Dec. 4, 2009....Lost Track of Days!

I finally finished a pet portrait requested by Grandma Ruth...
Had some struggles with it because of the photo I was working from. The fur looked quite gray in the photo, so I had to work some more with my acrylics to change it to look more like a chocolate lab. I painted it at first as it was in the photo, but Grandma said it was the wrong color, so I fiddled with two glazes of burnt sienna, and I think I'm ok now.

So off it will go in the mail, as soon as I can get a coat of varnish on it...which should be in a day or two.

I am feeling better. I'm doing the cleanse that my osteopath recommended, and I am losing a few more pounds. I got some results in the mail, from recent blood work, and the PA added a note saying that I "look good on paper"...haha...that really does tell it all. Cholesterol was 125...blood sugar was normal...and all other lipid numbers were amazingly good. One of those things where I wonder if they mixed my results with someone else! But maybe this healthy eating has something going for it.

OK....I'm starting an Israel painting today. I am! Just have to dive in. I hope I have something new to show you in a few days, and that I can keep going for a while. The muscle spasms are minimal now, so I'm going to try to work.

Day 83, November 8

I was inspired to paint my friend's dog, because it was her surprise 50th birthday party, and one of the main loves of her life is her wonderful dog, Manfred. He is a rescue dog who comes from the south, and was badly abused. What a wonderful life she has given him, and how happy he is now! So I did these two mini paintings for her gift.
I am also working on a dog portrait for my mother-in-law, which is about half done. When that is finished, an Israel picture is next on the agenda. Those are so overwhelming, it's hard to work up the courage to start one!
Have not been feeling well at all. I've had problems with my neck and a horrible bout with a knee..it's like the enemy within, sapping my strength and motivation, but things are a little better now. I am seeing an osteopath who does cranial sacral work and uses homeopathic remedies, and also plan to try doing a 'cleanse' under his supervision, which involves giving up most of the usual foods I eat (sounds like a good idea, but another big challenge!). Hopefully that will help in the weight/energy department.
I am posting the two MINI pics I did for Gail. They are about 6x8" in size. "Chasing a Squirrel Under the Hosta", is watercolor, and "On the Water" is in oil.

Day 69, Oct. 25

I am not, not, not going to give up on this. Even if no one reads it because my posts are so sporadic, it is good discipline for me to put up work when I can. I just don't know what is wrong with me...it this just normal
aging? Now one of knees, the better one actually, has developed bursitis, and I've been limping around on a cane, sleeping in a recliner, and generally nursing myself back to whatever I was before this episode.

I have been making it to most of my figure classes (I've posted a few studies donein class), and also, I happened to receive two little commissions, so I am working on those as much as I can.

OH! There is some important news: the rabbi who helped me plan my trip to Israel for the project has asked me to be on his local TV interview show about the paintings. So I finally got up the courage and set a date for late in January to record the show, and I DO WANT TO HAVE ONE MORE large painting to bring with me then.

Today I completed the first commission: an exact copy of a charcoal drawing that a woman had done in the 60's of herself and her sister. She wants her sister to have one as well, and since there was only one drawing...she hired me to make a duplicate!
I think I did OK. It was a weird assignment, but actually I think I learned some stuff about doing the head in charcoal. The artist who did the original was pretty damn good, I think. He must have done hundreds. They got it at a big flower show in Phila. Anyway, I am posting the original and my copy so you can see. Of course the original is the one with the glare of the glass of the frame.

Day 54

Gad zooks! Time has been flying by, without any news from me, until now! I am happy now, because I FINALLY painted a little landscape painting that I feel good about.

Other news: I've been busy taking Advanced Figure Drawing, twice a week at WesConn, and I feel that I am getting a lot out of that class, which will pay off in the long run, when including figures in the landscape. Also, I'm reading lots of my art books, mostly focusing on books about: A La Prima painting, color and impressionism.

Anyway, I am posting the painting today that has me excited. I hope this may be a breakthrough in my landscape work. It's a little park in Newtown, CT. The painting is done in oils and is 8X13" in size.

Day 32 addendum

Here is the ebay address, to see the One Day paintings for sale:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120471896862

Day 32

Not good news on the Weight Watchers' scale this morning. Gotta get back on the wagon. Goal today: write down everything I eat.

I did a One Day painting today. I set myself up on my deck on this gorgeous Sunday, and I enjoyed doing this little study. I can't call these paintings "one-a-day", since I am not doing them every day, but I will call the small ones I complete in a day, One Day paintings. Today's painting is called, "Italian Flavors". I'm going to put all my little paintings up for sale on ebay.

Day 30, Evening

I more or less finished the painting of the twins at the beach, (my aunt's great grand daughters..very sweet). I'll bring it tomorrow for Aunt Edith. She has always been a very dear aunt and my only living relative from the last generation. She lives far from family in Florida, and I'm happy I'll be able to visit with her and our little family tomorrow, when she is visiting with my cousin in NJ. Signing off til next week...

Day 30

I had my second session of figure class this week. Here are a few figure drawings I did in class. The small ones are 'gesture drawings', intended to capture the movement of the figure.
Today I hope to finish the little painting of the children at the beach, so I can bring it with me to a family holiday get together...and give it to my aunt. Happy New Year!

Day 28

Almost a month has gone by since I began! The good news is that I have done more art work than I can recall doing any previous month, but the bad news is that I need to do more! I had a bad week with my health; an old car accident injury has really messed up my neck and I have been having such pain, even down through my chest, that one night I thought it might be a heart attack and went to the hospital. It wasn't my heart, so that is good, but still, when it is bad, I can hardly sleep, and I'm tired and miserable.

All that notwithstanding, I have started to take the figure class, and I am in ecstasy!! Twice a week for two studio classes with a model, and for a modest fee, as an 'older person'....I am so happy for this opportunity. I have high hopes of seeing great improvement over the semester, and maybe I can continue with it for the whole school year. This afternoon is the second session, so I have to make this short. In the evening, I'm taking my dog to agility class..so it's a busy day. I wanted to post a couple of my figure drawings. In the image with the extra head drawing..I was working on drawing the tilt of the head, which is difficult.

Other news: ISRAEL PROJECT: I have been doing research on line and finding a lot of like minded people blogging and posting images of the sort I want for a painting...and trying to contact them for permission to use the pictures, but so far, no luck. A lot of dead ends. But I'll keep trying.
Meantime, in my mind, I am developing an idea for a large painting of the twelve soldiers who were cremated alive during the summer war, while they were eating lunch, not even in combat!, just sitting on a stone wall in a Kibbutz, when a katusha rocket crashed into the paved road in front of them setting a car on fire and killing all the men. I am going to do some prelim. work on this image this week. So it's off to school now.....

Day 20

Starting with health, not so good. Nothing serious with a capital S, but muscle spasms and stuff like that really slow me down. No more on this...just to make a note that I am spending time feeling miserable and don't feel like painting. BUT, I did do a One a Day yesterday, which is posted here. Tomorrow will be a better day, I hope, and I do have a plan.

I'm going to work on a small painting for my aunt in Florida, of her twin great grand daughter...a real sweet beach scene. One of my interests is painting people on the beach, so this should be good practice. The catch is, one, a resemblance is critical in this painting, and the proportions of children are tricky for me...but, as I said, good practice.
I also have in mind to do an Israel picture, but in the charcoal I used for the scene of the river at the mill, posted on Sunday. I am beginning to think that is a strong medium for me and could have the kind of impact I am looking for. I hope to have those both up on the blog before the weekend.

Our self study program: Barb and I don't live too close to each other, so we are having some phone meetings and sharing our progress on the phone and internet for a couple of weeks this month. Our assignment is to work through the book called 'Brushwork Essentials' and chose one of the painting projects at the end to copy. Deadline is the third week of Sept. Tomorrow, I start going to the advanced figure drawing class at the state college. I'm pretty psyched about that too! See you soon with more updates.

Day 19

I did a painting today of tomatoes...what else?? They are coming fast and furious, and we feel lucky to have them at all, with all the crazy rain we had this summer. The painting is too wet to scan. I hope to have a photo of it to post by tomorrow.

Meanwhile, my friend, Erna, who owns a very handsome daschund named Samson, said that she has gotten many compliments on a drawing I did of him. She suggested that I post the image here, since I do pet portraits as commissions, and people might like to see another example of my work. So here is a picture of Samson, done in graphite on paper.

Day 18- Open House at the Brookfield Craft Center

Today was our once a year open house at the craft center where I teach drawing and painting. I was asked to draw outdoors, which I did with pleasure! It was a perfect day! Our location is wonderful, in an old grist mill with a river flowing by in the backyard...and we had a terrific turn out at our open house. Many craftspeople who teach there demonstrate their skills and show prospective students what they can create in the classes. I had a good time drawing, practiced my perspective and used a medium that I now know is a top pick for me: vine charcoal. I must do more work in charcoal. It is so soft and malleable, it almost feels like I'm sculpting with it...I love it! Here is the drawing I did while people came by and visited at the Center.

I am also uploading the painting of the pond we visited several times in RI, and another small painting of the lake near my house, Candlewood, in Connecticut.

Another bit of news. I just found out that a former teacher of mine is teaching Advanced Figure Drawing at the Danbury branch of our state university, and now that I am of a 'certain' age, I can take classes for a very nominal fee....so I have decided to take the class. It's twice a week for a semester, so I'll count those class sessions as my art work for those days, and will post my drawings from the classes here too. I think that improving my figure skills can never hurt. It makes pictures interesting to have people in them!

Day 17 Back from Rhode Island

Will post more tomorrow...I'm tired! But here are three of my 'one a day more or less' paintings I did in RI. These are three 6x6" or 6x8" oil paintings. They seemed dry enough to scan, but there is another not finished and one still too wet that I can try to shoot a pic of tomorrow (it's too big for the scanner anyway). As you can see, the topic is FOOD!

We rented a little two bedroom house near the ocean, took our dog Deus (short for Amadeus) to a wonderful pond in Burlingame Park to swim almost every day, went to the beach with him in the evenings after the life guards left (we brought picnic food for dinner), ate in a couple of great restaurants and had a day at the beach in Narragansett sans doggie. I painted every day! I am very proud.

I took about 400 photos last week, and am looking forward to painting a lot of ocean paintings, boats and beach-goers in the near future.
I'm also going to post my little paintings on ebay soon, and put them up for sale.

Please pass it on....

Please feel free to email a link to my blog to anyone you know that might be interested in the Israel Art Project. Of course, my goal is for people to see my paintings and form a reality based understanding of the history of attacks and violence, that led to the building of the walls in Israel, and to the conflicts that continue to happen. Suicide bomb are not a great threat anymore, because of the wall, but that makes it no easier for those who have lost children or been permanently disabled already.
And of course the rockets keep coming in southern Isreal.

There are two other paintings posted here so far, and if you refer to Day 4, that is the post that includes the painting, "Bolts Keep Spinning". I would like as many people as possible to see that painting. In this post I am including another one that that I did some time ago, a painting of the bus stop where Liron's sister and friend were killed by a suicide bomber.

Day 9

I decided to post a couple of little pet portraits that I painted very recently. The watercolor, Savannah the cat, is 5x7" and the oil painting of Samson is 6x8". I do these on a commission basis for $89 plus shipping.

the link to the video

http://www.chromaonline.com/chroma/media_library/multimedia

Can't seem to make it work, but if you are interested, please try copy and paste. Joan

Day 8

I won't be able to blog again until after Labor Day. We will be in Rhode Island for a week, and I plan to do a painting a day there so should have a lot of new images posted soon. Hopefully I'll also get some good photos of the ocean, and of birds and nature in the local nature preserves for future painting reference.
I gave another private drawing lesson today, did some research on web sites related to terrorism, and watched a very exciting instructional video on the web, on creating luminous paintings by a contemporary painter named Mikel Wintermantel. The video was suggested to me in an email I received from Chroma paint, a company I represent as a free lancer occasionally helping to market their paint; they make a very special and wonderful type of acrylic paint. Anyway, I got really psyched about this artist's work and hope to take a workshop with him someday soon. Here is the link to the video. You might enjoy it if you are an emerging or new artist.

Day 7 Image

Day 7

Short blog today. I had to take some pictures down from the wall in the bird feeder store (a little art show I had of bird paintings), none sold. They were up there for two months.

Then I gave a private beginner's drawing lesson in my house (odd, you may think, that she gives lessons when she is just learning to draw!), but as it turns out, I have done everything somewhat backwards in this career. I have been teaching beginners' art classes for a few years, and it turns out that I am a pretty good teacher. I would not call myself an advanced artist, but the basic concepts of drawing, watercolor, etc. are not that difficult to convey to students and I really do LOVE the teaching. I study a lot of how to art books and take courses to get ideas for curriculum. It doesn't hurt that I have a master's in art too. I'm embarrassed to tell this, since I am no where near at a master's level, but I was lucky to get into a program because the program was so new, that it needed students pretty badly. I won't mention where. I did it to make myself paint, since I was not inclined to do so naturally...always found it very frustrating...but that is another story. I had just days before starting the master's program, taken an early retirement from a social work position in a men's prison. I was eager for a career change and looking for something I could do into old age.

Anyway, I gave a private lesson today, and then had to go to a focus group meeting at the school where I teach a couple of short classes each session, the Brookfield Craft Center, This is a committee that is meeting to help improve the financial health of the center. So it was a full day for me, and NEVER would I have done any art work today if not for this blog. But ...
I had promised something every day, to myself and the blog, and so, I did the re-drawing of the glider. Here it is. I think it is improved, but still could have used more time and patience. I did it without a ruler. Maybe I'll do it again with sharper pencils and go slower.

Certainly no Israel work today. Not much in the health department either.

Day 6

Really good day today. Barb came over and we worked on the drawing assignment...looked at each other's work, and gave helpful suggestions : ) We plan to continue drawing cube based objects, since neither of us has it quite down yet. As you can see, the glider glided right off the page; it's not supposed to do that! Again, it's a matter of discipline, plan the location of the image on the page, save the details for the end. Hopefully this practice will fill a gap for me so that I can create a good drawing or plan, prior to doing an oil or watercolor painting.

We also worked through some of the book on brushstrokes and left the other half for homework. We did things like loading the brush different ways, preparing it for different types of strokes..kind of boring and seemingly basic, but I think for me it increased my awareness of not being lazy and then sorry. 'Do it right the first time' has never been my motto, but it seems like a sensible idea!

I plan to work on a painting tonight that my aunt asked me to do of her two great grand daughters at the beach. It's a challenge, but she deserves my best try.

No work on Israel today.

Health: Mostly low fat eating today. Still, very little exercise. Barb and I did take a walk to the lake to take some pictures of boats and water for ideas for paintings.

Plans for a yum dinner of stuffed fillet of sole (pre cooked and bought from Omaha Beef, a new indulgence) with corn and fresh tomatoes from the garden.

Day 5

Busy day. I taught art at the Easton Senior Center today. Good class, lovely people, one of the highlights of my week every Monday. Most of the students do watercolors, each in their own style, and bring in ideas for paintings they want to do. I critique their work as we go along, answer questions as best I can and make some suggestions. It seems to work for everyone. Sometimes we have class lessons; we did a little work on rules of perspective in recent weeks.

I rushed home to get the dog to the groomer in the afternoon.
I did draw for a little while sitting in the Big Y cafe waiting to pick up the dog, but by the time I got home I was pooped (bad choice of doggie type words).

Tomorrow morning, I'll post some of my pencil drawings done in the last week. Tomorrow afternoon, I meet with Barb to work on oil brushstrokes.

I got a few reactions, very positive, to the Israel painting I posted yesterday. Somehow I thought I would get more emails about it. But maybe it is too upsetting or offensive to people...not sure.

Day 4

Artwork: will post updates on this later. I worked today on a piece for Israel.

Israel: New painting to view, as promised! The blog is working...I'm working...still slowly and in small steps, but I can show you the new painting now. It is called "Bolts Keep Spinning...". This painting is acrylic paint on paper, and will be mounted to a large board. It is 36x64" in size.

It is based on a photograph taken by a physician in Jerusalem, showing the damage inflicted by a bomb with bolts in it. The title of the painting comes from a statement made by a victim of a similar bomb, who said that the bolts continue spinning inside the body. I learned this from a CD that was given to me by the Elharars, the couple who created and continue to run the Organization for Victims of Terror in Israel. The CD is called, "Civilians in the Battlefield," and is a video of victims telling their stories.

My daughter was so nice to try to put a countdown, flip calendar into this blog for me, but the thing doesn't seem to be working.

Health:
Hmm...kids were visiting, I made fresh blueberry pie with crumb topping...end of story. Will try to manage the rest of the day better. It is still beastly hot and humid.

Day 3 and 4

Painting:
Yesterday was really Day 3, but it's evening so this is 4 also. Yesterday, I gave a private drawing lesson to a beginner,and that took up most of my energy for the day.. After that, I made tabouli from some wonderful parsley I found at a farmers' market.

I didn't have time to do any art work today, but I had a phone meeting with Barb, and we discussed adding a 'painting a day' plan to the days we are not working on another art project. We are talking about the 6x8" format that many painters use for these 'learning' oil sketches, called 'pochades'. The point is to develop brush work, color skills, and composition skills. Barb and I are meeting next Tuesday to begin working on the brushwork book, and will probably begin a 'demo' from that book, ie copying the authors' step by step painting.

Israel: I picked up the painting I did of the bomb victim, the woman in the hospital, today, from Erna's attic, and plan to work on mounting it on a huge piece of Luan that I bought at Home Depot a week or two ago. It is painted in acrylic on paper. When it is finished I will post it for you all to see. I have decided not to post my old Israel paintings here, unless there is someone reading this who has not seen them yet. E.g. the picture of the bus stop in Afula, the picture of a fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee, the young Israeli soldier in Jerusalem...the old paintings already posted a while ago. If anyone wants to see them, please comment here, and I'll be glad to send you those.

Health:
Up 2, down 2, sounds like a box step dance...but it's my weight. I'm holding but need to do better than that. Went to a meeting today, and that is the situation. Writing down what I eat is KEY! Yesterday, I did some weeding and a couple of exercises, (including special deep knee bends that are supposed to not hurt the knees) and today, both knees hurt so much I am having trouble walking. By the way, this section may include a lot of whining...so just skip it if it gets on your nerves.

Day 2

Painting:
Barbara and I have met one time so far to organize and begin our work together for our self teaching painting program. We have chosen two books to work from, one on brushwork and one on basic drawing. I began reading the drawing book from page 1, and following the instructions. The assignment was to draw straight lines, which is funny because I have been drawing and painting for quite a few years already, and never did that simple thing. In fact I considered it a weak area of mine (drawing straight lines), so was glad to have to just DO IT, and find the approach that worked best for me.

Of course, straight lines are pretty important, being related to drawing all sorts of cubic, cylindrical and conical shapes, before modifying them to more organic shapes...in fact, in drawing everything. It's a classical skill, to draw straight lines and then soften them. And of course, very important for linier perspective. Our first week homework assignment (which we gave to ourselves) was to draw as many cubic/rectangular shaped objects as we could from observation. I worked on a picture of a glider on my deck, and it went off the page and I had trouble with the perspective. So I'll do it again, on a day it is not POURING RAIN! for a change! I've also been doing some pictures of boats and cars. All important for city scapes, sea scapes, etc.

Israel
Rich, my husband, and I bought a large piece of luan for a painting I made on paper of a woman in Israel with bolts in her back from a dirty bomb. I am going to do something different with this picture. I had to buy bloody red spray paint for the luan and Rich has to glue a piece of wood to the back, so that we can hang it, and also for some support to prevent warping. I will be working on finishing this piece.

I will post a picture today from the paintings I've already done. It's called, "Liron" and is very large, probably about 5' high...I don't have it here and forgot the measurements exactly. A neighbor has been letting me use her attic for painting and storing the Israel pictures, and it is there now.

Liron saw her sister killed at a bus stop in Afula, the town in central Israel where they live, when they were going to school. This was some years ago. She was five then and is now about 15. There have been a lot less suicide bomb attacks in recent years, really hardly any, since the wall was built. No one likes the wall...but it is serving the purpose of protecting the children.

Liron had gone for a soda, and was coming out of the little grocery when the bomb exploded, killing her sister and a friend and other youngsters at the bus stop. I met Liron and her parents when I visited Israel in Dec. '06. They family runs an organization for victims ...they say that the problems are never over after something like this happens to a family. Helping others was the only way they could find to go on, after Maya, their older daughter, was killed at age 17. It was Liron, who was then only 5, who watched as her family was falling apart and said to her parents that Maya would have wanted them to find a way to go on.

I've decided that as part of my blog, I will collect donations for their organization. I'll will give more information about that later, in case anyone wants to help them financially. I have to find out how to do that.

Health:
I went to the diabetes doctor yesterday, and she was very proud of me. Having lost 25 pounds so far, my numbers were looking really good...blood sugar has gone down to normal, just as they said it would with just a 10% weight loss. Now I have to work on my energy level, which is still very low.

Goals: Learn to Paint, Finish Israel Project, Improve Heatlh

Day One:
I was inspired by Julie and Julia. This is not my first blog, and I give my daughter credit for suggesting that I blog in the first place (a year or two ago), but it didn't make sense to me until I saw the movie. Now I think I understand. I want to use this forum to set goals for myself and reach them, and these are the objectives that I am putting forth:

1. Teach myself to paint, so that in two years I can produce oil paintings that I consider professional, that I feel in control of, that have a theme and consistent style, and that comprise a body of work that I can approach galleries with. The plan is to work with my friend, Barbara, an artist in a similar life situation to mine, meeting weekly and giving ourselves assignments each week, to teach ourselves to paint.

2. Complete a long languishing project and thereby fulfill a promise. The project is to paint a body of work about terrorism in Israel. This grew out of my own feelings of my anger at a biased media, that chooses to show pictures of pain and suffering caused by Israel, but not the photos of suicide attacks perpetrated by terrorists, or the Israeli children terrorized and injured by rockets, i.e. to show the pain and suffering caused by hatred and violence against Israelis. As we all know, a picture is worth 1000 words. Think of a news article explaining Israel's actions as self defense, completed with a photo of a mourning, anguished Palestinian Mom with an injured child in her arms. What opinion would you form? The subtle but consistent promulgation of this prejudice is not fair. No one, Israeli or Palestinian, should have to suffer the pain of their children. It's not fair to create more hatred in the world for the Jews, who in my opinion, would like to live in peace with everyone, as we do here in the US. A more honest and balanced picture should be created. More about this project, and the obstacles and the paintings already done, later. The goal is to add five new paintings in the next 6 months. That would make 10 with what I already have.

3. For all this, I need to be healthier. One of the things that has slowed me down very badly is my heatlh. I'm now 65, and have a lot of aches and pains, diabetes with neuropathy in my feet, I don't sleep well, and am still overweight, although I have lost 25 pounds so far and it has helped some. I had polymyalgia rhumatica for two years of the last four. I have very little energy, and don't feel much like doing stuff. I know this is very boring, but I'm really writing this for myself, so I'm going to put this stuff on here as part of the picture. I really need more energy and strength to do the art work. So my goal is to lose 25 more pounds in the next 6 months. I'm slow....I'm a really compulsive eater, out of control. I am using the Weight Watchers program, working with the point system and going to meeting, as well as using Alli to help lose the weight, and with all the slips, it's taking a long time, but that is OK.

Enough writing for today. Today is Thursday. Before the end of the weekend, I will post some pictures of my art work, and the Israel paintings. I'll elaborate on my art background such as it is, and talk more about how the Israel project started and what happened so far. And I'll set some more specific goals for improving health.