November is almost gone and I haven’t posted in over two months…what’s up? Well…let me tell you. In mid September we drove up to Hohenwald, Tennessee to pick up our brand new Oliver Elite II travel trailer. We knew when we “landed” last year in Fredericksburg we’d be selling our 40′ motorhome and downsizing to a travel trailer and it FINALLY happened.
Along the way Ilene and I took plenty of photographs so I could come back and sketch/paint some of our experiences but I haven’t gotten around to them yet. Why you ask? Well…let me tell you.
It wasn’t too soon after we got back to Texas that we turned around and flew to Israel. We’d booked a pilgrimage tour with Orthodox Tours so on the 12th of October we drove up to Georgetown to stay with our bestest friends, Hoss and Janet who had graciously offered to take us to the Austin airport at zero dark thirty Sunday morning.
We spent the next two weeks touring Israel, the West Bank, Palestine, and Jordan. We walked in the footsteps of the Old Testament heroes, Jesus, the Apostles, and 2000 years of pilgrims traveling to places like Nazareth, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Petra, and Jerash.
You can believe we took photographs, shared photos with other pilgrims and were fortunate to have a professional photographer with us on this trip. Here’s just one of the first quick and loose paintings I’ve done since the trip of Jerash, Jordan a Greek town that the Romans rebuilt in their image.
I wasn’t able to do as much sketching as I’d hoped, even though I brought my travel kit, as we were CONSTANTLY on the go. By the time we’d come back each night, had dinner and returned to our room…we almost passed out from exhaustion. Besides, it’s hard to sketch on a moving bus.
I DID, however, get an opportunity on or free day to sketch s street scene in Jerusalem not to far from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
When we got back, our priest, Father Methodios, asked me to help put together a slideshow of our travels so we could present it at church. Sixty PLUS slides later and having gleaned through over 10,000 slides we were able to agree on what photos to add.
So now we get to November. Doctor’s appointments, catching up on house chores, Veteran’s Day programs and the annual Die Künstler von Fredericksburg Art Show so here we are. I’m FINALLY getting back into a rhythm, just before the holiday season begins. I’m chuckling inside right now.
That pretty much catches me up. I’m just finishing a workshop on Skillshare done by Sharone Stevens on Watercolour Christmas Patterns. My plan is to make some ornaments to include in our Christmas cards this year.
Until next time…go make some art!