and I'm still trying to figure it out.

I am still painting and sketching, but the summer heat has me down. I do have an air conditioner in my studio so I do not have good excuses for being lazy. I'm also taking online webinars with Johannes Vloothuis. The last one is this Saturday. He's teaching more about composition than techniques, but I am learning a lot about making a painting more interesting and more professional looking.

I made a small acrylic 8 X 10 study first of this image, calling it "Ready to Ride". I'm working on a 16" X 20" painting now.

I actually like the small clip of just the background (the middle photo) the best. I'll continue to work on this over the weekend. The image is from our trip last year to the Canadian Rockies. We went on a raft ride on the Athabasca River. I enjoyed being a tourist and not having to row the raft. We saw a variety of wildlife from the middle of the river. One of my other paintings of the river is on exhibit now in Bedford, NH.  I have an exhibit up at a bank for 6 months. You can see that painting in my postcard from my last post.

On a day when I didn't feel like painting, I did a little sketch of a magpie that I saw in Canada last year.

I started this just as a sketch, but I couldn't resist putting in some color using watercolor pencils. We don't have magpies in New Hampshire (we have crows that are all black) and I understand that they can be very annoying, but I thought he was pretty.

Ein Hod paintings

High and Dry, oil painting on hardboard, 16" X 20"

 

I finished up two more of my paintings from my photos. We spent the month of March in the artist's village of Ein Hod, Israel (not too far from Haifa). I loved walking on the village roads and paths every day. The weather was beautiful, spring flowers and green all around.

 

The painting above is on a recycled hardboard. I had an experimental abstract on it, so I gessoed over the painting and sanded it (two layers of gesso). The row boat looked abandoned among all the green trees and shrubs.

 

 

"Gate's Open, come in", acrylic on canvas panel, 11" X 14"

 

Another interesting view through the open gate towards a private home and garden. I did not find out who owned this property, but again, I enjoyed walking and looking at everything.

 

 

I have finished a 3 week online class on Landscape Symbols with Johannes Vloothuis, so now I'll  practice on some more of  the examples in the class and hope to improve my skills. I'll probably take another class with him in the future as he is a very good teacher and the classes are not expensive. His videos and downloads are available on North Light Shop.





Practicing - more studies

Class exercises. I am taking a weekly webinar with Johannes Vloothuis on "Landscape Symbols". The classes are too long for my attention span, but I can go back online and watch the recordings. This was a very reasonable fee for so many hours of classes ($19.99 for three Saturdays).  Now I have to practice what I have learned.  I have also downloaded the classes so I can refer back to them. He is an excellent teacher and provides PDF files of his pointers.  I have his book too (Landscape Painting Essentials). The webinars are through North Light using Lightstream.  Once you have paid and signed in, you can also post questions during the webinar while he is teaching. Here is a better link if you want to sign up for any of his classes or to buy videos.

Top painting shows a mixed group of deciduous and evergreen trees (from my own photo of fall trees at Lake Massabesic). Middle image on left shows a watercolor practice piece from the webinar.  Right image is a study of an abandoned boat (from my own photo) along the road in Ein Hod (Israel).

Bottom image shows (left) deciduous trees practice and top is the mixed one.  I am using canvas panels, canvas paper and Arches oil paper for the oil painting studies.  I am using a watercolor block for the watercolor study.

I have started a new 16" X 20" oil painting and have done the basic block in (below).  The blob in the middle will eventually look like a rowboat.  I rearranged my composition since I did not want to have the boat in the middle (see study above).  I plan on working on this today. I'm a bit distracted as the plumber is going in and out of my studio repairing a leaky pipe. He had to cut into the drywall in the kitchen above to find the leak.  Luckily nothing got damaged as we caught the leak in time.

High and Dry WIP





 

Ein Hod view 16" X 20"

 

I think this one is finally done. I've left it for a few weeks in case I thought I might want to fix anything but I'm happy with it as is.

 

Decisions, decisions

Sometimes I can't decide which photo to paint and which media to do it in. I had done an acrylic sketch of this round house (a private home) in Ein Hod, Israel while I was there, but my sketch did not show how rounded the house was. This time I tried pen and ink first on cold press paper, then I used my acrylic paints as watercolor.  The painting is not for sale, it's just a study for me so I haven't put it up on my website.  I don't like it enough to paint a larger painting, but when I look at it, I remember my walks through the village and all the interesting stone buildings I saw there.

This is the completed sketch from last post, the arches at Ein Hod. Again, I don't like it enough to do a larger painting, although if I did, I would change the color palette to make it more interesting. The doors on the building appear red in the photo, but they are really a reddish brown. I still haven't figured out shadows and need more instruction on those. I signed up for some webinars that start this weekend. I saw that "shadows" was on the list of instructions so that should help me.

I practiced with a few scraps of canvas this week, just some Bob Ross techniques.  He makes everything look so easy, but when I try, I wind up with a big mess.  Meanwhile, I have a friend prodding me to do some "plein air" (outdoor) painting with her. Just waiting for a good day to do that. It's still cold and rainy here, but hopefully we are finished with the frost in the early mornings now.  I'm looking forward to taking my bike out again soon and getting out on the trails. Since I've had a meniscus tear, I haven't been able to walk as much as I like, or to go hiking. I should be able to manage the bike on easy trails since I can do the bicycle at the gym. Now that I am 70 I find that my body takes a long time to heal from injuries, much longer than when I was younger, but I still have the desire to go out and try, especially where the trails are concerned.

I have a big exhibit coming up in July and I've ordered frames and designed some labels. Some of my paintings look fine without frames (just wired stretched canvases), but I didn't think they would look good that way for a professional exhibit. I'll put up more news closer to July. There will be a public reception in July in Bedford, NH. I'll also be reading two of my poems that reflect two of the landscape paintings that will be up. I'm looking forward to it.

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.