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.
red pepper, zucchini, and lemon, watercolor on paper
If you want to cook an impressive, nutritious, and filling main course, zucchini stuffed with meat is a lovely dish. I love painting beautiful vegetables, so this recipe post is also an excuse to show off my zucchini and butternut squash watercolor paintings.
Optional:
– 1 tsp. chopped turmeric root
– 1 tsp. chopped ginger root
– 1 tsp. paprika
– 1 tsp. ginger
– 1 tsp. garlic powder
– 1/2 – 1 cup of cooked rice
– herbs such as thyme or oregano
Recipe
Cut 3 zucchini in half. Then cut each zucchini lengthwise so the zucchini can be made into a boat. Scoop out the inside, being careful to leave a hull opening for later storage of the meat. Cut the scooped out zucchini into small chunks and set aside.
Take 1 lb. of chopped meat and add these spices:
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 clove chopped garlic
Mix and place in refrigerator for 1/2 hour or more.
Sauté onion in coconut oil for two minutes. Then mix in the spiced chopped meat.
Add these ingredients:
– the previously chopped zucchini
– 1/2 cup chopped mushroom (I use shiitake or lions mane from Zell’s farm)
– chopped celery, one stalk
– 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
– 1/2 cup cooked brown rice (optional)
Stuff in the zucchini shells. Sprinkle with juice of a lemon. Adding tomato sauce mixed with the lemon juice is optional. Bake for 1/2 hour at 400°.
Notes: if you don’t have cilantro, use parsley. It won’t have the cilantro flavor, but not everyone is crazy about cilantro anyway.
Optional: add chopped turmeric root along with the chopped garlic clove. Or chopped ginger root. See also optional spices in the ingredients list.
This recipe can be made in stages over a few days.
Variations
One variation is stuffed butternut squash. Cook the butternut squash in the oven for 1.5 hours at 350°. Peel when it cools down. You have to cut and scoop just enough to add the chopped meat stuffing. You won’t have lots of boats like the zucchini, just 2 or 3 big stuffed shells.
You could also stuff some peppers, but I haven’t tried that version yet.
In the winter there is less opportunity to paint or draw on site. I use the time as an opportunity to improve paint technique and use photos or drawings of masters to inspire my artwork. I continue to work on a parsha (Torah portion) image each week. Lately, a few of my favorites have been birds or animals. Also, I joined a group on Facebook which offers prompts for each day. Not every prompt inspires me to paint or draw. But several have, and some of the better ones I will post on my blog or on the art database.
I do not have any pets currently; however, we do have a bird feeder outside our kitchen window. One of the prompts was bird on a wire. I like the idea of drawing directly from nature, but birds are too fast! It is hard to photograph them; you can see some of my past cardinal photos on this blog.
I painted this flaming red male cardinal from one of my photos when the prompt was Bird on a Wire.
I drew and painted (watercolor, ink, and Derwent Inktense colored pencil on paper) this lady cardinal at a bird feeder in honor of parshat Beshalach, when there is a custom to feed the birds.
The next week was Parshat Yitro with the quote: And I bore you on eagles’ wings (Exodus 19:4). One eagle is just watercolor on the white of the paper.
I also did an eagle with an orangey-red background. It came so orange that one friend thought the background was fire. She interpreted it as Israel on fire, and the eagle (perhaps God?) comes to our rescue.
There was a prompt for fish. I painted the trout we had for dinner. Yes, that is all watercolor.
I will conclude with this pencil drawing of a wolf (copy of a drawing by Victor Ambrus), executed for parshat Vayechi 49:7.
Benjamin is a ravenous wolf;
In the morning he consumes the foe,
And in the evening he divides the spoil.”
בִּנְיָמִין֙ זְאֵ֣ב יִטְרָ֔ף בַּבֹּ֖קֶר יֹ֣אכַל עַ֑ד וְלָעֶ֖רֶב יְחַלֵּ֥ק שָׁלָֽל׃
Have you ever been to a paint night? What did you paint? Was it a learning experience, or were you just given some paints and told: “here ya go.”
This past year I was privileged to host two paint nights. For the first one, I did a slide show. I showed perspective, a value study, and a possible finished project. I got feedback later: “I wanted more instruction.”
So when I had the opportunity to host a paint night for a smaller crowd recently, I decided to teach people one on one or in small groups. I publicized the paint night with a poster; I painted the Tsfat or Safed scene that I photographed years ago as a border. The materials given out were acrylic paints, not the sort of paints I have used much. I handed out pencils and some paper, and I showed the participants how to divide up the page into parts, so what they thought was a difficult subject became easier to handle. I pointed out the natural mountains at the top of the scene and the architectural, man-made elements below. Some chose to just paint the mountains. A few tackled the whole scene and did both. Others just played with the paints and chatted with their friends.
This was my first attempt at a border for advertising the paint night. I made the white too small.
So I painted again, and this one became the border for the details of the paint night.
At the top of this post is a watercolor that I painted from the Tsfat or Safed scene that I chose as the subject for the paint night. Since there has been a lot of upsetting news coming from Israel lately, we went with an Israeli theme for the paint night.
Due to the disheartening news, I decided to post a subject that was Israeli but warmer in nature. I revisited a photograph that I had taken years ago of Yemin Moshe, an old, elegant neighborhood outside of the Old City of Jerusalem. I did an interpretation in gouache:
Getting back to posters, I have been publicizing a series of talks by our local rabbi. Each one is a “parshat hashavua” or Torah portion of the week. For each poster I read the Torah portion well in advance and look for visual ideas that I can put in a poster. In the Torah portion of Hayei Sarah, Rebecca feeds not only Eliezer but also his camels. Camels! I took out children’s books about camels from the library, and I had fun drawing and painting a few camel scenes.
Back to paint night: I have two ideas for upcoming ones:
Teach how to mix a palette of hue, tint, shade (color, lighter version of that color, darker version of color). Start with a blue, red, and a yellow (primary colors).
Only black: only allow black for the first half an hour. Then they get treated to pink, turquoise, and lavender/purple.
The inspiration for the only black paint night was a participant wanted some black paint. I had left out the black paint on purpose, so students would mix their own darks. It got me thinking: how could we make good use of black? Using only black would force the students to think about darks and lights. Am I being too strict?
