Art By Tali Landsman

I wanted to mention a great movie that I saw a few days ago. It is called "Waltz With Bashir". It is Ari Folman's animated documentary into the horrors of the 1982 Lebanon war. The movie is visually beautiful with drawings that capture the light in many sophisticated ways. The interviews are all real with real people that have gone through the war and are giving first hand account into their nightmares and dreams. In the heart of the movie lays the controversy massacre that occurred in Sabra and Shatila. This movie strike a cord in my heart as I was first drafted into the army in 1982 which was the beginning of the Lebanon war. I have lived through the sadness and despair that comes with every war. I mostly recommend this movie as an artist, but I was touched by it as a person that lived through these times. If you rent it, make sure to see the extras which feature an interview with the director and a glimpse into how they made the animation. http://waltzwithbashir.com/

We had lunch at Woody's Creek Tavern which is a legendary stop for cyclists, bikers and weekend travelers. It is a casual tavern with some scrumptious options for vegans like us. Next to us a family from New Zealand were celebrating a birthday. Woody Creek Tavern quickly found itself to be a gathering place for the notorious anti- establishmentarian ism of the Woody Creatures and the legendary Hunter S. Thompson. Aspen itself may have moved and changed with the times but the Woody Creek Tavern retains that, that makes it so special and so keeps it's place in the hearts of this special community.

We has a lovely weekend. We went to cycle along the old Rio Grande path starting at Basalt. We had tea at the local cafe in Basalt and listened to some great musicians that performed in the open air farmer's market that was happening along the main road. We love cycling along this path which is the old train path that was converted into a cycling path and that snakes between the mountains all the way to Aspen. It is paved all the way to Woody's Creek and then it becomes a gravel path that leads to Aspen. This time we were on our road bikes, so we stopped at Woody's for lunch and then cycled back. Spring is the colorful season here and wildflowers dot the cycling path. Birds are nesting and gathering and the wild herbs scent the air.

I am in the studio painting large paintings in oils. I take breaks during the day to breath some fresh air. I currently have 10 large oil paintings drying in my studio and the air can get a bit "turpentine scented." I am considering redoing one of the paintings that I thought was done. To add more texture and interest to it by reworking the fields in the front.

It is a lovely sunny and warm day in the mountains. I plan to spend it painting and after work to take a cycling ride through the canyon to get my body back into a good cycling shape. Jules and I are considering taking a cycling trip to Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand next year. This year we are cutting back on travel and plan to divide our time between our NZ and USA homes. For those of you who live in NZ, this weekend is the Original Art Show and sale in Auckland. It takes place at the Pacific Events Centre- in Manukau 26 - 28 June 2009. I have entered 7 large paintings from my Artist's Sketchbook series and 5 small paintings of my landscapes in oil. Go see it and make a day of it!

Today I swam 100 laps in the pool in Avon. This is my third time in the pool this week and I swam 100 laps in about an hour each time. It is so refreshing to be in the water. We also took the bikes for the first time this season for a cycling trip into the Glenwood Canyon. It is a beautiful path that runs along the river. This time of the year the wild roses are scenting the air with their perfume and all the wildflowers paint the riverside with bright colors. The path is maintained daily and it has three rest area with large clean toilets and cool drinking water. I love Colorado and how well they maintain and clean everything in America's largest playground. The rock formation in the canyon are incredible. They tower high above the river and the road like ancient red- oxide sky rise buildings.

I've enjoyed painting in the studio today. It has been more than three weeks since I last painted. Three weeks ago when we arrive back to CO from NZ, I spent the first week unpacking art that I brought to ship to a collector, packing art for the show in Chicago and organizing the house that was closed for two months. Two weeks ago we left for an art show in Chicago and it took us ten days to drive to Illinois and back. So today was my first day painting and it felt ever so good. Suddenly the world make sense again. It is like a soothing tonic to me.

And here is another link to some interesting sculptures made from bubble gum. http://oddee.com/item_96652.aspx

Here is a link to some really cool umbrella art installations: Hope you'll enjoy looking at them. http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/incredible-umbrella-art-installations-around-world/9696

I spent the day packing art and preparing it to be shipped. It is a cooler day here in the mountains and the rain is coming and going all through the day. Tomorrow I plan to spend the day painting. I need to surround myself with my work and sort some things inside my heart. I have just heard that a collector of my art had died in a motorcycle accident and my heart is heavy and sad. His lovely and loving wife called me last evening and the news have left me overwhelmed. I am delighted to have creative work to do. I find that it is the best therapy for me.

At the art show Chicago's Magnificent Mile View from our hotel's window. Finally arriving in Chicago... First view of the city. And the traffic gets heavier. At a rest area. The endless 18 wheelers on the road. We are back from doing an art show in Chicago, tired and happy to be back home. In the next few days I plan to pack some art that I need to ship to a collector in Florida and start painting again.

Now you can see some of my art at the most prestigious Saatchi online gallery: http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/yourgallery/artist_profile/a/109821.html Charles Saatchi is one of the largest art collector, art dealer and gallery owner in the world.

Mind numbing Nebraska's highway More flat highway The Colorado mountains are still covered with snow... On our first day we drove 400 miles and arrived at North Platte Nebraska. The hardest thing in driving on American highways is staying focused and awake. The road was good, the weather less so. Colorado is still one of the prettiest state in the union. There is still snow on top the the mountains and the highway snakes around the glorious Rockies. The beautiful scenery ends in Denver. North eastern Colorado is flat with endless fields of scrub brush growth and not much farm land. Nebraska is flat, lightly populated with endless green fields. Our second day of 440 miles just ended. we are managing fine with highway food. We were able to get some raw salads, and in Mexican restaurants we eat rice, beans, salad, avocado and saute' vegetables. Tonight we are staying in the "Comfort Inn and Suits" which has a surprisingly nice suites and a large, inviting and empty pool...

We have packed the van with the art and all that we need for the show. I have spent the last two days getting ready, gathering business cards, greeting cards, mailing list forms, bios, statements I made a "Collector's Package" which I plan to give to each person that buys my art. I feel very well organized and ready, excited and thrilled to go on this adventure. We also packed healthy snacks for the road, gallons of mineral water, fresh fruit and music. I only have nine large paintings for this show and about twenty small cube paintings. This will be my first show with only large art. I am not sure how well it will go. Large art has its limitations as most people living in the city usually have smaller living spaces. Another thing is that most art lovers have collected art through the years and have less wall space. But I am the eternal optimist. People do get tired of art and shift things to make room for something new that they love. New people get interested in art all...

We are back in Colorado, but not for long. On Monday we are starting our drive to do an art show in Chicago. We decided to start the drive a bit early so we can take our time and get to Chicago without needing to drive eight or ten ours a day. Jules plans to work in the mornings in our hotels and I like to stop for stretches, food, fuel etc. I will try to blog about the journey, about the show and people comments to my Sketchbook series.

We are flying back to the USA. I have just arranged for a neighbor to ship my boxed art to the art shows that I will participate in over the winter in NZ. I am getting ready to a great summer that is starting with an art show in Chicago. (the 57 Street Art Show).

We are on our last week of our stay in NZ. Early next week we will be flying back to Colorado. It feels like a good time to leave as the rain is getting heavier here in NZ, while in sunny Colorado it is 80 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny every day. I am packing art to send to shows and to collectors. Upon our return to the USA, we have to pack the van and drive to Chicago to do an art show in the city. It will be my first art show with my "Artist's Sketchbook Series". I have sold painting in this series both in NZ and the USA, but I have not done a show personally and had an opportunity to listen to the public. I am excited.

We have just returned from a weekend in Auckland. We drove to Auckland to see the Auckland Art Fair which started in 2005 and have grown to a lovely event. Although a smaller event than most global art fairs, with only 38 galleries present, still it was a wonderful event. It was so well organized and very elegant. Located on the Viaduct Harbor, it had two main exhibition halls, two cafes a sculpture / installation garden and of course a lot of beautiful contemporary art. We attended an evening lecture on Friday evening which was well attended and came back to stroll and look at the art on Saturday. We were delighted to see how well attended the event was and many of the galleries has a red dot sold sticker on many pieces of art. We also took the opportunity to eat in our favorite Japanese restaurants. One of them is "Soto" which offers a vegetarian tasting menu which is an art piece to look at and a feast to the taste buds, and the other is named " Tanuki Cave". I...

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.

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.