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.

Art and History

The old mail boxes at Ein Hod are now an art piece. I thought this was a good recycling use.

The time is going fast here, We had a wonderful guided tour of Haifa and Akko and learned more history of this area. Those two cities have mixed populations of Christian Arabs, Jews, Bahai's etc. and there are no nasty stabbings there like in Jerusalem.The Bahai gardens were beautiful.

We could see snow on the mountains in the distance, but the camera did not pick that up.

We saw the inside of a mosque in Akko, very beautiful.

We learned more about the sheik who was in charge of building this mosque. He was known as Al Jazzar, the butcher. He was apparently a nasty person. I don't know if that is true or not.

The shuk (market) was busy and interesting. I think the fish are mostly local as Akko is right on the Mediterranean.

Since Akko was an important port on the Mediterranean in ancient times, there is a lot of history there, from the Crusades, the Templars, the Mammeluks and more recently (last century), the British.

Templar tunnel (underground) connects several walkways under the city.

On Vacation in Ein Hod, Israel

I am on a month's vacation in the artist colony of Ein Hod, Israel. It is spring here and the trees and flowers are blooming.  I am surrounded by beautiful buildings, sculpture and art, some serious, some not.

We have been visiting friends and famiy in Israel as well. Yesterday we went to the Ralli Museum in Caesaria to hear a choir sing. One of my friends is in the choir. The museum was beautiful outside and in. The choir was great. Then we met one of the choir members who also knew another friend we hadn't seen since 2012.  We had a noisy felafel dinner in a noisy mall. It's almost Purim here and they had a show going on for the kids. Food in Israel is terrific. Lots of fresh fruit and veggies.

Israel is not like what is portrayed in the media. We feel safer here even though every apartment has a bomb shelter, than we would feel in the big cities in America.

I've only done a little sketching and some small paintings here.  I will do more of them when I am back home and able to work in my studio. I only brought some acrylic paints with me and small canvases.

Photos above are from Ralli Museum art (contemporary art from South American artists.

I have posted more photos on FaceBook and in my web albums. Google has taken over Picasa, but if you have a sign in for Google, you can see all the photos. There is a link on the right.

Yehiam painting progression

I am working on a 16" X 20" acrylic painting of Yehiam from my photos and earlier study.  I posted my smaller study in the last post.  This painting is on gessoed hardboard, not canvas.  I like working on this surface with acrylic paints. I think the landscape would look even better worked in oils, but I don't seem to have the patience to let them dry.  It's easier working in layers with acrylic paints.  I had a hard time making the rocks look old. I decided to use a sponge with some darker colors on top of the undercolor.  I also watched a video on painting stone/rock and came away with the understanding that I didn't need to paint each stone, give a suggestion of them.  I think that helps.  The photo was taken in spring and everything was very green.  The Mediterranean Sea can be seen in the background. The fortress is up high on the hills in Israel.

My first try at the undercolors and basic shapes.  I felt that the background trees were too dark, had too much blue.

Adding more detail and starting to fill in the dark spaces.  Again, I felt that there was too much blue and wound up using some black later on in the crevices and openings in the walls.

I'm happy with my progress so far and may switch off to something totally different for a while, then come back to this to finish it up.