INSPIRATIONAL VIDEO TO END THE YEAR!

This video is full of thought provoking quotes. Enjoy! It has a commercial at the end, the price we pay for a free video.  Ignore!

ANOTHER DEMO SEQUENCE FROM ISRAELI WORKSHOP!

This demo is on Tyvek so I had to work flat.  Using the tray as a support turned out to be a great solution.  Of course, it limits the size you can work on.

I met with my friend, Janak, today to bring him some Tyvek paper.  He is planning to visit family in India and they wanted paintings.  His solution was to work with Tyvek using acrylic and oils, then travel with them rolled up.  A great idea!  The acrylic and oil looked excellent on the paper and there was no problem with the paint flaking off when it was rolled up.

Enjoy the slide show!

BROADWAY BABY!

Here's another fun website to play with! Photofunia.com

PHOTOS FROM ISRAEL WORKSHOP

I am back home and now I have to spend a few days reorganizing my art and setting my house in order.  Looks like the mail and dust piled up during my absence.  In the meantime, I have some images to share with you.   Carol Feldman (Drawing Tel Aviv) did a fabulous job of photographing the workshop.  It was wonderful getting to meet her in person and have her in the class.  I'm not sure what I had to teach her, as she is incredibly accomplished.  Carol has all the photos posted in an album on the web.  You can click on the title of this post to see the entire album.  Here is a sequence of one of my demos.  I started on a gessoed surface.  After the painting was part way completed, I let it dry, then applied white tissue collaged over it.  When that was dry, I completed the painting.

ON THE BANKS OF THE JORDAN RIVER

The Sea of Galilee is quite large and very beautiful.  We returned from our trip by driving along the edge for awhile.  There are many resort areas that we passed.  My brother in law is a very scholarly, the son of a renowned historian, and is able to describe everything that we see, its history and significance.  I learned that the Jordan River feeds the Sea of Galilee and we stopped at the spot where the baptism of Jesus is reported to have taken place.  There is a very elegant tourist attraction on this spot.  Along the walls are the quote from the New Testament describing the baptism in many, many languages.  People come here to be baptized.  On our visit there was a large group from Nigeria who were preparing to go into the water.  It was a pleasant day but there was a chill in the air and the water was COLD.  Everyone is allowed to gather around and watch and take photos.  This must have been one of the most special moments in their lives.  Here are a few of the photos from that event.

TRAVELING NORTH IN ISRAEL

We took a two day trip North to the Upper Galilee.  This is my fourth visit to Israel but I had never seen this part of the country.  We stopped at the Naot Kibbutz where they manufacture this famous brand of shoe.  My niece is one of their designers, so we were given a special tour of the entire manufacturing plant. I was given permission to photograph but not to post on line.  It was a fascinating tour.  The following day we went to a place called Hula Lake where there is a bird sanctuary and nature preserve.  Here a hundred thousand cranes feed for the winter.  It is not possible to get very close, so this is my best shot with a 10x zoom.

Here you can see some of the cranes in flight against the backdrop of the snow covered mountain.  The weather warmed up nicely and we had a gorgeous day out in the preserve.

A large group took to the air!

It is amazing to see these very large, magnificent birds filling the sky!

It is about 12 miles around the lake and there are a number of choices of locomotion.  Here is pedal power for two!  There were various configurations for any number of people.

You could rent their bikes or bring your own.

Our choice was the golf cart.  I was sitting in the back, so I took these great shots!

Here was the most inventive mode of transportation.  One person steers and everyone gets to contribute to the enterprise by peddling.   We didn't see anyone take this out but it looks like a fun idea.

Here are some of the other birds in the preserve.  Normally there are large groups of white pelicans.  They has already left on their continuing migration.  I saw one through a telescope but was unable to photograph it.  Egrets, Herons, Coots, Kingfishers and a few others I don't know the names of, were spotted, but not in large groups like the cranes.

Here is a photo of an animal that is in the beaver family, called a Nutria.  We spotted a number of them along the banks and in the water.  I had purchased the skull bones of a nutria a few years ago and did a series of paintings from photos I took.  It was exciting to actually see the animal with the long fang front teeth!

Here is the most exciting sighting of all...A FLAMINGO!!!  There were two that had become disoriented by the storm and wound up at the preserve.  They normally don't have flamingos stopping by.  

Tomorrow I will post my photos from the Baptismal sight on the Jordan River.

MORE FROM THE WORKSHOP

The first image is a demo I did on Tyvek.  Surprisingly,this paper is available in the art store in Tel Aviv!  The rest of the images are some of the students' work.  An excellent group to work with.

As a follow up to the last post, we drove to Jerusalem and visited by brother in law's sister,  She lent me a heavy coat.  Then we went to a new mall just outside the Jaffa Gate to the Old City where I purchased two sweaters from.....The Gap!  I had to travel around the world to shop at the Gap.  Today we travel north where it will be very cold, but I am prepared.

On another note, I received a notice from Blurb that they are giving a $10 discount on book purchases of $29.99 or greater.  I am posting the code for those that might want to take advantage of this offer.

Just share the codes below, which are based on location and currency (the promo code must match currency used). USD $ coupon: CHEER GBP £ coupon: CHEER1 EUR € coupon: CHEER2 CAD $ coupon: CHEER3 AUD $ coupon: CHEER4 Cheers, The Blurberati * Offer valid through December 31, 2010 (11:59 p.m. local time) and is applied toward the product total only. Offer discount of US $10.00, GBP £6.00, EUR €8.00, CAD $11.00, or AUD $12.00 requires a minimum order of at least US $29.95, GBP £18.95, EUR €24.95, CAD $30.95, or AUD $35.95 shipped to one address. This offer is good for one-time use and cannot be combined with other promotional codes or used for adjustments on previous orders.

WEATHER OF BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS!

The day I arrived, there was a terrible forest fire in the Carmel Mountains that lasted for a number of days.  The temperature was around 80 degrees during the day in Tel Aviv.   The photos above were taken about 5 days ago at the boardwalk along the sea in Tel Aviv.  It was a beautiful sight at dusk and we had dinner at this restaurant looking out at the sea.  They actually lit the candles for Chanukah that night (see photo).  The last couple of days brought a dramatic change in the weather.  Very strong winds, high seas and flooding in some areas from torrents of rain.  Last night on the news we saw this very restaurant had been trashed when flying wood crashed through the glass window and water flooded the place!   The boardwalk was a mess, as well.  Temperatures have dropped significantly.  There is lots of snow up north, where we will be traveling.  I am excited that my white linen pants and flip flop shoes I packed for the 80 degree weather will be so perfect for the snow.  There is something biblical in this situation.

DEMOS FROM ISRAELI WORKSHOP

I held a Beginning Watercolor Portrait Workshop in The Artists' House in Tel Aviv.  It is a most unusual building by American standards with exhibition spaces and work spaces tucked in and around in an irregular manner.  It was a bee hive of activity.  There was preparation for over 5 new exhibits this past week with an opening reception on Thursday night.  Over a thousand people came for the reception.  The space I taught in was very crowded but all 15 of the participants eagerly went to work and produced quite a bit of work.  I will be sharing more in the coming days but here are two of the demos I did for the class.  Because of space limitations, I worked on quarter sheets of watercolor paper.  The first painting was created by covering an unpainted sheet of watercolor paper with white tissue paper, glued down with diluted matt medium.  When it was dry, I drew the image with a brush and painted it.  The second image started out as a painting on gesso covered watercolor paper.  I wasn't too happy with the painting, so I added a layer of white tissue with the same glue mixture as above, and let it dry.  I then added paint on top.  

UPDATES!!

We spent Thanksgiving in Westlake Village. We went to the Reagan Library. There were many interesting sights, but i thought you all might like to see a photo of his portrait done in his favorite sweet.....jelly bellies...! I have included a detail. This was creative but slightly creepy.

I am in Israel now. The workshop starts tomorrow! It will be interesting to see what challenges will present themselves. In went supply shopping with my sister and discovered that they had Tyvek sheets for sale! I will try to post images from my iPad. I brought my laptop but their transformer doesn't support a the plug I have. I guess it is time to get creative.

I received a note from the Oregon Society of Arts today letting me know the "Variations" workshop in January is quickly filling. Check the workshop schedule for dates. There is a link to the OSA website with slide show and registration form. If you are interested, treat yourself to a nice holiday present, and sign up ASAP.

I am doing the same workshop for the San Diego Watercolor Society January 10 th. I think there are still a few places left. The workshop schedule page on my blog has the contact information there, as well.

When I return I will be adding to the schedule a demo at Kanuga in 2011 and a workshop in 2012 . I am very honored and excited to be teaching in this wonderful venue.
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FINALLY! MY FIRST BOOK IS FINISHED!

DRAWN TO THE MIRROR by MYRNA WACKNOV | Make Your Own Book

I have spent the last few days fine tuning my first book. Blurb.com is a self publishing company that lets you upload their templates to create your own book. They publish it for you and handle marketing and sales . This book is a record of the work I did this year as it relates to my self portrait project. I jumped the gun a little, as the year is not over, but I am going to be doing so much traveling that I went ahead and finished the daily drawings. I am posting them one at a time up till the last day of the year. I decided to go ahead and get the book done so I would have some gifts for this year. Now I have to finish the other book I started on "Variations". I got bogged down and stopped working on it. The "Drawn to the Mirror" book mostly required me to upload and adjust photos with little or no text involved. "Variations" requires a lot more thinking, planning and writing. I do back myself into a corner every so often!


I have added the book promotion at the bottom of the blog because it was too big on the side and only part of it showed. I wish I knew how to resize these things.

GUALALA WORKSHOP FINAL DAY "HEAD & HANDS" DEMO AND SLIDE SHOW

Knowing how to draw and paint hands is critical when painting portraits.  Otherwise you are severely limited in your options.  The last day of the workshop we focus on ways to approach drawing hands and incorporating them into a painting.  This was my demo.  I decided to collage over tyvek since I had never done that before and wanted to see how it would behave.  This was the result.  The slide show is the student work for the day.  Great job!!

We had a wonderful week here in Gualala.  I hope I have the opportunity to come back again to teach.  This is a fabulous community and a charming place to spend some time.  Just south of Point Arena on the Pacific Coast amongst the Redwoods with the Pacific Ocean lapping at the shore.  Ah Paradise!

SELF PORTRAITS STUDENT SLIDE SHOW!

Today we worked on creating self portraits by looking in the mirror as opposed to working from a photograph.  I was impressed with the quality and output today.  This is a fun group of people to work with.  Tonight most of us went out for dinner and great conversation.  Tomorrow is the last day.  I will be sad to say goodbye to everyone.  Hopefully I will be back for another workshop.

DEMO AND SLIDE SHOW FOR EXPRESSIONS! DAY 3 GUALALA WORKSHOP

Today everyone did a bozzetto sheet with various expressions of the same face.  I have a wonderful series of photos I took of Preston Metcalf, the assistant curator of the Triton Museum in Santa Clara, Ca.  He has a wonderfully expressive face and was generous in letting me use these photos however I saw fit.  I like to use them for this exercise because the expressions are genuine, not an actor posing.  I decided to do a sheet based on a children's book, Sesame Street Opposites featuring Zero Mostel mugging his way through the book.  Talk about over acting!!  I also thought it would be instructive to demonstrate adding some collage elements.  This piece doesn't photograph true to how it actually looks.  Another fun day with lots of great student work!