India-Serenity Anywhere

© Ellen Blonder

I haven't posted lately because I was in India for the first time. Here are a couple of photographs I took in Varanasi. The first is of a boat on the Ganges, the second is of a woman texting from her narrow perch on a bicycle rickshaw. She possesses the serenity of the people on the boat, even though she's bouncing through a sea of wild, heavy traffic.

Persimmon Revisited-Final

 © Ellen Blonder

Finished. The actual fruit is still hanging on the branch, but by today many of the leaves have fallen.

Persimmon Revisited-Day 3

© Ellen Blonder

Slowly adding color to the leaves over this holiday weekend.

Persimmon Revisited-Day 2

© Ellen Blonder

Just had time to work on the persimmon fruit today. Since the windstorm a couple of days ago tore off many of the leaves, so I'm glad I took reference photos.

Persimmon Revisited-Day 1

© Ellen Blonder

I'm revisiting the persimmon in a second watercolor. This will show leaves in stages of turning rich yellows, oranges and reds, different from my painting from a couple of weeks ago when the leaves were all still green. Many of the actual leaves blew off the tree in today's heavy windstorm, scattering brilliant color all over the garden.

Persimmon Leaves

I don't normally post photos instead of paintings, but I had to share the fleeting glory of the persimmon tree. It's raining now, and the leaves are falling fast, but for the last few days, it has been magnificent.

Collage

I have mixed feelings about collage as an art form, because it feels like taking credit that rightly belongs to the original photographer or artist. Still, my friend Rona gathered some friends today to play with it, and it was a fun exercise. I clipped and arranged  over a dozen images from catalogs and magazines, then scanned and cleaned up the cut edges in Photoshop and added some type and cloned areas.

Unwelcome Guest

© Ellen Blonder

When cleaning out my mug one morning at a beachside motel, I discovered this cockroach in the remains of my tea. How had it gotten there? Had I carried him in my thermos, and had I been drinking cockroach tea all along? Or had it crawled into the mug in the middle of the night? 

When I got over my horror, I photographed it, and have finally sketched it. It's no small creature; counting its antennae, it curled halfway around the inside curve of the mug.

First Persimmon-Final

© Ellen Blonder

The painting's done. Now to wait for the real persimmon to ripen enough to pick.

First Persimmon-Day 3

© Ellen Blonder

Starting to noodle in the details on the leaves. I thought I'd better paint in the persimmon first so I could get the contrast right. The fruit and leaves on the real tree are changing daily as I paint.

First Persimmon-Day 2

© Ellen Blonder

I'm just beginning to lay in some color. After painting so much in acrylics lately, it's a challenge to remember stray brush marks can't be painted over with watercolors.

First Persimmon-Day 1

© Ellen Blonder

I planted a persimmon tree four years ago, and even moved it once because I didn't think it was getting enough sun. While it has become a handsome young tree, it has never borne fruit. I only discovered the first fruit this fall when it began to turn orange against the green leaves. Here, I've drawn pencil outlines on an 8 x 10-inch sheet of watercolor paper; the lines are actually much lighter than then appear here.

Another Loaf

The fun bread experiments continue. I'm still following the Mark Bittman-Jim Lahey instructions, but instead of flipping the risen dough into the dutch oven, I put parchment under the dough and lift it into the pot by the paper's edges. This way, I can also slash the top of the loaf before the rise. Almost as fun as eating the bread is listening to the crust crackle as it cools. I also follow some of the modifications, adding a few drops of vinegar and using very hot water, but still let the dough rise at least 12 hours.

Fall

© Ellen Blonder

While I haven't been working on new paintings lately, I have been prepping past work to sell as giclee prints. This watercolor seemed appropriate for my first November post. Happy Fall.

Magic Bread

I'm late to jump on the bandwagon, but the no-knead bread experiment led to finding a 2006 YouTube video with Mark Bittman of the New York Times, watching baker Jim Lahey bake beautiful no-knead bread in a cast iron dutch oven. A follow-up video details minor improvements. Here I've substituted one cup of whole wheat flour for white, but otherwise followed the improved version. All it contains is flour, salt, yeast, water and a few drops of vinegar. Wow. Incredibly easy, and it may just be the best yeasted whole wheat bread I've ever made.

Different Kind of Pizza

My friend Jeri introduced me to a book, Artisan Breads in Five Minutes a Day. The very wet yeasted dough isn't kneaded, and it can be stored in the refrigerator for over a week to be shaped and baked as needed. Yesterday, I used the last of the master dough recipe for pizza, too impatient to make their olive oil pizza dough variation. It will be fun to continue experimenting, but a first attempt provided a wildly puffy result.