Bonita Bacalhau (Cod Project) as of Apr 30, 2025

Here is my project-in-progress for the annual Cod Auction to benefit Marblehead Festival of Art.  (Each year some 50 artists are invited to decorated wooden codfish forms which are then auctioned to benefit the organization.  The auction is online and people can bid from anywhere.) This year, my codfish is decorated with a pattern inspired by Portuguese tile, hence the name "Bonita Bacalhau", which means "Pretty Codfish" in Portuguese.  When I took this picture, this project was almost finished.  I had spent some time repainting the background color, and going over the white and dark blue areas, cleaning up whatever mistakes I found.  Almost done, just needed to paint the back and sign it. (I always try to make the back look good because these are displayed on easels in Marblehead stores and so people can see the back.) Almost time to say goodbye to Bonita!

Bonita Bacalhau (Cod project) as of Apr 25, 2025

This my entry for the Marblehead Cod Auction as of Apr 25, 2025. Every year, area artists are invited to decorate wooden codfish forms, which are then displayed in downtown Marblehead, and later auctioned to benefit Marblehead Festival of Arts.  The auction is online and people can bid from anywhere. This year, my codfish is decorated with a pattern inspired by Portuguese tile, hence her name, Bonita Bacalhau, which is Portuguese for "Pretty Codfish".  Having spent the prior two days fussing over the pattern and considering adding design elements, I finally figured out that the design was fine but I wanted more contrast in the colors. So on the 25th, I continued repainting the existing design with a slightly lighter and greener blue, closer to my original design. I also worked on decorating the fins and tail.  At this point, my cod project was almost finished. . . .

Bonita Bacalhau (Cod project) as of Apr 23, 2025

Here is my entry for the Marblehead Cod Auction as it looked on April 23rd, 2025.  This annual auction is held to benefit the Marblehead Festival of Arts. Area artists decorate wooden fish cutouts which are then displayed in downtown Marblehead and later sold in an online auction. (You can bid from anywhere).  This year, I am decorating my codfish with a design inspired by Portuguese tile, and so I named her "Bonita Bacalhau". On the 23rd, it was time to begin adding white, first to the center of each of the fish tiles as well in borders marking the main part of the body.  I also added areas of white between the "tiles", to look like grout.  This was a bit tricky. First I widened each of the blue lines separating the tiles so there was enough room to add a strip of white. This looks simple, but it was tedious and it ook a while! You can see that this still needed to be cleaned up, but even so, I already liked the result and I was happy that I did it.

Bonita Bacalhau (Cod project) as of Apr 22, 2025

This is my entry for the Marblehead Cod Auction as it looked on Apr 22, 2025. This year, my design is based on Portuguese tile, hence the name "Bonita Bacalhau).  At this point, I had drawn in the design in dark blue marker and ink.  There was more to go, but I had decided to modify the background color, which had somehow strayed from the blue-green color I had used in my digital sketches, but I had decided to bring it back.  (I had chosen the colors by looking at examples of Portuguese tiles on line.  Lots of Portuguese tile is strictly blue and white, but I found some examples that use blue with a soft blue-green and white.) So in this photo perhaps you can see that I am in the process of repainting the background color to more of a blue-green. 

Reposting "Self-Portrait with Self-Portrait) (Oil Bar Painting)

Here is a self-portrait in oil bar paints.  (The title refers to the fact that the photo that I was painting from also appears in the upper right corner of the painting.) It has been a while since I painted this, but on April 22, I turned this in to Porter Mill Studios as my entry in "Selfies," an exhibition of self-portraits by Porter Mill Artists, to be on display during Open Studios and for the next few months.

White Magnolia (with Prisma's Frangipani filter)

I took this photo this past weekend during an outing at Lynch Park here in Beverly, MA.  I cropped the original photo and added Prisma's Frangipani filter.  I decided to use this image to send everyone wishes for safe travels and happy, whether they were celebrating Easter, the last days of Passover, or just enjoying a long weekend.

Bonita Bacalhau (Cod project) as of Apr 20, 2025

Here is my entry for this year's Cod Auction (to benefit Marblehead Festival of Art), as it looked on April 20th, 2025.  This year I am decorating my codfish cutout with designs inspired by Portuguese tile, so I have named her Bonita Bacalhau.  Here you can see that I have done a rough outline of the pattern in dark blue. This is the first pass, done in a combination of colored pencil and Sharpie marker.  This is rough, but I want to make sure the design is going to work.  To be continued. . . .

Bonita Bacalhau (Cod project) as of Apr 19, 2025

Here is Bonita Bacalhau, my codfish-in-progress.  When this is finished, it will be my entry for the Marblehead Cod Auction 2025.  My design is inspired by Portuguese tile, hence the name.     Since finishing my blue and white sketch on paper, I applied gesso to the wooden cutout,, and when that was dry, added the background color.  This color was a bit darker and bluer than the color in my original sketch, but at this point, I didn't think that would matter. (Turns out I would change my mind about that.) Anyway, this photo shows that I had copied my design onto the wooden cutout, which is always a bit of a challenge.  My design is geometric and linear, but it needs to fit the rounded and irregular shape of a fish, so lines become curved and sizes shift in some places.  I used colored pencil (white and then blue) to lay out the design over the background color.  (I have learned from previous projects to avoid pencil over acrylic paint, especially not on wood. ) Anyway, I was happy to be underway.

Bonita Bacalhau (Cod project), sketch with marker, Apr 11, 2025

Here is my sketch for the wooden cod I am decorating for this year's auction by Marblehead Festival of Art. I had already traced the wooden cutout onto paper and sketched in my pattern with pencil.  This was the next step: go over the lines with marker. This is not only so I can see what I am doing (which is important), but to make sure that none of the components of the pattern will be too small to  draw and make recognizable with marker or brush. 

 I was pretty happy with the result, but they were a lot of stray pencil marks so I cleaned this up digitally for posting here.

Bonita Bacalhau (Cod project), pencil sketch as of Apr 11 ,2025

Here is my sketch for Bonita Bacalhau, my entry for the annual Marblehead Cod Auction, to benefit Marblehead Festival of Art.

Once I had decided on thepattern for the body of the fish, it was time to tackle the hardest part of the process, sketching the entire design on paper to make sure it will work.  It is pretty hard to correct mistakes on the actual wooden fish, so I try out my design on paper first.  I start by tracing the wooden cutout onto a big piece of paper, and then I begin laying out the design with a ruler and a T-square.  My goal is to try to make the pattern fit will, you can see where I was having to modify and change things to get this right.  To be continued. . .

Bonita Bacalhau, drawing video of revised pattern

https://www.flickr.com/photos/randiart/54476020111

Once again I am decorating a wooden codfish form to be sold in the Marblehead Cod Auction to benefit the arts. This year, my codfish will be decorated with a pattern inspired by Portuguese tile, hence the name Bonita Bacalhau. I had already used the Procreate app on my iPad to sketch the pattern I planned to use with results posted here, both the sketch and the video capture of the drawing process. But once I had decided to revise the pattern I planned to use, I open the prior sketch in Procreate, and began to change the colors.  While I worked, the Procreate app captured the process.

Bonita Bacalhau (Codfish Project), digital sketch, revised as of Apr 11

More preparation to decorate my codfish for the Marblehead Cod Auction.  (Some 50 area artists decorate wooden cod cutouts which are then auctioned to support Marblehead Festival of Art.) This year I am returning to the theme of Portuguese tile, and have named my fish Bonita Bacaulhau. I had already made a digital sketch of on my iPad using Procreate, but I decided to change the colors to make a sharper difference from Bonita's predecessor, Bela Bacalhau, created in blue and white.  So I decided to use a turquoise and a dark blue combination that is sometimes used on Portuguese tile (though it is less common than the blue and white.  I opened the file in Procreate, copied the file, and modified the colors.

Reposting: Grandma Aptaker's Chicken Soup with Matza Balls

This is an illustration that I created several years ago for our food blog Seasoning for Every Palate.  (I think this is pastel or conte with marker.)  Every time I make matza ball soup, I think of Grandma Aptaker.  Passover starts Saturday night, but lots of folks are already preparing. Sending this out today to wish a happy Passover to those who celebrate, and to everyone wishing you freedom and hope. And to those in the midst of a cooking frenzy for the holiday,  may your matza balls rise. If you need a good recipe for chicken soup with matza balls, Grandma Aptaker's recipe and the story that goes along with can be found at  seasoningforeverypalate.wordpress.com/2012/04/06/grandma-aptakers-chicken-soup-with-matza-balls/"

Bonita Bacalhau (Codfish project), drawing video of April 8 sketch

Every year I decorate a wooden codfish for the "Cod Auction" to benefit Marblehead Festival of Art.  This year I am returning to the theme of Portuguese tile as inspiration for my design, and have named my fish "Bonita Bacalhau." Yesterday I used the Procreate drawing program on my iPad to work on the pattern I plan to use on the body of my wooden fish.  The rough sketch that I came up with is posted here yesterday.  Procreate captures a video as you draw.  I am posting it here so you can see what I mean when I say that art is a series of mistakes. . . 

Bonita Bacalhau (Codfish project), Digital sketch as of Apr 8, 2025

It's time to start working on my codfish project.  Every year some 50 area artists are invited to decorate a wooden codfish form to be displayed and then auctioned off to support the Marblehead Festival of the Arts.  This year I am going to decorate my codfish with a pattern inspired by Portuguese tiles.  I am returning to a theme that I used a number of years ago when I painted "Bela Bacalhau"*.  But Bonita will look different from here older sister Bela, first of all because the shape of the codfish form has been revised since then, and second because I will use a new design and different colors.  I have been thinking about Bonita for a while, but yesterday I actually tried some ideas out on my iPad.  I came up with this (very rough) sketch, which I cleaned up a bit for posting in iPhoto. I used Procreate to make this sketch, and Procreate captures your work as you draw, so I plan to publish the resulting video tomorrow.  

*Posted here May 26, 2016

Piano Duet (Mom and Dad, rescued snapshot)

This image began with a snapshot that I found yesterday as  I was looking for a photo to post for their anniversary; they were married April 4, 1943. I usually post 1940s era photos of them taken during their courtship or early marriage.  But this is  a Polaroid snapshot that I took of them playing the piano in 1971, in the house where I grew up.  My husband Mel was away at basic training for the National Guard (he had lost the draft lottery), and I was staying with my parents with my baby girl. I was about 22 and my parents were in their 50s. The photo that I found was damaged, scratched, and deteriorating as Polaroid snapshots typically are. But I love the image of them playing the piano, something I often saw and heard during my childhood. So I scanned the photo into my computer and did some cropping and  retouching in iPhoto. Then I used Painter to simplify the background (with cut-and-paste and digital pastel) and used some overlays to add color. As I worked, I thought about how often my parents played piano together when I was growing up. My father was a very talented musician who played piano by ear, as if by magic as it seemed to me as a child. My mother also played the piano and had many books of sheet music which I still own, and the music was and is much too difficult for me to play, even after years of piano lessons. I thought about how they met. My father was from Brooklyn but was stationed in Pueblo, Colorado,  for training before he was sent overseas during WWIi. My mother was in the USO and she and my Aunt Edy often went to the USO dances at the Army Base, and they each met their husbands that way. My mother and my aunt would sometimes bring soldiers home for a family meal with my grandparents. I bet that for my dad, the piano in my mother‘s house was a big attraction. I can imagine that they played the piano together right from the beginning. Maybe those duets contributed to their romance. It’s great to remember that they continued to play piano duets throughout their marriage, so I think this is a good photo to post to celebrate their anniversary.