Gallery acceptance

 Three of my paintings have been accepted to this gallery show. They are fall images with fall colors.

I submitted 5 images (the maximum allowed) and I'm happy three were chosen. One oil painting and two acrylic paintings. The Hebrew in the middle one may have a grammatical error. I created this one quite a few years ago and I think I may have missed a word that precedes a direct object. Anyway, the thought is there and I still like the image.

A peaceful day

A Quiet Day, oil painting 12" X 16" on stretched canvas. Available on coffee cups, mugs, face masks etc. on my website.  While we are in spring in Idaho (lots of flowers blooming, pollen causing allergies etc.), I was thinking of a quiet, peaceful time in Maine.  This was a scene in the Belgrade Lakes area of Maine in the fall.  I had a hard time with getting the greens dark enough to look like my photo, but I am still learning.  I have made charts of different color combinations and that helps me too with the mixing.

Sitting by a lake anywhere in the world gives a sense of peace. I remember being upset and sitting by a river when I was younger, or riding my bike to the end of the peninsula to sit by the Long Island Sound when I was growing up.  I will be glad when the shelter at home stuff is done.  While I am an introvert, I do miss a little socializing.  We have been going to our sabbath services online with Zoom. It is not the same.

Now I will turn back to spring and play with an image of poppies. I think that will be fun for my next painting.

More WIP

I gesso'ed over an old acrylic experimental composition and played with some oil colors to make something abstract in a diagonal composition form. It was fun playing, but I didn't really like the way this came out. I feel it needed more contrast in values. I may go back to it at some time and attempt to improve it.

I found a video online which was a copy of a copy so this is not an original image. I enjoyed using the different techniques with the oil pigments. The original was a Winslow Homer watercolor and David Dunlop showed how to paint it in oils. Of course, I don't have that level of painting expertise, but I enjoyed following along with the video.  I might use his techniques another time on one of my own images.  This was Prout's Neck in Maine. I have never been there although I have spent lots of time in Maine when I lived in New England.  It was a quick image to play with and I enjoyed painting it.

Vacation (continued)

We had a lovely time on the Marginal Way in Ogunquit, Maine. This was a nostalgia tour for us as we had one of our earliest dates there 33 years ago. We found a bench with a number 33 on it too.

We went back to the Currier Museum in Manchester. I used to be a member and I always enjoy seeing their new exhibits.

I found what I think is a red tailed hawk's feather on one of our walks. I've also seen deer and turkeys here.

This is just outside the apartment where we are staying on vacation in NH.

My son was kind enough to take me into Boston so I could see this sculpture. It is by old friends, Donna Dodson and Andy Moerlein.  Donna and Andy have been very busy creating art this year.

Vacation!

I'm having a wonderful time back east. I love my new home in the west, but still felt a little homesick for all the beautiful greens in New Hampshire.  I decided to stay for 4 weeks. Hubby went back after 2 and while I miss him, I am keeping busy.  While he was here, we did lots of touristy stuff, including taking the Cog Railway up to the Mount Washington, walking the Marginal Way in Ogunquit, Maine and more.  I have to pick from lots of photos we took so I hope my readers enjoy them.

We were above the clouds at the top of the mountain and it was cool and comfortable not too windy.  I finished reading Dan's book about his year of studying this mountain and highly recommend it. I guess we had never tried the Cog Railway before because it is quite expensive, but we enjoyed splurging since this was our vacation.  It was worth the ride.  We had hiked many times in Crawford Notch, but not up to Mount Washington.

We enjoyed walking around Dorrs Pond which was near our old house in Manchester.  It's still hard for me to walk too far (had replacement knee surgery), but I made it the one mile around the pond.

I've spent some fun times with artist Rollande Rouselle and other  artist friends who are trying to teach me plein air painting. I'm really terrible at it, but enjoying the learning process.

I think that's it for today. I'm having some difficulty with my laptop computer. I'll try again tomorrow to upload a few more pix.  This has been a wonderful vacation, but I'm almost ready to go back home to Idaho now.

Traveling and Landscapes

I finished my painting from our June trip to Canada. Athabasca River, oil painting on stretched canvas, 16" X 20". My website now offers T shirts, tote bags and some other items as well as cards and prints. Fine Art America has partnered with Pixels.com to print these items.  This view of the river is right before the water falls. I loved the trip to the Canadian Rockies (Alberta) and will probably paint more views from my photos. (Click on image to enlarge)

Meanwhile, my son's band was playing on a boat in Portland, Maine. I had never done a harbor cruise before and this was great. I've been to Portland many times (great museum there as well as fine restaurants and interesting downtown), but just cruising around watching the boats, old forts, lighthouses was very enjoyable.

Portland Harbor is also an oil painting on 16" X 20" stretched canvas. I enjoyed working with these colors too, quite a change from the colors in the Athabasca River painting.  This is the first time I've attempted an oil painting of a harbor with boats. I liked the way it came out. I did a small acrylic study of the sailboat first (image below). Then I decided I liked it enough to attempt a larger painting, but I liked the full scene for the larger painting, not just the sailboat.

Portland Harbor study, 8" X 10", acrylic on canvas board. I find that I'm enjoying working with the water mixable oil paints more as I get used to them, but I still like the acrylics too. Many times I use the acrylic paints as an underpainting. That helps me with colors as well as composition.  In composing the scene for the larger harbor painting, I moved the small boat in front from my photo (using scissors and tape on my printout, not Photoshop!) and placed it off center. The original photo showed it too centered for me. I also print out my photos in black and white as well as color. That helps me both with composition and values (light/dark).

In between the serious paintings, I also played with paints, trying a night scene on paper.

Night Study, acrylic paint on Strathmore acrylic paper. This one just came out of my imagination and some views I had seen on the internet. While Manchester (NH, my home town) is on a river, it certainly doesn't look like this, day or night!  I liked the way the sky came out, but that's about it for this painting.

Then I tried a self portrait, using the water mixable oil paints again, this time on Arches Oil paper. The nice thing about doing a self portrait is that I could make myself look much younger. The hard thing was mixing the colors. I need to learn how to make shadows better with these paints. Anyway, it was a fun experiment and I learn something new each time I paint. I'm just posting a little clip of this one here as I really don't like the full portrait.

By coincidence, thinking about my last posting on titles, Jason Horejs posted a good video on the same topic recently.  http://reddotblog.com/art-marketing-minute-video-creating-compelling-titles-for-your-artwork/

I bought a used pochade box (portable paint box) from an artist friend. These are very expensive to buy new, but I wanted one for plein air painting (painting outside). I would like to practice a bit before our next trip to Israel (next year). We will be staying at Ein Hod (an artist's village) for a full month and I plan on painting outside, not just from photos. I definitely need more practice with that. I've tried it out in my studio, but not outdoors yet. Looking forward to that too.

Maine

I had an enjoyable time in Maine this week at Poland Springs resort in Poland Springs, Maine. I did a little hiking, a little swimming, a little relaxing and enjoyed the views of the Presidential range of mountains in New Hampshire. Beautiful sunsets.

Museum of Maine State Building. Originally built in 1893 for Worlds Fair, then moved to this location.

a moment in time

just a moment in time

seeing the toddler’s face in my mind

transposed onto the handsome man

at the keyboard

smiling and joyful as he sang

and played for the sold-out crowd

the toddler with perfect pitch

singing along with the piano tuner

in our small Belgian apartment

and the musical youngster

who did not want to continue

piano lessons and switched to clarinet

piano lessons started again in college

his own choice this time

full circle, generation to generation,

two grandfathers whose love of music

was passed down to parents

who kept the music going

to the next generation

just a moment in time

©2009 Linda H Feinberg
Author's note: I saw this image in my mind while watching my oldest son, Jake Freedman, playing  keyboard with his band in Portland, Maine in November. It was a beautiful image.

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.

Maine - Memorial Day Weekend

Had a good time in Maine - did almost 400 miles round trip. We visited friends in the Belgrade Lakes area. They took us to the cemetery where Joe’s “other mother” (Irene Proctor) was buried this winter. She was in her 90’s and we miss her. This is a poem I wrote about her a few years ago.

visit with an old friend in Waterville

at the sunset of life
she is content with a blueberry muffin
and watching the Red Sox on TV
her gnarled hands perfectly manicured
her white hair beautifully arranged

she walks with a cane now
but is still filled with energy
and a positive attitude
adjusting gradually to her new room
making new friends with her dry Maine humor
and slowly realizing she will not go home again

copyright 2002 Linda H. Feinberg, from my chapbook “Gathering the Sparks”

Then on to Lewiston where we went to the Bates College Museum. Senior student art exhibit. Also a Japanese kimono exhibit and a Mount Katahdin paintings exhibit. Small and very nice museum. Talented students. http://www.bates.edu/museum.xml The exhibits change during the year. We were glad we got to see this one.

After Lewiston we drove to the "Sleepy Hollow" Motel in Biddeford (our cheapy night - less than $60.) We were pleasantly surprised. The motel was clean, quiet and had very comfortable beds.

On Sunday we hiked Ossipee Hill in Waterboro, Maine. Took us 2 hours 20 minutes with stops for views & a snack. Went up the fire tower and got great views. Could see Mt Washington's snowy peaks from there too. (I think that’s over 100 miles) There was a family cemetery at the beginning of the hike (dirt road, old stone walls). Most of the graves were from the 1800's. Some of the men served in the Mexican war and Spanish-American war. We said prayers there appropriate for Memorial Day weekend. Also saw my old enemy - poison ivy, but I avoided it and we had an enjoyable weekend away. (If you double click on the picture below, you will get a bigger version and you can see the snowy peaks better.)

Where Jewish Meets Duke Ellington, Portland, ME

February 15th & 16th 2008 in Portland, Maine

I guess we are crazy northerners. Not cold enough in New Hampshire, so we took a weekend trip to Portland, Maine. It was a sunny weekend and a change of scenery for us. We went to a great music program in a small venue (One Longfellow Square), reminded me of coffee houses in Boston in the 60’s when I attended Boston University. There were two musical groups, Okbari and Zhok Therapy. The first group played Armenian and Turkish music on interesting instruments, Oud, violin, drum, tambourine. All outstanding musicians.

The second group was apparently a subgroup of the Casco Bay Tummlers (klezmer music). This group played a combination of middle eastern, Macedonian and jazz. Some of the pieces played were written by the musicians themselves. This was the first time I saw a bass flute. I was very impressed with the musicians, especially the trumpet player. One of the pieces was subtitled “where Jewish meets Duke Ellington”. I thought there should be a poem in there somewhere, but I haven’t come up with it yet. The two groups played together at the end of the program. Wow!

The history museum had an exhibit on the Abenaki indians. They had some computers set up so we could hear voice clips of old recordings. I thought some sounded very similar to Hebrew chants.

The Portland Museum of Art had a sculpture exhibit by John Bisbee. Large pieces made with nails and other metals. Very impressive as was the rest of the museum. Good restaurants in Portland too. We thoroughly enjoyed the weekend and the change.

As this is my first attempt at a blog, I haven’t figured out yet how to include links to these interesting places, but you can search for them easily with any search engine.