Dead Sea Stove Top

A work in progress -- photographed on top of my stove.

Israel
In 1997, my mom and I took a trip to Israel from about May 23 to June 11, just about this time of year. We linked up in New York City and spent a few days with my brother and his partner (my mom broke her foot the day before we left for Israel, but that is another story); spent about four days visiting a cousin in Jerusalem and attending her daughter's Bat Mitzvah (my mother's original inspiration for the trip); took a week to tour around Israel with an organized tour group (our guide was fabulous); and then crowned our trip with a three or four day stay at the Dead Sea. I know all this because tonight I went back and looked at my itinerary. The Dead Sea portion of the trip was something my mom chose after we got to Israel. We considered the Lake Kineret area (Galilee) -- until we got to Ein Gedi.

Rift Valley Love

If you had asked me, I would have told you we were at Ein Gedi for a week, perhaps because we both loved the place so much -- the relaxing pace, the unpretentious character of the kibbutz-run resort, the amazing gardens of the kibbutz, the natural beauty of the Rift Valley, the countless pools of every temperature of mineral water, the rich black mud offered (for applying to your skin) at the beach in dumpster-size containers, the incredible array of people drawn to the place (Americans, Europeans, Bedouins, Israelis), and the buoyant mineral waters of the Dead Sea. In addition, the Dead Sea is near the locales of well-known biblical stories (e.g. Jericho).

Perhaps I should not have been surprised at our response to the place. After all, my family has a long tradition of vacationing at mineral water sites. The repeating vacation spot of my childhood was Glenwood Springs, Colorado, home of the world's largest mineral spring pool. In more recent years, my mom and I took a trip to Salt Lake City, Utah.

The Dead Sea is part of the African Rift Valley; it's the lowest place on earth. The temperatures are quite high. They warned us to not spend too much time in the sun and the heat. It's easy to over-do because you get euphoric on the bromides/bromines in the air. I think I was just plain high! Read all about the temperatures, bromides/bromines, and super high barometric pressure here.

What Did I See?

I remember looking across the Dead Sea at what I was told was Jordan. With the bright sun and the intense haze, I wondered if I was looking at a land mass or a cloud formation. I hope I captured some of that ambiguity in this painting. After working on this painting once a week for several weeks and toiling over this post, I just found this information on Wikipedia along with a photo that precisely demonstrates how Jordan can appear to be a cloud resting upon the water -- until you enlarge that photo. [The same citation also explains the current (and frightening) recession of the Dead Sea.]

I don't recall all the pink but that's what's in my photos. I just remember blasting sunlight and the air. In some ways those photos seem like a magic trick. I'm not sure what I saw. The photos are recognizable but inexplicably different. The more I mull this over, the more I think I was just plain high on the bromides!

Painting the Dead Sea
I'm taking an acrylic painting class at Kimball-Jenkins Estate Art School. The class is all about working from photographs. While working from a photograph is also new to me, my focus is on trying out acrylic paint.

Shape of the Board

For this painting, I envisioned a wide image, so I painted gray bands on the top and bottom of the board to create that space. This week, my teacher, Kim Roth, encouraged me to decide if I wanted to either cut the board or change my composition. On a practical note, if I use the standard size, it's cheaper to frame it. I could not make up my mind so I decided to paint over both gray bands and then if I did not like that, I could cut off the top and bottom of the painting. First, I painted over the bottom gray band, adding sand and more detail so that it was clear that the small green blobs are trees, not bushes. That really clarified the depth of field and scale. I liked it enough that I'm looking forward to extending the sky. I think it's likely I will stay with the traditional board shape/ratio.

Here's what it would look like if I cut off the top gray band.

Here's what it would look like if I also cut off the area that used to be the lower gray band.

What I Learned

What I learned is that I was caught up in what I thought I saw -- versus what I really saw. For example, I've photographed the moon expecting it too look very large in my photo and then been disappointed (and naively surprised) to see it's merely a tiny yellow dot in a large field of black. In this case, my brain focused on the water and Jordon. Now I realize that the open sky and masses of sand were also part of my experience. While the visual trickery of that land mass is a magic all its own, part of what made the Dead Sea and Jordan so significant is how unique they are in a place of vast quantities of sand and sky. As I paint more sand and sky into this piece, I feel more like I'm back at Ein Gedi. That's a delicious feeling . . . except I wish my mom was around so that I could share all this with her.