Art By Tali Landsman

Today we picked up the car that we rented to drive to Denver tomorrow. It was a lovely 67 degree warm and sunny. Tomorrow however, the weather suppose to be in the 30's and snowy. I hope that the I-70 will not be blocked at the passes. We have to make it to our flights. Since we have emptied out the fridge, we ate lunch at the Eagle's Dinner. A large spinach salad with avocado and home made raspberry vinaigrette and a berry -rhubarb pie- Delicious! On the way home I reflected on how much I love living here, surrounded with nature, embraced by the tall seemingly endless mountains. I love this area at all seasons, I love being here among people who fish, hike, bike, camp and ski. It is truly an outdoors wonderland. Today for example, I saw people fishing in the ponds, fly fishermen standing in the middle of the shallow river with their waterproof gear, I saw dozens of bikers cycling up our road and at the same time I know that it is a great ski day in Vail and the Beaver. In the ...

This is our last weekend before our trip to New Zealand. We will be leaving on Monday. I devote the weekend to packing and closing up the house the my studio. I have so many loose ends to tie and finish. One of the things I had to finish it the painting above "Leap Of Faith".

I have seen a DVD on the life and art of Alice Neel. I highly recommend you watch this documentary. She was a wonderful American portrait artist who lived in NYC and made some great painting, depicting the spirit and soul of the people she painted. I cannot put a photo of her art here as it is copy righted, so I put a painting of one of my trees instead.

This is a small corner of a large oil painting I just finished. This week is our last week in Colorado before our trip to New Zealand. I am finishing commission works, taking photos, making sketches, packing art to ship to clients and overall, getting ready. In the studio I am working on the 12 commission pieces of the landscapes of Northern Israel in oils. It is a landscape I know so well. I used to travel in this region at least twice a month when I lived in Israel. But for painting it takes more than "knowing" a region. Painting is collecting symbols that identify an area and its spirit. If my collector wanted a "real" representation of the area, he would have not chosen me to do this commission, or he would have framed some large photographs of the area. I am picking symbols of the area and creating what I think is interesting compositions. I use the olive trees, the sheep, the quaint houses, the tall thin cypress, the large oaks, the green pines, the blossoming...

I had a great day in the studio, making sketches and planning paintings. I listen to Chopin and painted. I also photographed some art to post on my web site. You can see it at: http://talilandsman.com/art42.html

I have been framing the oil paintings on my web site (the ones that are dry), and also packing a painting to ship to a client. Beside this, I have been painting for many hours daily, so today we are off to the mountains to ski. I got into the studio early to put some layers of paint on some painting in progress. We plan to ski in Beaver Creek for the first time this season. We have been skiing in Vail which is a much bigger mountains and therefore, despite the crowds, much less busy on the slops. If we will come home early, I will paint some more.

Today is "Purim" - a Jewish holiday. Purim is often considered the most cheerful and colorful of all the Jewish holidays. Its story takes place in Shushan, the capital city of the Persian Empire, in the 3rd year of King Ahashverosh's reign. The holiday celebrates the Jews' victory over oppression, the failure of Haman's plot against the Jews, which is recounted in great detail in the "Esther Megillah" (The Book of Esther). As always, it is celebrated with a feast. The Feast of Purim, established by Mordecai to commemorate the deliverance from Haman, a day of feasting and gladness. In Israel, as kids we used to built a large bone fire and place a figure of a man symbolizing "Evil Haman" and light it aflame It is similar to the "Burning Man Festival" in the USA. (Just not as grand.) I guess Purim is like "Burning Man", only without the fantastic art, sex, nudity, marijuana and wild people.

Despite the fact that I felt a little woozy today, I spent more than seven hours in the studio painting. Progress is very slow, but I really do not mind it. In fact, I do not even notice it until it gets dark. Only when I shed my oil stained working clothes and get ready to shut all the lights, do I look over what I have done this day. I love these days when it seems like I become one with the process of creating and any signs of my body disappears. I did not feel hungry all day, didn't even visit the bathroom much. This is not to imply that the work was flowing effortlessly. In fact I struggled with an oil piece for most of the day. It is just that the process was so consuming that I dissolved into it.

This weekend I painted, rested, skied and watched a wonderful documentary about an artist living on the streets of Manhattan, called "The Cats Of Mirikitani". I highly recommend that you rent this movie. Here is a little about it: Eighty-year-old Jimmy Mirikitani survived the trauma of WWII internment camps, Hiroshima, and homelessness by creating art. But when 9/11 threatens his life on the New York City streets and a local filmmaker ( Linda Hattendorf) brings him to her home, the two embark on a journey to confront Jimmy's painful past. An intimate exploration of the lingering wounds of war and the healing powers of friendship and art, this documentary won the Audience Award at its premiere in the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival.

Just when I was grateful for the warm sunny weather, it has changed. I woke up this morning to a snow storm. The sky was dark and milky gray. It had eventually cleared up and the sky had brightened up later in the day. In the studio I continued to work on some of the commissioned pieces. I started the day by working on the tree above and finished the day by working on a new piece from the series of twelve landscape paintings that I am doing for a prominent Florida collector. At first the tree above posed a bit of a challenge for me. I decided to paint the foreground with greens and yellows and to insert patches of colors in light magenta-purple as impressions of flowers. When I was done, it looked flat. So I added some highlights in white and pale yellows. It still looked flat and uninteresting. I added some medium red and deep orange to the flowers and many more tones of green to the grass around the flowers. Later I added some black and dark umber to the spaces between the flowers to...

It is a good thing for me that the weather here in the mountains is so warm. (50's to 60's F) My studio is full of oil paintings now. Some are resting on drying racks to dry, others are on easels, awaiting for me to continue working on them. The smell of oil is overpowering, but because of the warm weather, I keep my windows and door open while I am in the studio. If it was 25 degree Fahrenheit, as it was last winter, I will not be able to do this. I am making progress with the art I am working on. It is so calming to work slow, taking my time to mix colors and to apply layers of texture.

I have just shipped a painting to a client in Boca Raton and packed another painting for a client in California. I plan to ship this painting Tomorrow. Later in the day, I spent hours in the studio working on a commission piece, applying multiple layers of thick oils and building up texture in the sky around the trees. I love all the commission work that I have at hand. I just got another commission of a painting today. It give me a sense of purpose to go into the studio to work on a painting that have a home and a collector waiting for it. It is so much nicer than aimlessly working in the studio. I love the sense of confidence and assurance that it gives me.

I woke up early this morning and after my breakfast, went straight to the studio. I enjoyed reworking some of the hills in an oil painting that I have been working on. I have been using my knife and a wide brush to apply thick layers of oils on a landscape painting. At midday, I took a break from the thick oils and spent a few hours working on the Sketchbook series. I needed to do something different. By the afternoon I was back to the commission piece of the landscape. I like how it is progressing. I am using the knife to apply small globes of paint that create an effect similar to pointillism. Tomorrow both Jules and I have a dentist appointments, so I wanted to get as much work as I could today. The time in the studio had gone by so fast, I only noticed that it was getting late when the light turned dark outside.

It is the weekend and the weather here in the mountains of Colorado, is glorious sunny and mild. Since I spent yesterday painting in the studio, we decided to go skiing today. It is such a luxury to ski in 54 degrees Fahrenheit when it is sunny. I stood there on top of the mountain's ridge, looking around me at the breathtaking scenery. The sky was deep blue, the air so clean and crisp, and the panoramic views stretched out forever, unspoiled, untouched by human hands - it was almost a spiritual experience. Skiing down an empty black run in full speed, is the closest I ever came to flying. Tomorrow I am back to full days in the studio. I just got a notification that I got accepted to Chicago's 57 Street art show this June. It is one of America's best show and a very hard one to get into. I am still waiting to hear from other shows I have applied to do this summer. I have my hands full with commission works and with preparation for the shows. Skiing today in the mountains, r...