If you go to North Eighth Avenue in Highland Park today, most of the pink magnolia buds will probably be on the ground. I haven’t taken out my camera since April 17. There are other trees in bloom in Highland Park, but if I can spare a bit of time over the next few days, I am hoping to take out my watercolors and start a new painting. Not sure what will inspire me.
Thursday Challenge theme is SPRING. Next week: BEAUTIFUL (Attactive, Wonderful Colors, Hair, Smile,…)
My watercolor is of Raritan Avenue, between North Third and North Second Avenues. One of the stores is Jerusalem Pizza. The one on the end, by the big tree, used to be Charlie Brown’s, which went out of business. A new restaurant appears to be opening in its place. Here is a sketch I did prior to this watercolor.
A continuation of my Raritan Avenue studies – here is a photo on top of a drawing. I worked on adding watercolor to the drawing today. I plan to post the watercolor in the middle of this week.
This is same as above, converted to black and white. One can see the lamppost in the drawing doesn’t match with the photo – no matter, it matches in the “finished” watercolor.
Last night I did this sketch of a block of Raritan Avenue in Highland Park, New Jersey. Can anyone who has been to Highland Park guess which block it is (between which street and which street)? I hope to do more – this one has a lot of grays and blues, and I used some yellow straight from the tube which seems to pop. That’s OK for a sketch, but I want to work on more details.
If you have been to Route 27 also known as Raritan Avenue, you will know there are usually tons of cars. I used photos from a few hours before the 2009 Memorial Day Parade, when the street was clear of cars.
Thursday Challenge‘s theme is “MOVEMENT” (Shaking, Falling, Bouncing, Jumping, Curling, Sagging,…).
Next Week: CARS (New, Old, Sedans, Convertibles, Station Wagons, Sports,…)
I usually try to reserve upbeat local events for my blog. Unfortunately, an upsetting, appalling event occurred last night at Rutgers University.
To quote Aaron Marcus, Rutgers student leader: “”We wanted to protest this event because as the children and grandchildren of victims of the Holocaust we believed it to be absolutely absurd to compare Israeli act of self defense to the viscous, systematic murder of millions of Jews, Catholics, Gays, Gypsies, Russians and others.”
Watch the videos on Challah Hu Akbar:
Rutgers University Event Bans Jewish Students and Community Members
Videos with commentary on Jake Binstein’s blog:
BAKA Lies
Learn more on JoshuaPundit:
Rutgers Puts Apartheid Against Jews Into Practice
A Statement by StandWithUs:
STANDWITHUS DEPLORES ANTI-JEWISH DISCRIMINATION AT RUTGERS “NEVER AGAIN FOR ANYONE” EVENT, APPLAUDS PRO-ISRAEL ACTIVISTS’ STRONG RESPONSE
Rutgers student organization BAKA (Students United for Middle Eastern Justice) sponsored the presumably public event, but when it became apparent that pro-Israel attendees would outnumber BAKA sympathizers by almost four to one, the organizers became alarmed. “There are so many Jews here,” exclaimed one BAKA member who was wearing a “Smash Israeli Apartheid” T-shirt.
To end this post with an upbeat, local event, here’s one of my son the filmmaker’s videos that may appear in the Highland Park Public Library Teen Film Festival on February 6:
And in New Jersey we have: snow! What a surprise (not). I decided to travel around the world via blogs and see what the weather is like elsewhere.
 In Australia, on Gemma’s blog – flooding |
 In Canada, EG Wow – snowy creek |
 In France, Ilana-Davita – cold, snowy park |
 In Israel, Batya – blue skies |
For more Nature Notes:
Pierre sneaks into a warehouse and steals a suitcase. I love how the filmmaker depicted “alarm.” He enjoyed concocting the credits. If you have never met Pierre before, perhaps you would like to get acquainted in his reckless adventure.
This and other teen films will be screened at the Highland Park Library Teen Film Festival on February 6, 2011.
This is a lovely blue jay I photographed about one week before the storm. And this is the post I wrote last week about a calf, a swallow and the winds, but I never hit publish until Monday morning, right before going out to shovel.
Here are rose hips during the early hours of the storm on Sunday afternoon.
Our street during the snowstorm
Our street the next morning – lots to shovel
My neighbor’s tree
Piles of snow one day later
I’m so grateful I live in a tiny little borough that plows its streets. Yay to everyone in Borough Hall or the Department of Public Works who ensures that this happens!
For more Nature Notes:
The Highland Park Farmer’s Market is over for the season, but the memories remain.
This one of pumpkins is a bit more abstract than the apples photo. It’s also more washed out, but I like the painterly quality. Some of us have a hard time picking one, whether it’s an apple or a photo.
This week’s Thursday Challenge is FOOD (Farmers Market, Vegetables, Meat, Cooking, Restaurant,…).
