Who Is In the Orchard Day 15

Day 15  30 in 30

Mixed media on watercolor paper. Continuation of the main theme of "jail" from a previous post.

My Sketchbook

Gift from my artist friend Traudi

Bought at Ikea!

Watercolor paper middle sheet light pink plain paper

Found Myself Trapped in the Orchard

Soil-inspired expertise

9 x 7"

Sketchpad PinkPaper

Acrylics  Crayons  Stencil  collage

Day 18 January 30 x 30 2017

Found a small piece of heavy brownish red paper. Stiffer than the usual brown paper, more like card stock. Made some dancing lines and then just scribbled away. Lot's of fun. Seems I made some dancing trees. 

15 x 20 cm

Heavy Paper 

Oil/wax crayons

Click to enlarge

Just the Horsha

Another painting in the "Horsha" Series. Started out with a specific sketch but paintings sometimes have a will of their own and it came out quite different. 

Horsha, Hebrew for a small wooded area. Quite happy with this one, playing with the lights and shadows.

30 x 22 cm

Oils on cut canvas

Horsha Painting # 2

This painting was based on Sketch # 2 of Leslie's 30 x 30 challenge this past September. I will be doing a series of paintings from my little gray sketch book.

Oils on Cut Canvas

30 x 22 cm

Palette Knife

I did photograph some of the stages, Looking back the first stage was doing OK until I messed it up making the blotches way too dark. I then opened them up by adding a new layer of varying grays. I don't seem to have saved the reference which wasn't of the Horsha near my home,

Stage 1

Stage 2

Charcoal Sketch

What works in one medium doesn't automatically work in another! 

September 30 x 30 Day 30

Final day of the challenge. This month has really flown by. I really enjoyed my exploration of using charcoal and pastels in a fairly dark gray sketch book. This is another sketch of the wall with all its light patterns and foliage behind. Foliage and shadows mixing in together. At first it eluded me and luckily with a rag wiped down to an almost clean slate, but in the end I am fairly happy with the result. 

Click to enlarge

Charcoal and pastels

6 x 8"

Gray-paper

September 30 x 30 Day 25

Trees, car, and invisible dog, Can't see her, Lilly sniffing around? Well tried as I  couldn't get her with the pastels. So my black eraser came in handy. May try again. 

Click to enlarge

Charcoal and Pastels

6 x 8"

gray-paper

September 30 x 30 Day 24

Eucalyptus tree near the shelter. Tried to simplify the shapes and tones. 

Click to enlarge

Charcoal and pastels

6 x 8"

Gray-paper

September 30 x 30 Day 23

Another corner looking out of the wooded area. This used to be a play area for children but they took down the swings and slides. Now it's mainly for dog walking. Wish they would close it all around and make it a proper dog area,

Click to enlarge

Charcoal and Pastels

6 x 8"

Gray-paper

September 30 x 30 Day 22

Bench with Palm, view to the street, This was a real quickie, Thought I would have time later to sketch at least 2 sketches. Always like to be ahead of the game. Life seems to get in the way sometimes. Dentist,physiotherapy, workshop, babysitting etc. Cropped the photo reference and used some topaz filters. Liked the way the curved palm contrast with the blocks of the area of the tree, bench, and background. Lots of light playing on the ground and bench.

Click to enlarge

Charcoal and pastels

6 x 8 "

Gray-paper

Horsha Painting # 1

This is the first of maybe a series of painting that will be based on the sketches that I have done for the September Challenge 30 x 30 hosted by Leslie Seata.

This one was based on sketch # 3, Worked in oils on cut canvas mainly using a palette knife. Found the transition from charcoal sketch to oil paints very challenging. I wanted to capture some of the sketch quality but also have a painterly look. I also added a bit of color to the B&W reference.

Click to enlarge

oils on cut canvas

30 x 22 cm

Thought it may be a good idea to post along with the painting the charcoal sketch and the reference photo.  I have a thought about how to further these sketches to paintings, go back to the reference photo as well as the sketch.  Any thoughts appreciated.

Reference Photo

The photo was worked on in PS made into a B&W and made copies on layers that superimposed to get the effect of movement.

Sketch

Looking at this now, after working in this medium for a few weeks this is definitely one I would do over.

September 30 x 30 Day 21

Instead of shadows on the wall, this time elongated shadows on the ground. Think I could have made them a bit softer.

Click to enlarge

6 x 8 "

Charcoal and pastels

Grey-paper

First Plein Air

I recently joined an Art Association [Hebrew]for my area. One of the activities is going out and painting or sketching in Plein air.  This was my first painting done in an open field near the Yahud cemetery.

Flatlands around our area.  I may tweak this in the future to put more contrast in the trees.  I am really not good at tweaking and it usually ends up worse than it is.  I liked how the tree silhouetted against the sky.

Oils on canvas wrapped on cardboard

30 x 40 cm

# 67 Abstract Trees

# 67 Abstract Trees

When I saw this reference on WDE  I immediately recalled an exercise in the book Painting Abstracts by Rolina van Vliet . Didn't exactly follow the exercise exactly but the patterns of the trees caught my fancy.
I cropped the image and made a charcoal sketch and then painted . Heleni stopped me from adding any more layers..

Charcoal Sketch

35 x 35 cm

gessoed cardboard

Oils & Cold Wax

35 x 35 cm

gessoed cardboard

Face in trunk a pure accident!!!

Sketchbook 3

Sketchbook  3

First some sketches I made a while ago... actually quite a while ago....

 Bottles and Brushes

View of neighbors houses

Simple still life

Tomatoes in a bowl

Recently learned of this challenge from Making a Mark by Katherine Tyrrell .  Haven't used my flickr account in a while and since I am always on the lookout for challenges that can keep my creative juices flowing.  This is a challenge called Every day in May.  They have a complete list  for the daily sketches!!! Really neat!!!

Day One   Favorite Food

One of my favorite food is the simple pita bread. Fresh and warm 

dipped in olive oil and zarta past

Olives on the side!!!

Day 2  A tree nearby

On the border of our yard a large Cypress Tree or as we call them Brosh

Day 3 Curtains

Curtain from my computer  room.

Workshop #44 Fall Window

Fall has always been my favorite seasons, especially the fall in New England and other parts of the eastern coast. Here in Israel fall is very subtle... no stunning changes in colors... and very short. This painting was very frustrating... it went through several layers,scraping off...new layer... sanding etc.   I was almost ready to trash it...Well somehow it came through..30 x 30 oils on wrapped canvas.

30 x 30 oils on wrapped canvas

Working with Grays Reference Photo 4

My first workshop from Richard Robinson  #24... Still trying to get a decent and not muddy painting... I realize I have much to learn using wet on wet.. Will be doing some studies uses warm and cool grays on 400 grm cartridge paper, this time I coated it with 2 coats of acrylic paint... think I put too much texture.... size A4  28 x 21.....
First attempt  with tonal colors...

click to enlarge

 Next painted and then scrubbed away with wet cleaners

click to enlarge

New strategy.... going to do some more drawing and premix the colors

click to enlarge

Final stage... not happy with it.. still too fragmented...too small a format for so much information... still getting bogged down with details not important... 

Trees

In the later part of November Heleni , our workshop instructor, mentor, and friend suggested that we try painting outdoors.  The weather has cooled down and the cold of winter had yet set in.  So a few of us lugged our easels and tables outside to the roofed area at the entrance to our community center. This also corresponded to renovations that were started in the auditorium which forced us out of the main room to a much smaller room or outside...luckily the weather during December was mild and only once did we have to rush inside because of a sudden rain!!!! It was during this time that I did these tree studies...the closest thing for me for plein-air painting. All were done in oils on cloth covered cutting board, or kappa board or massonite. All were done using the palette knife!

Two studies of the HUGE Eucalyptus tree near the parking lot and library. 30 x 40 cm

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

One study of the Chinese Flame tree that lines many of our the streets. 34 x 48 cm

Click to enlarge

Two of some Palm Date trees and Washingtonia. One 34 x 48 cm and one 30 x 40 cm

Date Tree

Click to enlarge

Washingtonia

Click to enlarge

WDE December 21 2012

These are quick crayon sketches on 300gram watercolor paper. Neocolor 1 caran d'ache size 27 x 17 cm and took 3/4 hrs each more or less.