They say there is always in any group one ugly duckling… I, on the contrary think that there is always one different….
Johny of Arabia
Few years ago I took my devoted Christian friend John to see the country that he always talked about and wanted to see. I have born in the magical city of ‘Jerusalem’ which I often go back to see to refresh my collection of sounds, sights and scents which I very much miss, as I live too far away from it. I wanted to show John the beauty of this country and the ability of many people from all over the world to unite and live together in this one small beautiful place, the City of Jerusalem.
John told me once that he had a dream to be ’Johny of Arabia’ based on ‘Lawrence of Arabia’.. So I have tried to make his dream come true while we were visiting Jerusalem… At least I gave him the look… I recently painted few pictures of the city which I put in the post ‘Jerusalem’ and today I am adding a couple more of my Oil paintings which I completed in my last Oil painting adult education evening class.
Johny of Arabia
Jerusalem in mix Orange
Same Jerusalem in Black boxes, Begie and Bluish jewellery colour boxes Wall.
Jerusalem pre painted Black boxes. Both paintings are not identical as I tried to paint it from observation of a photo I took some years ago and could not find for the occassion, so it was more of a fading memory.
‘I can Sea you’
Couple of days ago I have written about the eyes which I am learning and trying to paint for my faces, portraits. I thought I should go one step forward with my eyes, see, sight and paint an abstract of one of the places I love watching, visiting, painting.. So I created ‘ I can Sea you’… You probably will ask me what is it got to do with eyes… Not a lot… but you can See and then there is another different way The Sea, yes the one I love don’t you?
I always tell people here that everyone can paint and this is another example why…. Go on try it or maybe you did before, so please Email me your version of ‘I can Sea you’ so we can put a collection here… Enjoy
Tall Painting
I visited a blog today theryanstevens.com where I saw the next video… and it prove that everyone can paint… you don’t need your paintbrushes at all.. Just pick up a cup with some paint and you can pour it on… What a beautiful work uploaded by RavelLkeDave, click here below;
My aunt watched the video and told me, that it is exactly how she makes her white and chocolate ring cake… Love chocolate.
Chocolate Marble Ring Cake;
Ingredients
- 175g Self Raising Flour
- 50g plain chocolate, broken into pieces
- 2 Tbsp cocoa powder
- 2 Tbsp water
- 175g butter, softened
- 175g caster sugar
- 3 Tbsp golden syrup
- 3 medium eggs, beaten
- Few drops of vanilla essence
- 50g butter
- 2 tsp water
- 175g plain chocolate, broken into pieces
Method
- Preheat oven to fan 160°C, conventional 180°C, gas 4.
- Grease and line the base of a 2 litre ring tin with baking parchment. Alternatively, use a 20cm round cake tin.
- Place chocolate, cocoa and water in a small heatproof basin; melt over a pan of boiling water.
- Beat together flour, butter, sugar, syrup and eggs until light and fluffy.
- Divide the mixture in half, stir vanilla into half and the melted chocolate mixture into the other.
- Place alternate spoonfuls of vanilla and chocolate mixture into the tin, swirl the two together using a metal spoon.
- Bake for one hour and cool.
- To decorate, place the butter, water and chocolate in a small heatproof basin, melt over a pan of boiling water until the chocolate has melted.
- Cool until chocolate begins to hold its shape and then spoon over cake.
Now you can try making both yourself… don’t forget to send me a photo… or a piece of your cake…
Enjoy.
Back to the club
As a self taught painter, I recognise that in order to get better, you also need to have a class or two to uplift your game and knowledge. In such environment you have someone experienced who understands the subject standing beside you ready to teach or correct you. You feel much safer if there is someone around you to guide and give you direction but at the same time can also develop your skills even better. I took an adult education course for drawing and painting which I also found, while spending so much time at home as a good way to socialising. While taking the class, I also returned and spent more time with the painting group at my golf club. Every time I went to this inviting nice group, which I very much love, I felt that my painting was also improving. In a way it was my compensation, while being there and meeting the members, for not being able to play golf which I missed a lot since I became ill. In this group we mainly paint in water colours and everyone paints their own subject, although we watch each others work. We have some very good painters in this group and some are always on hand to suggest or show us how to do something or correct it when it all goes pear shaped. Of-course we have a tea break when we leave the painting and catch up with the latest gossip in the club, and the world. I find it a very relaxing and enjoyable couple of hours and it is amazing to see how people that have never held a brush became such a good painters, pros! We have a long wall in the club to display our work that we change regularly with new paintings week by week.
Doron Art 