Art By Tali Landsman

After giving it a lot of thought, we decided not to sell Contempo Artspace. We felt that it is such a unique place located in such a unique part of the world, that we are not ready to give it up or move away from here. If we observe it with the "right" frame of mind, it is truly a heavenly place that cannot be easily replaced by another locale. If we make our reality here an enjoyable one, it offers unparalleled opportunities.

We have spent the weekend in Auckland celebrating our tenth wedding anniversary. I also delivered two paintings to a collector in the North Shore area. As always we had a great time in Auckland. We discover a new tea house in Mount Eden Road that sell and serves a large variety of superior teas, a new book store with a large stock of rare books, a new vegan restaurant that recently opened on Victoria street that is run by a sweet family and serves good food. We visited the Auckland Art Gallery and saw a retrospective of Rita Angus's art. We visited a traveling exhibition about orchids at the Auckland museum. I thought it will enrich my research of the orchid's project I plan to do, and in some ways it did, but I thought that the exhibition although laid out, was very basic with not much depth.

I just got an email from another artist in NZ: Hi Just had a look at the website and thought I say how much I have enjoyed your Sketchbook series. I paint as well and took inspiration from one of the artists of the 80's who did a drawing style of painting. I like how you see the process as part of the whole. Leads people to become part of the picture and they put in their own portions to a degree. I sometimes leave blank canvas to encourage the imagination of the viewer to ask what should go in that spot. Here's a link to John Badcock's work which I also enjoyed. Both you two have got me wanting to paint again. Will try and dig up a photo or two to email you my work. Are you still selling much work with times being tough? I just lost work so I thought it was time to start painting again. God Bless xxxxxx Here is what I wrote him: Dear xxxxx, Thank you so much for writing to me and for your kind words about my Sketchbook series. Thank you also for mentioning the work of Jo...

We are back in Kohukohu, New Zealand and it is spring here. The garden is in full bloom and the weather is mild with long stretches of sunshine. It is good to be back. We had the opportunity to meet our new neighbors - John and Marilyn who recently bought the house that we used to own next door . We could not have hoped for lovelier people- we are delighted to know and live next to them. On Friday night we participated in a Trivial Pursuit night at the local Waterline cafe. It was an evening full of laughter and wrong answers. Our team came last but we were awarded free coffees and cakes to each member of our losing team. It reminded me how lovely it is to spend some times with people from our small but very lively community.

We are back from Eastern Europe and already made a short trip to Maine to visit family there. We stayed in Portland where we had a choice of fabulous restaurants including a Thai place that serves delicious mock meat dished. We took a boat ride with Jules' daughter Kira, her husband Ken and their son- little Leo, to Jewell Island where we picnicked on the beach, took a hike and had a great time. In a week time we fly to New Zealand. I am looking forward to being there again. I have some paintings to pack and ship to clients when we'll arrive there and hopefully some free time to paint again.

Much like Prague, Budapest is saturated with Jewish history. Jewish people had a hard time living in Prague and in Budapest much before the rise of Nazism in world war two. Despite the fact that they had great influence on advancing the culture, music, poetry, and architecture of the city, they were not treated as equals and were not allowed to own homes or land. Since Jules was born to a Hungarian- Jewish family, we went to explore the Jewish quarter, strolled alone the narrow streets and took in the beautiful buildings, the kosher pastry shops, the restaurants and were amazed to see one of the most beautiful Jewish synagogues we have ever seen. It is the second largest in the world and it has Moorish influences. I am adding some photos of the building above. In Budapest there is a memorial to the Jewish people that were killed during WW2. It runs along the Danube from the Parliament building and it is comprise of bronzed shoes. The story tells that before they shot the Jewish people...

Budapest is an amazing and well preserved old city. It has two parts "Buda" and "Pest" (pronounced Pesht) with the river Danube running through it. Originally it was a Celtic settlement, then it became a Roman capital. It was under rule of the Mongols, been under Ottoman rule for nearly 150 years, became a center of culture in the Renaissance , a part of the Austria- Hungarian power and later became part of the Soviet republic. It is now a democracy and a city filled with World Heritage sites. it has the second oldest underground railway system in Europe and the world's largest thermal water cave system running under the city. It is hot in Hungary in August, but we braved the heat and were rewarded to a tour of one of the most amazing and architecturally diverse cities in Europe. I could not get enough of the beauty of the buildings in the city. We saw influences and motifs from all eras. With the exception of the boxy soviet era buildings, the city is filled wi...

We spent the time we had in Vienna exploring the heart of the old city. The "Museum Quarter" is a large complex filled with contemporary and fine art. We had time to explore only the contemporary section and were delighted to see a retrospective of the work of Cy Twombly. We had a superb lunch in the museum's cafe and spent the whole day exploring and enjoying the art. The most memorable exhibition in the complex was a photography exhibition of "The Portrait"- a collection of human portraits done by dozen of photographers.

We only had time to get a taste of Prague and we loved it. We did not have enough time to explore the art scene in and around the city and by the end of the day we were too tired to go to listen to one of the many classical concerts abound around the city. We did make an effort to see a newly opened contemporary art space named: "The Meet factory". An abandoned factory was converted into a very contemporary art space with great art and video installations. It was a bit tricky getting there and an adventure by itself, but we were rewarded with a great exhibition. This is a photo of the exterior of the building.

What a beautiful place. Coming from the ugly utilitarian architecture of Denver, Prague seems so beautiful with majestic architecture from different eras and stone cobbled streets, filled with cafes, restaurants and bustling city life. By the end of August, the hoards of tourists have not dwindled down yet but we still made our way and explored the beauty of this place. It was no problem finding good vegan food in Prague, but our last dinner in " Maitrea " was the most memorable.