End of Term 1 Art blog

 RIGHT, so, so far I have planned out, like, 5-ish paintings and two series and I'm working on a third. After discussing with The Council (TM), we have decided that I'm probably going to focus on the Jewish diaspora and the movement of the Jewish population. This is what I have so far: 

Beth El

So, one series is going to be synagogues around the world starting with Beth-El synagogue in Christchurch. For this, I think my artist model is gonna be Gelon Concepcion on Instagram and this other guy that Miss Keene told me about (Gerhard Richter). Originally I was gonna lean heavily into the idea of painting people as ghosts and the erasure of the Jewish people but now that I'm doing more on the diaspora I'm gonna paint words and stuff I think. Originally I was gonna paint over the synagogue but I think I might include anti-semitic headlines or things that have happened within the country the synagogue is from. So far, I plan to include NZ (obviously), France, Spain, and the U.S.A. These paintings will probably be mostly on boards 2 and 3. 

My sketch ideas for the synagogue painting

My first go at it, however, I didn't like it as the pov looked off so I redid it

Ah, much better. I do need to work on the brick color though.

To get the star, I had to draw the rough size on the synagogue, trace that, even out the star, draw the details, and finally, trace it back onto the painting

Eggs Bene

For another series I want to include Jewish immigrants from different countries. I'm starting off with Bendix Hallenstein (the guy who founded Hallenstein Bros.) and what I plan to do is paint a portrait of him. I'm thinking of painting over the eyes and then writing something on the white bit, but I'll have to experiment a bit with that first. You can see that idea on the top of the page from my sketchbook. I don't know if I'm gonna paint the portraits with oil paints or acrylics cause I think oil paints might make the paintings look nicer than if I were to use acrylics. 

Ideas and sketches for the portrait.

Outline drawing for the painting

History

I want to possibly do a series of historical points in Jewish history but I'm not quite sure about it just yet. This would be the part when the diaspora comes in and I'd use Tame Iti as my artist model for this series. When I do figure out how to do this, I might start with the exile of the Sephardic Jews from Spain and possibly something to do with the displacement of the Jewish people after the holocaust. At the moment, one idea I have is the West wall which is a wall that remains from the temple in Jerusalem that was destroyed many times. For this series I'm thinking of including words and quotes about the event it's depicting. So for the exile of the Sephardic, I'll possibly include a poem I read in an article about the return of the Sephardic to Spain in 2015. I also might figure out how to include a quote from Mark Twain when he talks about how the survival of the Jewish people is a miracle. 

Sketch idea

Overall plans for the board

I think for this year I'm gonna have a weird mix of emotions. Usually, for every board, there's a certain sort of vibe I want to emulate but this year it might be a weird mix vibe. I think the main vibe I'm gonna try and go for is to sort of commemorate the survival of the Jewish people as well as sort of celebrating it. If I do include the Mark Twain quote I'll either include it in the middle board or the end board. I don't know, I think after I figure out how to do the diaspora paintings I'll hopefully get the ball rolling or something. Fingers crossed that happens before the end of the year lol.

Do Nows

These are some of the do nows I've done: