What is hidden inside the garden

I knew that setting meeting point for our Sketchcrawl at Levinsky Garden will be challenging. Tel Aviv is a city of contrasts, even in the most touristic place you'll find contrasts between new and old, beautiful and ugly, rich and poor. Levinsky Garden and next to it Neve Shaanan neighborhood long time ago turned to be kind of a different country, populated by immigrants it has a life of its own and you can see straight away who's a citizen and who's a tourist. We felt a bit uncomfortable to come there with our fancy sketching tools to "hunt" our objects.
I decided to start from sketching the surrounding, despite that what interested me the most were, of course, the people. I wanted to give myself time to observe the place from distance, to absorb and to be absorbed. The garden was very nice, wide and blooming. The atmosphere there were very calm, everything were easygoing. People - black men mostly - passed slowly, stopped in groups for a few minutes of conversation and continued to pass. There were a few "constant" - the man with the orange shirt who was doing his morning washing near the garden tap. And the man in the white undershirt who was walking back and forth while turning his hands - performing strange gymnastic exercises. Nobody created eye contact and didn't approached. I felt detached and not belonging.

I moved to the edge of the garden and started to sketch people. Here as well nobody approached, just a few asked if we're drawing them. Most of them were busy talking one to another.

among black men only who occupied the benches around suddenly set down Asian woman, smoked her cigarette and moved on

I moved to the playground where I found Nitzan and her friends, and around them gathered a group of children. At the begging children were suspicious - why would group of adult people draw in the middle of their's playground? But very soon they all joined sketching. It was so gladdening scene, with a lot of great energies - the real spirit of urban sketching which creates interaction with the surrounding!

one of the mothers in the garden

children are sketching

I also did some sketches, but mostly were chatting with the children and taking pictures. Our sketchcrawl was coming to its end. We spread out our sketches on the ground, children looked at them together with us and asked when we'll come again. Some of them joined us to the final photo :)


Here are some sketches I did in the Eritrean restaurant, were we were eating with Nathan after the sketchecrawl.

beautiful couple in the restaurant

This watercolor sketch was done a few days earlier, when Nathan and me came to check the location. The pastoral garden with complicated stories inside it. We should come back!

Trip to the North

Last weekend we had a short trip to the North. Its always relaxing - change of the landscape, a lot of nature and some sketching, of course ;)
I did this sketch at the entrance to Fassuta - Arabic Christian village in Galilee, decorated for Christmas.

 

 Series of sketches done during our dinner:

barmen telling us the story of his life

These two paintings were done in Haifa on our way back. I miss painting!

Sketchcrawl at the Fleamarket

Sketches from our last Sketchcrawl at the Fleamarket of Jaffa - always vibrant place, full of colorful characters and stories!

started sketching together with my guest from Germany, Karin

people at Shafa Bar

municipality official arguing with a peddler, both of them cursing in Russian

Ethiopian boys managing the bussuness

after the sketchcrawl - hummus at Danny's buffet - yummy!

What a fun day!

Trainmen of Jerusalem

Friday morning of the middle of August. Streets of Jerusalem are hot and blinding. Movement of people holding drawing pads flows to the direction of Clal building. After while they spread out at the train station and start to draw the surroundings.
It looks like a beginning of the regular sketchcrawl, but still, around of 30 people, mostly not from Jerusalem, took trouble and went up to the capital at the morning of this very summery Friday, and are sketching with a lot of energy among the burning Jerusalem crowd.
It was very special and exiting meeting, an initiative of the organizers of "Outline - Illustration and Words in Jerusalem." We came to draw toward the group exhibition "The Trainmen" - cooperation with City Pass - the light rail in Jerusalem. This time the exhibition will not be displayed in the gallery, but will be integrated into the urban space - our drawings will be printed enlarged and displayed at the light rail stations, which fits perfectly the spirit of urban sketching.
It was so fun to sink slowly into the surroundings, to feel for a while that I belonged to this movie too - I'm waiting for the train, listening to street musicians, rushing to the market to do the shopping before the Sabbath... In Jerusalem everyone is a little strange, so it seemed to me very natural to stand in the middle of the street, between the Chabad stand that invited to put on tefillin, beggars, a blues singer, and draw all this.
"How much do you cost to draw me?" "Madam, this is a restaurant, do you think it's okay for you to sit down and dirty the table with your colors?" "You drew me! am I so fat?" These are just some of the turns I received that day.
Here's what I've caught. Time passed at the speed of light. I have to go back!

newspaper man busy with his phone

Arkadi from Gomel (Belarus) spoke endlessly, complained to me that he was no longer young to go to play at weddings and parties at night, and that being a musician is not easy, asked me what I do with the drawings. Accordion - this is the tool in his opinion!

The old Chabadnik with the white beard approached me and asked to see the drawing. "Am I so fat?" offended. The boy also jumped to see - "And that's me?" He was actually pleased :)

There was an old man with a kippah and a cool T-shirt with a print of Indian sitting across from me, when I started drawing him, he suddenly decided to get up. I asked to stay a little longer and he agreed. He told me he was a man of the world when he was young - he went to America and stayed there for 20 years. He lived in various cities - from the east to the west, there is no city he had not visited. "What are you do for living?" I asked. "I'm Jack of all trades! I was good there!" "So why did you come back?" "My wife died ... I had a good wife ... I'm going to America again soon." He asked to see the drawing. "You've also painted the Indian!"

Trip to South America - part IV - connection in Madrid.

So, we left Rio and landed in Madrid, where we had a 12 hours waiting to our connection flight. Great opportunity to taste some tapas and to do some sketches :)

Trip to South America - Part III, Paraty.

The last destination of our trip was Brazil. We landed in Rio, rented a car and headed to the Paraty direction, were we rent a hotel near the beach. The view during the taxi was so different from any place I have been before - all these tropical plants, bizarre mountains, azure sea, colorful cities made us exclaim all the way: "wow!"

Finally, when it was already dark, we arrived to the hotel, left our stuff and went to the closest restaurant to eat.

The view that I saw when I woke up in the morning and got out from our room, made me feel that I'm still dreaming. I sat down in the armchair, at the edge of the small swimming pool, surrounded by tropical plants and facing a harbor full of boats, surrounded mountains and greens. It was quiet... I prepared myself a coffee and... started to sketch! Of course, my sketch is nothing to compare to the reality, but it is make me refresh perfectly my feeling at that first morning in Paraty!

 Here are more sketches I did, mostly during the meals, when I had a chance not to hinder my family.

We spent a magic week in the Paraty area and came back to Rio for the last three days of the trip.
Will be continued!