Black and White Photo Day 2

I have been challenged to post a black and white photo every day for seven days.  There are to be no people in the photo, and no commentary about the photo.  This is the second one.

Black and White Photo Day 1

I have been challenged to post a black and white photo every day for seven days.  There are to be no people in the photo, and no commentary about the photo.  This is the first one.

Reposting: Menorah in the Window (Video)

For the last night of Chanukah, one more menorah. This is a little animation that I created back in 2016, using my iPad. If you want to light the candles, just press play.

Guest Artist David Fitterman: Mindy's Menorah

My cousin David makes metal menorahs, and he made this one for his sister Mindy (my cousin). If you look closely, you can see the Hebrew letter aleph in this design. 

Reposting: Hopeful Menorah

This image was originally posted here back in November of 2012. (At the time, I was working on images for Chanukah cards.) This is a digital revision of the Chanukah collage menorah that I posted here two days ago.  I had decided to use the same image and change the colors on the computer.  I don't know why I called it a "Hopeful Menorah." The colors do look more festive than the original, and but I think my high hopes had more to do with November 2012 election results. But I am not sure it matters why; menorahs are always hopeful. 

Guest Artist Herman Susser: Wooden Menorah

This menorah was made by Herman Susser,  my friend since forever, or at least since kindergarten.  Herman creates a lot of woodworking projects, and when I saw a photo of this menorah, I begged and pleaded and kvetched until he sent me one. I love the pattern, quite modern and very unusual, and this menorah is adjustable. It even folds flat so you can store it easily. And it is very special to have a menorah made by a friend.

Reposting: Chanukah Collage (Paper Menorah)

Here's another Chanukah classic, a collage I made back in 2006.  This one is very simple, but it was fun to make.  Later I created a digital version of this image with a different color scheme, and then used it to make a giftwrap pattern.

Reposting: Chanukah Dreidel (Digital Drawing)

I am reposting this little Chanukah classic, last posted here in 2005. I made this little dreidel not out of clay but out of pixels, using my very first Painter program. In fact, this was one of my first attempts at digital art. I have used this little dreidel for holiday cards, gift wrap, and e-mail greetings, and it still makes me smile. So I thought I would take it out today and give it another spin. Happy Chanukah!

Tree of Life Menorah (Digital Drawing)

It's the second night of Chanukah! Yesterday I posted a little animation that I created on my iPad with the Procreate app.  My idea was to start with an image of the "Tree of Life" and then transform the tree into a menorah,  in honor of those lost in the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburg. (I make these videos by drawing on my iPad with the Procreate app, and the video is created as I draw.)  The video is posted here, on Dec. 2nd. This drawing was the final frame of the video. Today I opened the image in Painter and used some digital pastel to clean it up just a bit.  So "Happy Chanukah" again to those celebrating. Although Chanukah is best known for potato pancakes, jelly doughnuts, and wooden tops, it really is a holiday that celebrates religious freedom.  And to quote that ancient text, "Fiddler on the Roof," "G d would like us to be joyful even when our hearts lie panting on the floor." So it seems appropriate to remember Pittsburg even as we celebrate Chanukah.

Tree of Life Menorah (Video)

It's Chanukah tonight! I have been thinking about an idea for a Chanukah video, and I had the idea of making a "Tree of Life" menorah in honor of those lost in the shooting in Pittsburg. My idea was to start with an image of the "Tree of Life" and then transform the tree into a menorah.  (I make these videos by drawing on my iPad with the Procreate app, and the video is created as I draw.)  Well, the Procreate app has a stylus, but it was out of battery.  But I was eager to get started, so while the stylus was charging, I decided to do a trial run on Procreate, sketching the idea with my finger instead of a stylus (something I used to do all the time with the Brushes app).  But I was able to get through the whole video sequence without any big mistakes or problems (a small miracle in itself), and I liked this brave little menorah.  So I decided that my "trial run" would become the final version.  Sending this out to say "Happy Chanukah" to those celebrating, and for all my lovely Facebookers, no matter what calendar you follow, I wish you courage, freedom, and light.

Two Blue Poinsettias

Here's another of the photos that I took during a recent trip to the grocery store. I saw a few blue poinsettias on display and I took a few pictures.  I have seen plenty of red and white poinsettias, but never blue.  And these were beautiful, with iridescent blue and purple petals. 

Blue Poinsettia

There are always poinsettias in the grocery store at this time of year, but today I saw some blue ones.  I don't remember ever seeing blue poinsettias before.  They were so beautiful, turquoise and purple, almost iridescent, so I took some pictures. 

I think this is the best one.

Four Paintings in Porter Mill Gallery

Tonight I went to the opening reception for the Small Works Show in the gallery at Porter Mill.  Four of my paintings are in the show. Tonight was my first chance to see them hung in the gallery.  I was pleased with how the way they look on the gallery wall, so I took this picture.  Each of paintings is 9 x 12 inches, made with acrylic paint used as water media. The Small Works Show will also be up during Porter Mill's Open Studios on Saturday.

Shoe Pond in November

This is another of the photos that I took on November 2, during a walk at the Cummings Center Pond (also known as Shoe Pond) here in Beverly, MA.  What I liked was the reflections of the trees across the water, and the golding leaves of a bent birch tree.  But in the original photo, the view was framed by two or three tall trees, and I struggled to get a pleasant combination.  After many tries, I finally came up with this one just today.  I cropped out two of the trees, and now it works. 

Reposting: Magnolia Street Memories

This is a pen-and-ink sketch that I drew when we lived in Chicago, back in 1979.  We lived on Magnolia Street, in the house in the center, in the first floor apartment.  Our friends lived next door, also on the first floor (on left-hand side of this drawing). I posted this here some time ago. But over the weekend, we got together with our friends and former Chicago neighbors, who now live in Maine.  It was fun to revisit old times, so I decided to post this again.

View from Screened Porch in York, Maine (with Prisma Filter)

Our weekend adventure was a short trip up to Maine, to get together with some old friends who were once our next-door neighbors in Chicago. Now they live in York, Maine.  Their house is just off the highway, but you would never know that once you turn in the driveway.  They have a great view of the woods from their screened porch, and I took some pictures. Well, somehow I forgot about the screen in screened porch. So I decided to use my Prisma app to add a filter, which not obscures the pattern of the window screen, but adds interesting textures. 

Yellow Leaves at Shoe Pond

This is another image from a walk we took back on November 2 at the Shoe Pond (AKA Cummings Center Pond) here in Beverly, MA. The original photo captured the colors well, but the composition was not good, so tonight I took a pretty aggressive approach to cropping and managed to get a useable image.

Japanese Maple in November (with Woodcut Effect)

Today I used Painter to add posterizing and woodcut effects to the photo I published here yesterday.  a bright red maple that I saw during a neighborhood walk. Posterizing brings out the color, and the woodcut effect brings out the patterns in the white siding, gray shingles, and brick chimney.

Japanese Maple in November

This is a Japanese maple that I saw a few weeks ago during a walk around the block. I liked the contrast of the bright leaves against the white siding so I took a picture. Tonight I edited the original photo to get this composition. Today and every day I am grateful for a lot of things: family, friends, good health.  I am grateful for art in my life, art that I see, and art that I make. I am grateful for vision, for color, especially the color red. And I am grateful for the technology that allows us to take photographs when we see something beautiful.

Another Red Maple

Here north of Boston, most of the trees are bare.  But I haven't forgotten those gorgeous leaves. This is from a photo that I took on November 2nd during a walk at the Cummings Center Pond (Beverly, MA). Today I cropped the original photo to get this composition.