being treated

when hubbie took the girls to visit family on saturday it finally gave me some time to paint!

i was so happy for some quiet time to make some ideas concrete. i know where im going now!

so happy.

we treated ourselves to a coffee machine. it is a life changer. unfortunately we did not meet george clooney when going to stock up on the gorgeous little capsules but i do enjoy choosing different flavours to suit my mood in the mornings.

have a great week.

arctic portraits



grizzly bear



 



musk ox





dall sheep

   

caribou

polar bear

i have always frowned upon watercolours thinking they were only used in 'pretty' landscapes. with my youngest running around, not yet 2 years old, and no extra room to spread out and paint with oils i decided to try watercolours. it took a while and a good  few sheets of watercolour paper before i got into them. i still have a way to go but i love the idea of the layering. the patience part is still a little problematic as i want to dive in with the deeper colours..

i have really enjoyed the process and have moved from arctic portraits to human ones :)

happy thursday!

new website!

today im very excited to announce the unveiling of my new website. i have been putting it together for a while now and i think its as ready as it will ever be.. www.julieavisar.com . i would love to hear what you think.
my next goal is to fill it with lots of new work and re-open my shop...

happy thursday to you x

new project

i have started working on some preliminary drawings for a new project. i am really interested in the bedouin citizens and their housing structures. the simple way they live, the way these structures relate to the landscape - form and colour and their simplicity. these are also connected to my obsession with urban structures/buildings..i cant wait to further explore these subjects and start painting.

this image is from my archive folder - taken a few months ago - its a structure built by the scouts near where we live.  I just love the form created by the simple logs and fabric.

new discovery

Oracle at Delphi - Tai-Shan Schierenberg

yesterday, i came across an image of an artwork which i was convinced was by lucian freud. after following the link, i discovered that it was by another british painter - Tai-Shan Schierenberg. 
like freud, i just love his figurative style. his portraits are beautiful and i noticed he also enjoys trees ;).

zadok ben-david

last weekend we visited the tel aviv museum of art to make the last day of the much talked about exhibition of zadok ben-david - 'human nature'. the queues were unbelieveably long but as we went with little hili, we were allowed to jump the queue :). i was so upset when i realised i'd forgotten my sd card and had to take photos using my cellphone (hence the poor quality).

the exhibition was quite wonderful. it began with the 'blackfield' installation. 20,000 laser-cut steel floral silhouettes standing in a bed of sand. they are black on one side. as you walk down the side they seem to disappear and on their reverse side, rainbow colours appear. magical!!!

   

the larger sculptures were no less amazing. large cut-out figures whose bodies are filled in with tree foliage. after the initial viewing, you realise there is more than first meets the eye. beautiful!

love day

we spent the day in tel aviv on friday. how i love this city. the sun was shining and all five of us enjoyed our walk through from shops to shuk. each of us with our own stop along the way to look forward to. parks and bookshops. coffee and friends.

and quite fitting for valentines day... i watched this film the other day. telling the amazing story of herb and dorothy, who since they have been together have been devoted to both each other and to art. the former postal worker and librarian managed to build a large collection of comporary art. 

i hope you are enjoying your weekend ~ 

faces: inside and out

stephan goldrajch - masks

the summer holidays are almost at an end, and this weekend took us to another exhibition - faces: inside and out at the eretz israel museum in tel aviv.

"What does a face tell us about the character of its owner? Why is one person considered handsome and another ugly, one funny and one frightening? This is a fascinating, colorful and surprising exhibit dealing with the enigma of the human face through masks, art, mysticism, Kabbalah, identikits, objects and studies of the human face."

shir hanna - ali babot

ruth schloss - old age

it was a fun and interesting experience - learning more about the thoughts and meanings behind the face through different mediums.

august adventures

this past friday morning we met up with visiting friends in tel aviv for breakfast. after catching up and comparing life in new york with here we took off for a walk (in the scorching heat)..

we went down bialik street to take some photos.. bialik is considered israels national poet. his house has been turned into a museum and we went to take a peek inside.

*****

on saturday we went to an exhibition. the exhibition 'natural history museum' "borrows visual patterns and images from the natural history museum, "shifting" them into the world of art." I found it wonderfully interesting and intriguing!! ella is still a little young but it was interesting to see shellys reaction to the installations.

i particularly liked the work of deganit stern schocken (which made me think a little of lisa) and talya tokatly.

this skeleton created using plastic chairs by uriel miron is just beautiful.

happy august! xx

introduction

i purchased this rather big book 'history of art' a good few months ago - enthusiastic to teach myself just that. of course it ended up on the top shelf of our modest 'library' looking impressive in its size with its long gold ribbon... but it remained unopened.

this week i opened the book to the introduction feeling a little overwhelmed. so much text in relation to images! do people really read these books? are they used only for the odd reference?

i have never studied art out of high school and my knowledge of the subject is limited to personal enthusiasm. i have been drawing and painting since i was 4 feeling a deep passion for creative expression. when i was doing the weekly art enrichment class with seven year old yuval, i learnt so much and enjoyed doing the research each week.

so coming back to my opening of the book and feeling intimidated with my ignorance... i realised that i know a lot more than i thought i did.

"the fact that art is a complex and in many ways mysterious human activity about which even the experts can hope to offer only tentative and partial conclusions can be taken as confirming the belief that "i dont know anything about art." but are there really people who know nothing about art?"

learning more about the history of art will help me feel more a part of this world, will inspire and will give me more confidence and focus in my own work.