Works in Progress

I tried painting a sunset from a friend's photo (with permission). I was not happy with it, but added one of the morning blessings in Hebrew. I had to abbreviate it a little to fit it in the space. I am not used to doing Hebrew letters with a brush, I used to do calligraphy with a dip pen. That works better on the letters. The blessing thanks God for giving us the wisdom to distinguish between day and night.  It is acrylic paint on 18" X 24" canvas.

On a foggy, rainy winter day I decided to paint a little bit of spring. This is a crabapple tree in bloom at Dorrs Pond in Manchester, NH, one of my favorite places to walk when I lived in NH. The walk from my house to the pond and around it was about 45 minutes. It was a walk I enjoyed in all seasons. I'm not sure if I'll continue working on it. It is just a nice memory for me. Oil paint on canvas, 11" X 14".

Aurora. 8" X 10" oil paint on canvas board.  I don't really like painting from other people's photos, but this was a beautiful one in a desk calendar of Alaska photos that I bought in Skagway on our Alaska trip.

These are practice paintings for me and are not for sale, but I enjoy challenging myself to try different techniques and landscapes.

Painting fun and inspiration

I enjoy the Psalms while praying at Sabbath services. This time as we were chanting in Hebrew, I also studied the English and could see my old painting "Along the way to Eilat" in the background. When I came home, I cropped it and put the words on top. While the Jewish new year does not start until mid September this year, I have already been asked about new year cards so I combined the two thoughts.  The trees in the background are date trees, the mountains are in Jordan. The bus took this road through the Negev (desert) on the way to the southernmost tip of Israel which is a big tourist destination now (Eilat). To view the card better, click to enlarge. 

I have not been painting much since I returned from vacation. I decided it was time to clean off my painting area, feeling that it would be more inspiring to work in a tidy area instead of the big mess I had there.  I took photos of my paintings that I painted while on vacation in New Hampshire.

This was just a fun experiment with acrylic paints on a leftover piece of matboard. "Fireworks"

My friend decided it was time for me to try pastels. We rode around Exeter (NH) for a while and came to a nice scene. I have not done pastels before so I think I made a big mess. Anyway, it was fun and I enjoyed the morning outside.

My attempt at painting en plein air (outside) at my friend's back yard. I don't think my little oil sketch is worth developing further, but it was good practice.

On another day, another good friend drove us to Deerfield (NH) and we decided to try to paint the silo. The farm house itself and outbuildings were falling apart so I'm guessing most of this farm is not in use. The white bundles on the left side of the painting are wrapped up hay bales so the land is probably just used now for hay. Again, I don't think this little sketch is worth developing further. I did get a bit of a tan from painting outside.

I really admire artists who can do this kind of painting.  These were 2 hour sketches and I thought they were dreadful but I enjoyed trying something new (so not a waste of time).

To finish off the week we tried paint pouring. The top one is my Jackson Pollock style lizard. I put the scales and face on later.  I don't know what to call the others. I did see a face in the one on the left so I painted that on. I'm not sure what I see in the other one. Maybe a swimming something.  This is a great fun activity to do with thinned out acrylic paints.

Light and shadow

I'm still not sure if this painting is done yet.  I was working from my photo of Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. We toured there with my late brother a few years ago. It was a beastly hot day (over 100 degrees F) and I was amazed at the cliffs and rocks.After living in New England for so long, it seemed strange to see an environment like this.

I tried to convey that sense of heat with the shadows and colors. I've set the painting aside to dry and I'll think about it some more. Meanwhile, I'm going to try some different techniques and learn more about painting with oils.  This painting is 11" X 14" on stretched canvas, water mixable oils. 

As I've been experimenting I also bought some new brushes and more paint.  I'm enjoying my quiet studio in Idaho, but I need to tidy up and put away paintings now.  I brought back the paintings that were on exhibit and now I have to find a place for them, probably in storage in my garage except for a few I will hang up.

Idaho and Oregon

The elk were browsing in the foothills of Boise, Idaho. We got a few photos from our daughter's deck.  I drove the curvy downhill road back to the city and worried that I might hit one, but they weren't on the road.

No real snowstorms yet here, but we have had frosty mornings.

View of Hells Canyon from the lookout point.  My painting doesn't really show the canyon so I should probably come up with a better title. Water mixable oil, 9" X 12" canvas panel.  I only have two more classes, so I need to come up with another subject for my next painting.  Thinking about winter and snow. Also thinking about painting a nocturne (night scene). I have to make a decision by Friday.

We took the long way home from our granddaughter's house in Oregon and drove through Hell's Canyon. It was interesting. The cattle roam free (open range) and we had to watch out for them on the narrow roads.  We stopped on the way in Joseph, Oregon, another interesting place to visit. Lots of statues and sculptures there.

Idaho, home sweet home

We are gradually unpacking and settling in to our new home in Boise, Idaho.  It took us 8 days and 7 nights traveling across the USA to get here. Our dog learned about motels, hotels and elevators. He was a very good traveler.

Except for the first day, the traveling was easy and the interstate highways clear.  We learned never to go near the metropolitan NYC area on a Friday. That was a nightmare. We detoured through Long Island so I could pray at my parents' graves.  We made it 15 minutes before the cemetery closed for the sabbath even though we had left early in the morning.  Then it took us another 3 hours to go 35 miles to get to our hotel in NJ.  We had picked a chain of hotels (Red Roof Inn) that accepts dogs and does not charge extra for them. We stayed in many of them along our route.

Leaving NJ, we went first to the cemetery where my husband's mother was buried.  Then we followed our GPS back to the main highways and onto Route 80.  For the most part we were on Interstate 80 across NJ, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and Wyoming into Utah.  Then we picked up Route 84 to Idaho.  The GPS was easy, we set it each morning for the next evening's hotel.  We tried to do around 350 miles per day with the last day a big one of 497 miles so we didn't have an extra night in a hotel.  Altogether, we drove (taking 2 hours shifts) about 2900 miles across.  Even where there was construction, the traffic moved along.

The most interesting stop for me was in Iowa City, lots of public art. It is a lively college town.

I haven't found my oil paints yet, but I'm gradually unpacking all my studio items so I hope to get back to painting soon.  The piano will be tuned this week and I've already started practicing.  I unpacked all my sheet music already.

Our family has been stopping by to help and to say hello.  It feels really good to be near them.  I never expected to be moving at age 71, but I think this was a good decision for all.  We'll be going back east every summer and have an in-law apartment to stay in while we are there.  I look forward to that too.

I am gradually learning my way around.  After living in New England for so many years, Boise seems like a very big city to me, but I'm also happy to see the mountains surrounding the "Treasure Valley".  Once my knee is fixed (maybe in the fall), I'll be out hiking again.

We drove through the southern part of Wyoming and found it to be surprisingly flat.  After a while we did see some mountains.  We had been in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons before so I was expecting the same kind of scenery.  Nebraska and Iowa were mostly farmer's fields of corn, also cattle, both black and brown. I did see one antelope in Wyoming and thought of the "Home on the Range" song.

I'll try to go back to posting on a more regular basis now that we are settling in. This has been a big adventure for us seniors and a good one.

Moving on

My last mural in Manchester, NH. I painted the homage to Van Gogh on the left of this garage door on Litchfield Lane.  My paints and brushes are all packed now.  We sold our house in Manchester and bought a house in Boise Idaho to be closer to family.  We leave for Boise on July 14th so I probably will not be posting again for a while.

To see more murals by other artists of Friends of Art Manchester, check out the blog post:
http://friends-of-art-manchester.blogspot.com/2017/06/litchfield-lane-murals.html
I was very impressed with the work of all the artists, especially the lion painted by Christine Keenan. I don't paint in that style, but I would love to try a piece like that. It looks like it would be a fun painting.

We spent 10 days in Idaho, house hunting, and visiting with family.  The house we picked is one level (Yay!, no stairs - I need a new knee, but that has to wait a while) and has a family room which I would make over into an art studio.  I'm really looking forward to this move even though it is a lot of work.  Boise is a nice city, although I'm not used to city sprawl.  The city is on a grid system and I don't think it will be difficult to learn once I remember which main roads are east-west and which ones are north-south.  I noticed that the road signage was much better than what we have in NH.

Once outside the city, it looks like NH as well although the mountains are certainly much higher. My daughter and I walked around this park which is near our new home. There are bike trails here too and I'm looking forward to biking in our new neighborhood as it is flat, not hilly like here.

We visited a friend in Idaho City. He lives in a hilly area with great views.  

Great restaurant in Idaho City.  We had lunch there but did not have room for pie.  I want to go back at some time just for coffee and huckleberry pie.

Our new home with the Sold sign. I am bringing a sketch book on the road (it is about a 10 day trip across country). This is the first time we have driven this far with a dog.  My husband and I share the driving and have done other trips of 1000 miles, but this is closer to 3000.  I hope to have wi fi at the hotels so I may post something in between.  Have camera and laptop, will travel. :)

Are we there yet?

I'm never sure when paintings are done. These have been sitting for a while in my studio and I'm not tempted to keep working on them, so I guess I'll call them done.  Top painting "Hot Springs" is from my trip to Yellowstone a few years ago. Oil on gesso'ed hardboard, 16" X 20". Middle photo "What's Out There?" are the tourists looking out at Glacier National Park, Oil on stretched canvas, 16" X 20". Bottom Photo, Bar U Ranch, (National historic site) oil on stretched canvas, 11" X 14". I haven't posted these to my web site yet. I'll do that this week. These two are from our trip to Canadian Rockies (Alberta, Canada).

I'm working on a larger canvas now, 20" x 24" of a scene from Idaho. I had sold the original one I did of this scene several years ago, that was monochrome, and now I'm working in color. I wanted a bigger picture to put in my new home when we move to Idaho in a couple of months. I'm not ready to post that one yet.

Spring has been a long time in coming to NH. The trees are finally blossoming, but there is still snow up in the northern part of the state. It's cold enough here that I had to turn on the heat for a little while this morning to take the chill off my studio. I still need a jacket and gloves to walk outside most days.

Video Classes

I signed up for Paint Along 30 with Johannes Vloothuis. The classes are online and run 4-6 hours each Saturday, very inexpensive and the recordings may be downloaded after the class is over. This first one is oil paint, Half Dome from Yosemite. I have never been there. I think the taller mountain needs to be even taller than I'm showing in my painting. I was working from his photo.  I was able to watch this one as he was doing it and follow the "chat" from the students.

Second class (photo below) was from Yellowstone where I have been in the past and have painted from my own photo. I had to watch the recording on this one and he was working in pastels.  I used thin oil paints on oil painting paper.  I could not figure out how to make the mist rising up look like it was supposed to look. I like my old painting better that I had done from further back in that canyon. Link here:  Canyon Colors

I did not enjoy working on this one, but I learned more about composition.

Last class which I only watched half of the recording and did not download at all was a watercolor of Murano, Italy. I tried to finish it up from his finished painting.  I did not have the right pigments and paper so I used some acrylics on hot press paper along with some pen and ink (for the drawing).  The teacher changed several items in his drawing after I had already done my drawing from the original instructions.  That didn't help either.  I was frustrated with it and did not enjoy the process.

My conclusion is that I need to be emotionally invested in an image to really want to spend time on it to create it.  I do not relate to other people's photos even if I have been to the same place.

I started a new painting today that I had done a study of before and I am much happier working on my own.  This is from Glacier National Park.  The tourist caravans have canvas roofs that open up so the tourists can stand up and enjoy the views and take photos.  I will work on this for a while, but here is my start and I am happy with it (oil on canvas, 16" X 20").

Sorry it has taken so long between postings. I had knee surgery on Friday and I am already feeling better.  One doctor I saw said I didn't need surgery and he did conservative treatments including shots that did not work. It took me a while to get an appointment with another specialist and get an actual surgery date, but I'm glad I was persistent. I'm looking forward to hiking again. I really missed it this past year.

Happy New Year to all. May it be a better year for all of us, filled with peace and good health (and more art of course).

Being Thankful

I have so many things to be thankful for this year despite all the pain I've been in with a torn meniscus and osteoarthritis.  I'm thankful that I will finally be having surgery next month and I'm hopeful it will get rid of the pain, or at least diminish it.  I was very sad this year that I could not go hiking, but I enjoyed a couple of easy walks in the woods and viewing my old photos from old hikes.

The painting above is a small  (8" X 10") oil study that I am working on of the California poppy fields in the spring. I was there in 2010 with our children and grandchildren. That part of our family has now dispersed from that area (Antelope Valley/Mojave) to Idaho, Oregon, Colorado with only one grandson who has decided to remain in Mojave.  I have good memories of our time visiting there.  We plan on moving to Idaho sometime in 2017. That will be a big move for us after being in New England over 40 years.  Except for my years in Belgium (1969-1974), I have always lived somewhere on or near the East Coast. I'm looking forward to the move, but not the packing up of the art studio and the rest of the house.  We need to make a few improvements to our house before we put it up for sale next June.  We've been here over 30 years and some things are pretty worn out. Also have some puppy damage too.

Sculptured Rocks Geologic site (NH) study. This is one of the trails I was able to walk a little on. I could not go down to the creek below because I was afraid I would not be able to hike back up even though I had my hiking sticks with me.  I played with my acrylic paints for this one, 11" X 14". I still need more practice with shadows, but I was trying to get the light showing through the trees in the background too. The rocks were very interesting there.

I am only doing one craft fair this year, on Dec. 10th in downtown Manchester (1000 Elm St., Holiday Market).  I still have most of my paintings up on display a the Provident Bank in Bedford, NH (115 River Rd). The bank made a lovely reception for me this month, but I didn't sell any paintings. I had to take two down since they needed space for their holiday decorations, but there are still 18 more paintings up there. They have a great program that helps artists get exposure by giving them space in their branches for 6 months at a time.

I'm really and truly thankful that my wonderful husband encouraged me to take art lessons late in life. Painting is very enjoyable and while I may never sell many original paintings, people do seem to enjoy viewing my paintings and they buy cards and prints.  I get to enjoy the whole process of creating something beautiful.

We went to an interfaith service last night. The topic was "gratitude" - appropriate for Thanksgiving.  So tomorrow I cook the turkey and stuffing to bring down to family on Thursday.  I am grateful for the family here on the East Coast and will miss them when I move out west, but I'm looking forward to new challenges ahead and spending time with the family out west.

Happy Thanksgiving all.

Painting process

Mesa Arch, Canyonlands National Park, oil, 16" X 20"

I think this painting is finished now. I'm going to post the intermediate steps below. Painting done with water mixable paints, brushes and palette knives.

First step, blocking in the main shapes. I blocked in the underpainting with acrylic paints, then started the oil painting over them.

The oil paints lack dimension at this point, the values are too similar. I need more contrast between light and dark.

Working on the colors, details etc.

Starting to see more darks now.

Trying to lighten up the colors on the faraway mountains, but then some other colors were too light.

At this point I knew I was almost done, but needed some help. I went to visit and paint with an artist friend who advised glazing the far away mountains (to get a sense of depth) and darkening some areas. Scroll back to top to see the result.

I haven't posted this painting to my website yet since I'm not sure it's done, the artist's dilemma, when is it done? I think I might fiddle with it a little more.

I enjoyed my trip to Utah 2 years ago and hiking in the national parks with my daughter.

What inspires me to paint

I wasn't going to bring a painting to be voted on at the last meeting of Manchester Artists Association, but I liked the mixed media painting I had done "Follow Me" so I matted and framed it. (I had a mat and old frame in my studio for it). I won a certificate and some nice comments from other artists.  My painting is on display this month at the Triangle Credit Union on Candia Road, Manchester. I typed up information about the memorial and the battle site so anyone looking at the painting would learn more about this.

Unfortunately our puppy got hold of the watercolor paper (he seems very attracted to paper, toilet paper, magazines etc.) and chewed a little on it. I covered up the chewed part with the mat, but it also covers the front of the first horse's face. The image I posted on my website shows the full horse.

I guess what inspires me to paint is the beauty all around us. I think of the divine (whether you call this God or some other name) as the Master artist. I remember writing a poem about that years ago (it is in my first poetry book available on Amazon).  I have enjoyed retirement and traveling the last few years with my husband and we both take many photos. I have been doing small paintings in different styles the last few weeks just to keep practicing and teaching myself how to paint better. I have tried some online courses, but found that I didn't want to paint someone else's image.  I need a relationship of some kind with an image to want to paint it.  Unfortunately one way to learn is to copy from the masters, but that doesn't work for me. I need to "feel" something when I am painting as my painting and poetry are both expressions of my emotions.

This is an experiment of working on black gessoed canvas board. I found an old photo of the old Notre Dame Bridge in Manchester, NH.  I really liked that bridge and was sorry when it came down. I started in monochrome, but decided to add some colors as I went on, not only to the bridge (which was green), but also to the millyard buildings and the river.  The inspiration photo was grayscale, not color.  I'm not sure if I'll do any more to finish this, or just leave it as is, a study of the bridge. Acrylic paint, 8" X 10".

This experiment is also acrylic paint on canvas board (8" X 10"). I remember walking the trail along Lake Massabesic years ago and taking the photo of the two fisherman. I took several photos that day and tried to frame them with the trees. I enjoyed the memory, especially now that I have knee problems and can no longer hike.  Again, it is just a study and I don't know if I will make a larger painting. I can see several areas that definitely need to be improved, but that is the point of the study. I'm not aiming for perfection in a study, I'm trying to work on details as well as get paint on the canvas. I do not post the studies on my website.

Ready to Ride, 16" X 20", Acrylic on stretched canvas

While I had the acrylic paints out, I convinced myself to finish this painting. I wasn't happy with some of the trees so I tried to improve them.  This one shows the boats that were waiting for the tourists. We were on the Athabasca River in Alberta (Canada) and had a wonderful experience on the boat ride, saw a bald eagle and an elk too as well as the beautiful mountains.

So, I have been going back through my photos from my travels the last few years and finally started another 16" X 20" painting, this one of the Mesa Arch at Canyonlands National Park (Utah). I have blocked in broad areas of color so far in acrylic (underpainting) and started on the oil painting.  I must admit that while I really love New England, I also enjoy all the colors of the west and I'm looking forward to our move to Idaho in 2017.