On Monday morning I woke up my daughter early, and we headed from our hotel room to the beach a block away in Ocean City, New Jersey.
She took her iPad, and I took photos with both my Canon Rebel camera and my Samsung Galaxy 4 phone. It was a fun morning to view the skies. The day before had been rainy – I think that helped with the drama of the skies. The top photo was taken a few minutes before the lower one. It’s fun to watch the skies gradually change.
We tried the same experiment two days later, but my daughter was much more tired and the skies not as dramatic. I would love to photograph Ocean City sunrise again sometime. If you get all the variables right, waking up for sunrise on a beach can be wonderful.
There are lots of amusements on the boardwalk in Ocean City. We went on two different Ferris wheels, one time at night. But there is no liquor sold – it’s a dry town, so lots of families come. I took the Ferris wheel sunrise photo before the top two sunrise on the beach photos.
View from back balcony of home in Ma’alot, Israel
Honored to be hosting my first Jewish Book Carnival. The Jewish Book Carnival is a monthly event where bloggers who blog about Jewish books can meet, read and comment on each others’ posts. I posted a May 2013 photo of my friend’s back balcony porch in Ma’alot, Israel – wouldn’t you like to cuddle up with a good book on her porch while enjoying this view?
On My Machberet, Erika Dreifus praises The Property, a graphic novel by Rutu Motan (trans. Jessica Cohen).
What a lot of seagulls we saw at Point Pleasant Beach in New Jersey. My daughter was a bit frightened of how low they swooped while we sat on the beach. It was crowded with humans; I’m pretty sure there were more humans than seagulls, but that fact is debatable.
What do you notice about the seagulls?
I couldn’t figure out when they wanted to hang out and when they preferred to fly about. There was a lot of both going on.
A whole lot of flapping of wings and flying off in this photo.
This seagull in the middle looks like he is jumping.
A crowd of seagulls do their thing, flying or flapping or hanging around.
And they are off: flying in the sky are the seagulls.
Thank you to this seagull for posing nicely for my camera.
There are more than just seagulls at Point Pleasant Beach. There are amusement rides, mini golf, arcades, a boardwalk, a fun house, lots of junk food being sold (at about 4 pm half the people I saw held an ice cream cone), and many beach umbrellas.
Thursday Challenge is: RAIN (Rain, Clouds, Umbrella, Splashing, Water Dripping/Flowing,…).
Umbrellas in the rain at the street fair in Highland Park, New Jersey: I am working on a watercolor of an umbrellas in rain scene. Look how gray the sky is, then look at the colorful, shapely umbrellas. No wonder artists love umbrellas.
I’ve been posting a lot of pictures of my May trip to Israel. Did you know that it rarely rains in Israel outside of October – March? That’s why rain in those winter months is so important to that country. Where I live in New Jersey, we take rain for granted. It’s supposed to rain today.
In late May when I visited Israel, I had the opportunity to visit two museums: Tel Aviv Museum and Israel Museum. Enjoyed both. This post is a review of those visits, and then some questions for readers about museum visiting.
Tel Aviv Museum
If you like 20th century art and/or you are interested in the history of the modern State of Israel, the Tel Aviv Museum has collections of artists from the pre-State era to contemporary times. When we (I went with Hannah Katsman) visited in late May, there was an exhibit of paintings by Angelica Schatz, the estranged daughter of the founder of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. She had a difficult life; she was Boris Schatz’s daughter by his first marriage, and his first wife took Angelica with her when she left Boris for another man. Her paintings were influenced by European painters of the 20th century. Angelica moved to Israel after her father’s death; she never really knew him.
A huge benefit of the Tel Aviv Museum that the Israel Museum did not have was the TA Museum has free wifi. So I was able to read about the exhibits online as we viewed them. Free wifi is a big plus for a museum.
Israel Museum
The Israel Museum is located in the center of west Jerusalem. It has more variety than the Tel Aviv Museum, and it is close to the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament building).
If you like studying prehistoric times or the times of the Tanach (the Jewish bible – stands for Torah – Neviim (Prophets) – Ketuvim (Writings)), the Israel Museum has a lot to offer. I remember seeing the bones of a woman from – how long ago? There are also exhibits of Judaica from around the world, such as the sukkah from Cochin, Southern India that was dis-assembled and re-assembled in the museum. There was a special exhibit about Herod, but as there was so much to see in the regular exhibits, we felt no need to wait online for the special exhibit. As I am using the Israel Museum website to research this post, I will add it could use some better details of regular exhibits and better navigation. It took me a while to find information about the sukkah from Cochin.
hallway inside the Israel Museum
The previous time I had been in the Israel Museum was in 1980 – the museum has grown a lot since then. What I remembered from 1980 was the sculpture garden. Unfortunately, the link on the website for the Billy Rose Art Garden gives an error. A big #Fail on this museum website! I had done some drawings in 1980 in the sculpture garden, in particular one of a woman fallen (Isha Nofelet). I can’t find anything about this sculpture in the excellent Wikimedia page on the garden. Here is one photo of part of the sculpture garden:
I would probably review the exhibits on the museum’s website the night before, to know what to expect, to make better choices and to get an idea about the details of the exhibits. When you are going to a museum with another person, each of you has your own ideas about what is worth seeing. If you know in advance you want to see or linger in a certain collection, it’s easier to say so if you have more information about the exhibits.
Tell us your experience with museums.
What is your favorite museum? Best features? Why would you recommend a museum?
View of Galil farms from top of Mount Meiron Israel, May 2013
I photographed this view while on the Peak Trail on Mount Meiron (or is it Mount Meron). You drive up the mountain, park close to the top then hike around the mountain.
The Jerusalem Chords Bridge was completed in 2008. It is part of the city’s new lightrail system, located close to the central bus station. The bridge is a modern take on the ancient David’s harp. The bridge was designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.
The photo above is near the central bus station in Jerusalem, taken in May 2013. My cousin told me there will soon be a fast train from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem that will stop near here – but unfortunately, it won’t go through Beit Shemesh, where my cousins live (they do have a slow train from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem that stops in Beit Shemesh). I have more photos of the light rail and section of Jerusalem near the central bus station as well as the Ben Yehudah mall. Hope to show you in an upcoming post.
Thursday Challenge is HARD (Stone, Steel, Cement, Glass, Durable, Difficult,…).
Boy talks to Fisherman by Raritan River, watercolor painting by Leora Wenger 2013
I finished this watercolor painting of a boy talking to a man fishing at the Raritan River two weeks ago at the same time I completed the Highland Park Traffic watercolor. This watercolor belongs to a series of art projects that I have done on this theme. I’m going to replicate some older art river/fisherman projects on this post (so you don’t have to click back to look).
Here’s the drawing of the boy and man:
And here’s a colored pencil sketch of the scene:
Finally, this is a Raritan River watercolor I did last summer, of a similar scene by the Raritan River:
I have some ideas for a next watercolor: maybe a combination of an Israeli flag with jacaranda blooms, mabye an illustration of a therapists since I am working on websites for therapists, maybe another Highland Park scene – we shall see.
Thursday Challenge is “ABUNDANCE” (Wealth, Food, People, Love, Lots of Anything,…). Maybe this photo of my daughter holding coins should be called Small Change. But my feeling is that my family makes me feel like I have abundance. I took this photo for a website that I am working on for a new client. We picked a different money photo to use for the site.
Next Week: HARD (Stone, Steel, Cement, Glass, Durable, Difficult,…)
