Art By Tali Landsman

Each one of these painting is 40" by 40" and they are painted on a thick canvas with painted sides. I plan to submit them to the "Original Art Show" in NZ. They look much better in real life than they do as a small image on the computer screen. I hope each one of them will find a loving home.

Today was the first sunny day in more than ten days. It is nice to see the gardens drying up. I spent my time in the studio working on the "Sketchbook" series. I photographed what I have done and now I will post the images.

The days are turning colder, or maybe it is just this week. Today was a windy and cloudy day. The kind of day that sends me to the heated studio to paint. I had a great day painting and working on the "Sketchbook Series". Maybe this week I will photograph and post some images. I hope that next week will bring with it some sunny days. It is amazing to me how much of the pattern of our lives it dictated by the weather in this remote part of the world. We have installed an underfloor insulation in our home and today for the first time in the season, we turned on the heating radiators. We spent yesterday in Kerikeri meeting with our accountant, shopping and running errands.

I had a good day in the studio. I find that sometimes, when I have an unsettled mind, it works best for me to work on small areas of the painting with a concentrated focus. By doing this repeatedly, I get to a point in which the painting is almost finished. Then on a clear-minded day, I put on all the finishing touches and everything comes together. During my lunch break, I strolled up to our upper pond and picked out some olives from our tree. We have not been here before when the olives turned black. Usually we leave when they are smaller and still green. I have tried preparing them but they really were too small to add to cooked food. This year they are larger and half of them are black. I picked a bagful and already started marinating them.

It seems like the upcoming week will bring with it much needed rain. Although we love the sunny days, our water tanks are getting low and some rain will replenish some of our water supply. I have been lazying around this weekend, mostly staying in bed or on the sofa, reading, dreaming, snoozing, watching the 'Simpsons' and resting.

It was a mild and sunny day- a perfect day to be outdoors, but I spent the day in the studio struggling along. Why struggling? because every painting now feels like giving birth. I don't mean the joyful parts, just the birth pains. I am not yet sure why, but the process of the Artist's Sketchbook is getting more difficult for me. The canvas stare at me with its emptiness and I do not like almost anything I put into it. I really need to get out of this frame of mind. My first resolution is a detox. No coffee, no sugar or refine carbs, no wine and no cheese for awhile. I need to be cleaner and clearer. I find that the acidity in coffee sours my stomach and gives me headaches. The same for sugar and alcohol. Cheese makes me feel heavy and so does simple carbs. I find that EVERYTHING I eat , think, say or do, effects my moods and reflects in my art. I am going to give myself a chance to clear out these moods by cleaning up.

Another sunny day in the Hokianga. We still have misty mornings but it clears up nicely during sunny days. Yesterday I worked in the studio, skirting around some paintings, painting the edges, doodling, but not committing to anything. I was in a sad mood and did not feel very creative.

We are back from Auckland and since it was a lovely sunny day, we used the opportunity to finish the weed cutting and clearing. Now finally, the properties look really nice. We had a great time in Auckland, getting our "City Fix". We found two great Japanese restaurants that offer a variety of vegetarian food, spent time in the book store and idled in cafes over tea and coffee. We took long walks around the city and shopped for all the mock meats we cannot get locally. We also found this wonderful oriental supermarket that sells the freshest fruit and veggies. It reminded me of living in NYC and being able to shop for great fresh produce in Chinatown.

Another rainy day that I chose to spend in the studio. When it rains here the air get pregnant with moisture and the scent of flowers. But the gray skies and the steep hills makes it so much harder to be outdoors. Jules did work today outdoors, despite of the heavy rain. I admire his resolve (from a distance). In the studio I had to let the painting I am working on dry. In the meantime, I started adding toys and robots to another piece I am working on. It is coming along nicely. Tomorrow we drive to Auckland to spend the long weekend in the city. We will be back on Tuesday. Happy Easter and Passover holidays to all!

As planned, I spent the whole day painting in the studio. In the past two weeks, I almost forgot how good it is to be in front of the canvas, creating, struggling, joyfully playing and making art. I started with a pencil drawing of a figure in motion, but I added four upper bodies to the figure, in different stages of movement. Last week while shopping in Kerikeri, I found in a second hand book store a wonderful book. It is a great resource of images for me. It is a large catalog filled with photographs of old toys. Most of them were made of tin and they are so innocent and sweet. I drew some of the toys around the pencil figure and tomorrow I plan to start painting the toys in colors.

Another sunny day and we are back outdoors working on clearing the driveways of our properties, cutting back flax and mowing hills. It was a long working day and we had a lovely lunch at the Waterline Cafe'.

We arrived in NZ about ten days ago and have been busy mowing our endless lawns, cutting back overgrowth and bringing things into good shape. It is hard and tiring work, but it is rewarding to look at how much we have accomplished. Every day we put six hours of hard physical labor into the gardens. We appreciate the exercise and the gardens are looking so much better now. At first every muscle in our bodies felt achy and sore, but now our muscles got stronger and we enjoy being outdoor and making such a different daily. With the properties in better shape, I plan to get into the studio and paint as soon as I can. I expect it will be next week.