Monday, August 17, 2015

Israel and Sweden plus paintings

Our family on the Old City Ramparts in Jerusalem

We took a month long trip to Israel and Sweden this summer and I am sharing some highlights from our time in both countries. Our boys joined us for 2 out of the 4 weeks and we 'made tracks' and rarely slept! We visited friends and family in both places and did our own thing without taking scheduled tours and it was exhilarating and exhausting at the same time. Dear friends in Jerusalem allowed us the use of their fabulous apartment while they used our car in California (yes, we missed seeing them) and other long time friends housed us and showed us special places around their villages. In Sweden, we visited my husband's cousins and were pampered daily with lovely outings and fabulous feasts. We spent time there with close friends of his cousin's as well and had a Midsummer weekend at an idyllic cottage on the southern Archipelago on the south east side of Sweden. I didn't have much time for painting as you might have guessed, but have included a few things that I was able to do while there, plus the last painting that I did upon our return. We feel so blessed to have taken this trip after 29 years when we went to these places with our 4 and 7 year old boys! Nothing like longtime ties with people and places that are near and dear. 

View of the Old City of Jerusalem from Yemen Moshe

My new painting friend Katherine

My watercolor of the Old City

View of Jerusalem from the south

Value Study in pencil

View for the value study

          Men dancing and praying at the Wailing Wall                 Observant Jews in the Old City


Light show in the Old City of Jerusalem


Tel Aviv Farmer's Market
                                                              Old City shadow patterns                                                                                                                    
Ibex hanging out along the roadside

Gathering of old and new friends in the Negev- the couple 2nd from 
the left stood up with us in our wedding 37 years ago

Old and new friends in Tel Aviv-the center girl went to school
with our boys in Fort Bragg and now lives in Tel Aviv with her
husband just to the left


Now onto Sweden and our Midsummer head garlands
My husband's first cousin is 3rd from the left


My husband's first cousin in the center with her family and ours

A typical summer scene on the coast of Sweden

A typical Swedish cottage

Boat harbor where you can see the bridge from Malmo to Copenhagen 
in the distance

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Lovely scene in the village of Vellinge Sweden, near Malmo

Midsummer flower fields outside of Malmo, Sweden

Bent metal bike rack

Malmo park, complete with windmill and foxglove flowers

Children dress up and 'shoo' the geese for summer tourits

Lovely entry garden in the south of Sweden


Red poppies in full bloom in the village of Vellinge, Sweden

My 9x12 oil painting of the poppies