Art By Tali Landsman

There is a newly built bridge connecting the island of Fyn with the island of Sjaelland (Sealand). It is forbidden to cycle on this bridge, so this morning we took a short train ride with our bikes across the waters. We cycled through vast farm lands dotted with small villages and wind mills. The hills were a bit steeper and longer and our behinds a bit more sore. We stopped to picnic at a small village market since we could not find a place to eat. We arrived at our hotel in the town of Naestved by 3pm after cycling about 60km. In a nice cafe' behind an old church we had our first coffee of the day. We strolled the cobbled streets of the city and had an early dinner at a lovely Italian restaurant.

I am writing from our hotel room in Nyborg Denmark on the island of Fyn. We already started our cycling trip. We spent the first few days exploring Copenhagen, walking the many neighborhoods, looking at the art and getting to know the city. On our last day in the city we paid a visit to the "Louisiana" modern art museum which featured an exhibition by Cezanne and Giacometti. We strolled through the grounds of the fifty year old museum and had a wonderful day enjoying the collection. Yesterday we took a train from Copenhagen to Svenborg where our cycling trip began. After breakfast we got our bikes which are pretty basic but handle surprisingly well. We cycled through a forest, along coastal villages and scenic fields of wheat, barley and oats. We enjoyed the stately homes along the countryside, many with well kept glorious thatched roofs. The weather was cloudy but dry and we felt comfortable wearing long sleeve biking shirts and long biking pants. There are designated bike ...

We shifted some furniture around the house yesterday afternoon. I like the new arrangement much better. Today is another Colorado- sunny day and we are going to spend it biking in practice for our upcoming cycling trip to Denmark.

I feel like drawing is getting easier. Constant practice really does helps and the more I draw the less daunting the task of drawing feels. Especially when I decide to draw complicated postures. I used to avoid the complicated posture. You know how it is when you avoid the really rough rapids when you go white water rafting, or the way you avoid the icy patches on the ski slopes when you are tired and ready to call it a day. But drawing seems less scary by the day. It feels much like painting landscapes, only the curves make a muscle and not a hill. Today in the studio I started a drawing of a man running. I like the way it is progressing. I may not be doing much more work before our trip to Denmark which is coming up this Monday.

The painting I am working on is coming to a point of being finished. I still have to work on the details I put on the sides, and I have no good name for it. I was thinking of “ A much desired six-pack” - alluding to the muscular man in the centre of the painting. Maybe a better name will come to me in the future. I was amazed by how fluid this painting has been in comparison to the last one “Rub My back,” which took me weeks to complete. I guess I am better adjusted to my studio and the rhythm of my days here. I start my days with a brief meditation. I would like to devote a whole hour for my morning meditation, but I do not get up early enough. I noticed that I am fascinated with drawing human anatomy. I enjoy the challenge of following the curves and bulges of the muscles, seeing how simple lines become a recognizable figure. It feels like a magic trick.

( The painting above has nothing to do with today’s blog) I am starting to get into the rhythm of painting. I continued to work on the painting that I started yesterday. I left the face of the man blurred in charcoal. It looks a bit smudged but I like it just as it is. I started adding the symbols, keeping it playful. By late afternoon I got tired and stopped to refresh myself with a fruit smoothie . When I returned to the studio, I worked on some thick oils just to break the routine.

The good news is that I received the following email from the Auckland art show in my inbox: Dear Tali Landsman, Thank you for entering The 2008 Original Art Sale. We are pleased to advise that all of the artworks you sent in for the sale have been sold. You will receive a cheque within the next 2 weeks. Congratulations on this great result and we hope to see artwork from you in next year’s event. Kind regards, Richard Jeffery Director All the paintings that sold are from the new series that I am working on, “The Artist’s Sketchbook”. You can imagine my delight that the first time I have shown this new series, it had such a great reception. I wish I had more opportunities to show this work in front of a large audience. Today in the studio I started a new sketch. I intended to practice drawing the muscle structure of a male figure. The drawing is of a man with his forearm resting on his head which is tilted backwards. As it always does when I am starting a new sketch, the first few lin...

Early morning I was awakened by the telephone guy who came to install the extra phone lines in the house. Our plan is to exchange offices. I will be taking the large unattached building that is currently Jules’s office and Jules will be taking part of my office upstairs and part of his office will be relocated downstairs. The phone jacks are the first step in this exchange. I did draw the lines on a new canvas and worked on the finishing details of the piece I have finally completed.

The wonderful weather today called us to spend the day outdoors. We cycled the Basalt- Woody Creek path and had a wonderful time. We had a cold beer and a wonderful meal at the Explorer Bistro in Aspen. Aspen is getting ready for the annual music festival and it is nice to enjoy the city before the masses come up from NYC.

I am coming to a completion point with the piece I am working on. I am not sure what to title it. It has become a much more complex piece than I originally intended. With all the current affairs doodles in it now, it requires a more fitting name. I am sure something will come to me as I work on the finishing details. I have to paint the sides with black gesso and to add doodles on all sides. Now that I hung one of the paintings from this series above our TV, I find my mind wandering to it, when a movie we are watching is slow. I get lost in the symbols, the funny creatures and the colors. I think that I like it more and more as I live with it.

Finally I feel like I am loosening up in the studio. Today in front of the canvas I felt less frozen. I added images and symbols with more ease and felt fluid. I also like the results. I am still working on the same piece that I started upon our return to Colorado. It is going very slow but this too will change. Last night was the preview party for the Auckland art show. The show will continue this weekend. I hope people loved and bought my art.

It feels like summer is arriving fast. Today was 85F and very sunny. I got into the studio in the morning to pack a painting I wanted to ship today to a client. I also spent some time in front of the canvas doodling. I added doodles that relate to current affairs. I put in a mob of people angry at the price of oil. I put some people in new and alternative energy powered cars. I added the oil keepers guarding the oil barrels and manipulating the prices. On the right corner, I added the big eighteen wheel semitrailer with its driver dressed in overalls. I added farmers growing corn, Monsanto's scientists spraying crops, mutating worms, politicians, corporate guys and farm animals.

Yesterday evening Jules and I watched the movie “My kid can paint that." I loved it and found watching the little girl paint very soothing and inspiring. I remembered when I was creating abstracts, how I allowed my mind to stand aside while my intuition and spirit took over and my hands just moved with the colors and the shapes. Today in the studio I worked on some abstracts, giving myself a rest from my sketchbook series. The hours flew by and I had a great time. I will go back to these abstracts to work on them more after they are dry. I have noticed how fluent painting the abstract felt. No self doubts or voices of critics were present. My hands just reached for the color it felt was missing. I put on disposable gloves and moved the paint with my fingers. I will post images of what I did when it is dry enough to photograph it.

I picked up Jules at the Eagle airport by noon and we drove to Vail to eat lunch. It was lovely to see him again. Today was the annual meeting of our Sweetwater Community Club which included a pot luck dinner. It was lovely to meet new neighbors and see people we have not seen in almost a year. Before I left for the airport, I added some quick doodles to my painting, thinking that even on days that I cannot paint, I can advance the painting by adding a bit of doodling. In the meeting, I volunteered to start the community club website. I will keep my blog updated with any developments.

I got up this morning with an urge to go to the city, be among people, eat a bagel and drink coffee. I drove to Glenwood Springs and sat by a big window in the “Sacred Grounds” cafe’. I enjoyed my coffee and fresh bagel while reading a book. I contemplated drawing some of the people around me, but it was lunch time and most of them did not linger. Two handsome young men and a girl sat on the outdoor tables in front of my window. One pulled out a guitar and the other a violin. And then a miracle happened. The handsome violinist pulled up his shirt and started playing the violin with a bare chest. I call this a miracle because I was looking for opportunities to draw live people in my area, but there seems to be no drawing groups in the area. Another reason this was a small miracle is that the temperature was in the mid 60’s - not particularly a warm day. I pulled out my sketchbook and enjoyed about thirty minutes of quick drawings. He was a speedy guy and he kept on moving, but any pract...

The early morning weather brought with it wind and periods of rain. The temperature dropped so much that the automatic heating system came on. I started my day with a fresh juice followed by a salad of tomatoes, cucumbers and avocado. Later in the studio, I spent few hours doodling. I almost forgot how much fun doodling is. How wonderful it feels to let my fingers roam the canvas mindlessly, creating funny creatures, monsters, objects and people. I realized that changing studios is not that easy for me. It takes me awhile to get adjusted to my space. I started today by rearranging plywood in the studio that I had moved to allow the electrician access to some feeder points. I also realized that I have not left the house since I drove Jules to the airport last Sunday. Somehow it feels different where we are surrounded with 36 acres of land. It just does not feel isolated or claustrophobic. But I miss sitting in a cafe’, drinking soy latte’ and looking at people. I also welcome going to t...

The wind is howling all around our house today. It is also cloudy with periods of rain. In the midst of a light rain shower, I got my large canvases delivered. The UPS Freight guy dropped the pallet on the edge of our long driveway and I broke it down and inserted them into my van and drove them home. I also arranged new compost bins for us to dispose of our fresh kitchen scraps and weeds. I used large plastic trash bins that I placed on a flat surface and weighted down with large stones inside each one. I spent some time weeding our driveway into my new compost bins. I also got a delivery of frozen vegetarian mock meats that came from a store in NYC. I already marinated and cooked the “chicken legs” and they were delicious. I am reading the book “The Artist’s Mentor” by Ian Jackman and I am finding it very inspirational. It is filled with quotes and writing of many artists and it is a very enjoyable read for an artist.

It was slow going in the studio today. But any kind of going is good. I started by adding color to simulate water around the ladies and later added free range chickens and a funny hybrid car that runs on love. I added a Big Mac Burger to suggest that you should rethink your food choices. To give the scene a loving domestic farm feel, I added a horse and a house. Still a lot more to go, but an enjoyable start. I woke up this morning feeling that maybe I would have been better off if I did not have this burning desire to paint and to be an artist. I could have chosen so many careers that generate a great income. But then my mind reasoned, “Does a great income make a foundation for choosing a life?” What about purpose? meaning? evoking change? Does making a good living (meaning a highly paid career) really mean having a good/ better life? Beside, there is great money to be made in the arts, as demonstrated by many very successful artists. Another argument my monkey mind gave is, “How much...

Finally I painted in the studio today. I started the day by drawing the sketchbook lines and proceeded to draw two heavy set religious women. One of the ladies is washing the other’s back with a wash cloth. This is a scene that I have seem many times in my life all over the world. In Israel there are area of the beach that is reserved for religious people ( at least this is how it was many years ago when I lived there). Men and women bathe separately and it is not uncommon to see ladies with head covers wash one another’s back, chat and picnic on the beach. I also saw this in Japan in many of the Onsen (hot springs), where daughters rub the backs of an elderly mother or just friends wash one another’s unreachable areas. I also saw it frequently at the hot springs in Glenwood Springs, which draws a large Amish population. This scene is dear to my heart. I found the composition in a drawing book. I had hopes of finding an evening figure drawing class/ group in our area, even an hour...

Early morning I drove Jules to the Eagle airport. On my way back home, I stopped at the supermarket and bought some produce. I made myself a breakfast of organic bread with avocado and cut tomatoes and went back to sleep. Later in the afternoon I spent some time in the studio painting the sides of the “Artist’s Sketchbook” canvases with doodles. I am also looking for a solution to store large canvases in my studio more efficiently. Tomorrow I plan to start drawing the lines of the fake sketchbook on a new canvas. I miss painting and drawing, even though I have been putting the finishing touches on the canvases I’ve already painted, it doesn’t really feel like painting. I am reading the book “Vegetable Animal Miracle” by Barbara Kingslover which led me to think about the joy of a veggie garden. In NZ we have a wonderful veggie garden and even though we are not there all year, we are able to enjoy many of Mother’s Nature’s good veggies thanks to Angela, who start the garden going before ...