Utah

I'm not sure if this watercolor painting is done yet, but I don't have time to work on any art this month. This is busy season for my bookkeeping business.  Meanwhile, I like to post something at least once a week and I'm falling behind. So, I thought I'd put this up for now. It's nice to think of spring flowers in the middle of winter (which I do enjoy too). I took lots of photos in Utah in June when I was there visiting my daughter, Dina.  I made this painting from one of the photos.  There is a pen & ink sketch from another one back further in the blog. That was at Alta (a ski area). This one is from the Red Butte Gardens in Salt Lake City.

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.

David Feinberg 1935

This is a pencil drawing done from an old wedding photo (1935) of my parents. It was very challenging. I posted the first drawing of my mother earlier. This one was done with Faber Castell pencils on Bristol Vellum paper. I liked this paper better than the regular Bristol (smooth). I enjoyed the class with Jeanne Lachance and hope to study again with her, but maybe not portraits! I still prefer to draw animals, flowers & landscapes.

Cape Cod before the storm

We had to cut our havurah conference visit short as a big storm was moving in. We left after dinner Saturday night. Very few people chose to stay.  Easy drive home as the snow had not started yet.  As usual, we had a wonderful time, but this is New England and it is winter now, so we understand.

If you look closely in the fifth (3rd down on left) picture, you can see either geese or ducks flying. It was very overcast and I couldn't tell from the formation, but I thought they might be geese.  I did see ducks and seagulls on the water, so perhaps they were ducks.

Chanukah

Hope my readers are having a happy Chanukah.  I am very busy this month and next with my bookkeeping service, so I don't usually have time to post to the blog.  However, I made this card which has been well received and I've had several orders.  The photo was of a sunset seen from my house. I played with it a bit in Photoshop.  I didn't feel like using the standard picture of a hanukkiah (the special menorah/candelabra with 9 candle holders for Chanukah.)  I liked the sunset colors, they remind me a bit of the colors of the flames from the Chanukah candles.  The words are from the prophet Zechariah and are part of the liturgy on the holiday. 

I did a craft fair a couple of weeks ago and some of the people were surprised to see texts on my cards from Jewish, Christian and Apache sources.  If the words speak to me, I like to include them with my artwork.  I think the meaning is more important than the source.

Pen and Ink

I worked on this pen and ink drawing some more, putting it away several times, pulling it out and tinkering.  I think it's done now.  (See post of August 20th for earlier version).  My scanner is not big enough for this paper (11" X 15") so I took some photos.  I had some difficulties with getting a good picture.  Finally, I took the drawing outside and tried a photo in the bright sunlight. That seemed to help a bit.

The drawing was from a photo I took at the Alta ski area in Utah in June while hiking with my daughter.  The mountain is called Devil's Castle. I was about 8,000-9,000 feet up, so I think it is probably about 11,000 feet at the top.  Even though it was June, the tops of the mountains still had snow on them.

The drawing is on Arches 140 lb watercolor cold press paper. Initially I thought I might use some watercolor on it. That's why I used that paper.  But now I think I will leave it as a pen and ink drawing.  I don't want to ruin what I did already.

I liked the scenes in Utah so much that I played with some of my photos with Photoshop and made some small cards with them.  I'll have a craft table on Sunday and will put them out.  Hope to get some positive comments along with some sales.

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.

Belle Feinberg, of blessed memory

Originally uploaded by LHFeinberg

Pencil drawing done in class with Jeanne Lachance. This was from a photo of my mother on her wedding day, January 27, 1935. Jeanne had us trying out Bristol Smooth (plate finish) paper. I did not like the paper and will try a different one on my next project.

I was happy with the result, though. This is my first drawing class where we have practiced on faces. I think I like flowers, landscapes and animals better, but I enjoy the challenge of the class.

I tried scanning and the original and using Photoshop.  I came out with some different results.  I posted the others on the Flickr website Flickr.

Deciduous Trees - can you identify?

Most of the autumn leaves are down and we are busy raking.  These trees at Dorrs Pond are still very beautiful, but I don't know what they are.  If you can identify, please let me know.  Thanks.

Honorable Mention

Picatso was my first "conceptual drawing" done for a contest in Manchester promoting the play "Cats". I was pleased that I received "honorable mention".  Some of the winners of the contest are professional illustrators and they certainly deserved to win.  I had fun coming up with the idea.  The French words at the bottom are a play on the "cat" theme, they say "The artist Picatso (Pichatseau) in open air"; the Spanish words on the "easel" say "el gato" - "the cat" -- just playing around with language.

I am actually getting to use some of my rusty French now as I am tutoring a woman from Algeria. We manage to understand each other with my broken French and her broken English.  I haven't really used the language since 1974 (when I returned to America from Belgium), so this is a good review.