On Beginning anew and "A Tulips Tail"

What's on my easel today

I don't know about you, but I always love to begin a new art project. Perhaps it's the chance for me to begin anew, an opportunity to do better than the last time as I implement what new things I have learned.

One of my projects that I always had a handle on, but in the last 5 years or so I have gotten so overwhelmed with the storage and backup of all my digital images I have been importing all my photos into Lightroom's mobile app that will sync everything across all my devices (iPad, iPhone, MacBook Air). For once all my images (150,000+) will be in one library, with the originals sent up to the Adobe Cloud.

While importing my photos I came across this particular of 5-year-old Noah lighting his choo choo train menorah that his Papa Irwin had given to him when he was a baby. I loved the glow on his face from the candles, his delightful smile, and the fact that there is a piano in the background with sheet music that today he can play just by sight reading. He has such a love for music - it's who he is.

There are certain things that always remain true; Noah loves lighting candles - all candles. Shabbat, Hanukkah, and yes, even his own birthday candles (which I think is just wrong!). I think this photo showcases his personality and joy. I just love his big smile and the way his eyes squint when he is smiling so big.

I was inspired to begin an oil painting. My skills are coming along, but need a LOT of work! I'm getting much better at drawing proportions and perspective most of the time, but blending colors is quite a struggle for me. I am pleased so far with how this is turning out, although it still has a long way to go.

As I was painting the menorah, I realized that there is no candle where the "U" train car is. It has always been broken so that's why it's missing in the picture. Noah has since figured out a work-around, melting the bottom of the candle and holding it directly against the menorah with a firm grip until it sticks.

Artwork updates - "A Tulips Tail"

Last week I had been working with these two paintings (oil on the left; acrylic on the right).

Well, because of my love to begin anew, with a fresh blank canvas, I decided to combine the two ideas. I painted over every thing except for the tail and the waterfall, lake and trees. I was thinking that I would have better luck painting the tulips with oils instead of acrylics. And that was true. I did it much faster. But that is probably because I had already drawn these flowers so many times that I knew their structure better. I can still see where the trees and bubble were in the background, so I need to get creative as to what I am going to do with that. I am happy at how bright the tulips are looking. I need to wait for it to dry a bit more (ugh) before I can add the bright highlights that make it look like the sun is reflecting off of them.