Reds, yellows, and oranges appear in Highland Park in early fall. My paintings get a colorful glow. Pictured is the train bridge that runs from New Brunswick to Highland Park over the Raritan River.
I painted two illustrations of the scene with watercolor and gouache in September.
Then I returned to the scene in November with my uniball pen and later colored the ink drawing with watercolor.
Apples are ripe and delicious in early autumn. My favorites are macintosh, macoun, and winesap. I buy them at the Highland Park Farmers Market.
By November it gets too cold for most of us to sit outside and leisurely draw. If you are a beginner at drawing, man-made objects like an iron are easier subjects than drawing outside in nature. With the help of friends, I am working on lessons geared at teaching drawing by really seeing. Right before I drew the iron, I did a “no peeking” exercise: one is not allowed to look at the paper while drawing. It helps a person see the object.
I added this peach painting from the summer as a warm and cozy ending to this autumn blog post.
In June 2024 we visited the Galil (Galilee in English), the region in the north western part of Israel, west of the Golan Heights. Some of the places we visited were Beit Keshet, Tsefat, Tiberias, Yodfat, and Maalot. Pictured above is the illustration of the view from my friend’s house in Maalot.
In Maalot my friend and I went on an Maalot sketch crawl. Maalot is hilly. The name Maalot means “steps.” We walked down her block and stopped at some long steps, a common scene in Maalot. The jacaranda tree was in bloom, so I was attracted to that spot. I drew first with my black uniball pen. Next I added some color.
This is another scene of Maalot. The hills around were peaceful and calm.
Yodfat is a small community on top of a hill. Historically, it is famous for a Roman siege of Yodfat that took place many years ago. We stayed in a house with many amenities, especially in the kitchen. When I woke up in the morning, I went for a walk all around the village. After a while, it started to get hot, so I came into the air-conditioned kitchen, took out my paints, and began to draw. I drew a corner counter with some windows. I added the ballpoint pen marks later.
Pots and pans are a lot of fun to draw and paint.
I spent the early morning in Beit Keshet with my paints and the Galil scenery.
The Beit Keshet cottage had a lovely back porch with an amazing view. I loved the little table in the corner.
This past spring I had the pleasure of traveling to Nice, France. We also visited Antibes, a neighboring city, also with a medieval section. One day we traveled north on a train to a medieval village called La Brigue. It was quite an adventure. I did some watercolor illustrations of some of the places that we visited.
Someone asked: so why did you pick Nice? I answered: kosher food. There is kosher food in Nice. Not much in Dublin. And off to Nice we went. But the best food was really in Antibes. It’s a short train ride from Nice, so get used to taking trains! You can see a lot that way. Buy a day pass for the train, so you can get off and get back on again all day long.
A wonderful part of the Nice is the market in the old city. A large section is devoted to flowers. Vegetables and fruit are available in abundance. I bought strawberries (fresh and in season), pomegranate, grapefruit, an apple, a red onion, and a lemon. I didn’t get a chance to paint the market. However, since it is advertised that it opened at 6 am, but the vendors are still setting up at that time, I sketched the Opera House nearby in ink. Later I added watercolor.
We took a wonderful walking tour of the old city of Nice. You end up on the hill overlooking the city … breathtaking. The walking tours are free. Sign up online in advance. It is recommended to pay the tour guide an amount at the end. Our tour guide, Dinara Mukh, was fabulous. Here’s her website for women on imbalanced hormones: https://www.dinaramukh.com/
Eating kosher in Nice is not hard. Le Kineret and La Makolet are two delightful finds on Avenue Georges Clémenceau. Le Kineret is a bakery (boulangerie) and restaurant with wonderful breakfast food (we didn’t get a chance to eat other meals there). If you need food for Shabbat, you can place an order at Le Kineret on a Thursday. Pick up is Friday morning. Delicious! La Makolet had wine, cheese, and other kosher treats. We went to a lovely Asian Fusion restaurant called Bozen.
If you are planning to be in Nice on a Friday night, you can reserve online in advance to eat at Chabad. The food is traditional chicken with many salad dishes. I recommend giving a nice donation to Chabad if you choose to eat there.
food at Berbeche restaurant, Antibes, France
Restaurants in Antibes: I recommend Berbeche. It is a few buildings down from the beach in Juan-Le-Pins. When I asked the waiter if I should get the salad or the vegetables, he replied in accented English: “salad is for rabbits.” I got the vegetables. My daughter liked them. I found them a bit too saucy. But I absolutely loved my lamp chops. My daughter loved her steak with truffles. We both give the restaurant a high rating. There was some delicious looking salami inside the restaurant. I was tempted to order some, but in addition to having to carry it back, I was not sure what 36 euro meant. Does that mean per pound? per liter? per something else? A confused tourist, I went without. This time. There is another kosher restaurant on the beach called DiamanThe’K. I ordered delicious lamb chops, and before the main course was served, we got some nice salads. The salad with the meal was not quite as good.
We took a trip one day via train to the mountains north of Nice. We stopped in a lovely medieval village called La Brigue. Just so you know, there is only one track in La Brigue. You wait at the same spot that you got off for the train back to Nice.
I did not fly directly to Nice. From the U.S. it costs thousands of dollars to fly into Nice. So I flew to London Heathrow first. On the way I visited Highgate. As I was drawing the compelling architecture of Highgate, an elder resident asked me if I was part of the group that was redesigning the square where I sat. She wanted more trees in particular. I thought she should ask for more seating. In any case, I am including my illustration of Highgate in my Nice, France post.
I find I often paint in themes. On Fridays, I am often inspired to paint a shabbat table scene or my candles. However, I rarely have time on Fridays.
Those who do not keep the Sabbath might ask: how do you tolerate a day without being able to paint or draw? My response: as long as I have time during the week for painting or drawing, the Sabbath is a welcome day for reflecting. I do not record every minute of my life what transpires. Having time just to sit and think helps one when life is rushed during the week.
In the Torah the Sabbath is mentioned many times. One example is in the parsha of Kedoshim 19:3 where it says: “you shall observe My Sabbaths.”
Late Friday afternoon one hour before sunset I light the candles for Shabbat. It is a time of reflection and meditation. No more rushing about. The food is cooked. One says the prayer and takes time to move one to whatever is next.
I really like painting green wine bottles. It has reflection and a deep green color. It reminds me of family members who enjoy visiting vineyards and tasting good wine. As a painter who likes to capture the light, the bottle is elegant and slender and says: “use me as your prop.”
This is one of my favorite wine bottle paintings. I like the paisley fabric upon which it rests. A good combination for a still-life.
This Shabbat table setting, painted in gouache, reflects some of our busy meals. I make a variety of foods, put on several colored tiles like the one that appears in the corner, and use my good china. I like how the salt shaker, an important item as it gets sprinkled on the challah after the blessing, peaks out from behind the tall wine bottle.
If you want to purchase a print of any of these Shabbat scenes, visit my store for more information.
On Sunday, March 3, 2024 we had the pleasure of attending an Imperial Band of South River concert. The band played all kinds of Irish music. I enjoyed watching the movements of the players, how they used their whole bodies to illustrate the sounds with their instruments. I did all my sketching at the concert in a sketchbook; all the color was added later at home. You can see all my illustrations of the Imperial Band of South River here.
The trombone players were impressive, moving their instruments in and out with skill. I loved that an American flag stood proudly behind them.
The conductor, Richard Golazeski, sat in this chair and moved his arms with great passion. He really enjoyed all the Irish music.
Here are two of the bassoon player. She used her whole body to play her large instrument.
The tables were decorated with orange carnations with lots of green leaves.
My favorite piece was The Parting Glass. When I looked it up, I noted it usually sung with lyrics. It seems to be a bittersweet song about farewells and parting ways. In this concert, the music was all instrument. Beautiful and inspiring.
The concert finished with the music of George M. Cohan, composer of American hits like I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy.
The Imperial Band of South River has concerts 11 times a year, typically the first Sunday of each month except January. The concerts are held in the Imperial Music Center, 48 Appleby Avenue in South River, New Jersey.
