What was your first experience with/discovery of art? What made you want to become an artist?
I had not one but several events in my life in which I have discovered art or were art has discovered me.
I have always been very sensitive and visual; I drawn painted and created before I can remember myself.
Growing up in Israel, which has a relatively poor visual cultural heritage, has driven me to learn from other sources. Travelling in Europe, the Middle East and America opened new perspectives on light and landscapes, learning from museums and the Old Masters, and interacting with other artists. My encounters with Western art inspired me as much as taught me many things I try to incorporate in my paintings after years of being self-taught. My inspiration comes from the geniuses of the ancient world, especially the Fayoum painters, Greek sculptors, Roman fresco artists, the Renaissance painters, the Old Masters, tormented painters such as Caravaggio, Artemisia Gentileschi, Hieronymus Bosch and others, as well as modern masters (such as Edwin Dickinson, Lennart Anderson, Antonio Lopez Garcia, Euan Uglow, and many others).
Are there any key themes, messages or theories behind your work?
I think the most important theme for me is the theme of aesthetics, and what I mean by that is the aesthetic value of the paintings, I want my paintings to sing with beauty.
Could you tell us a bit about your artistic approach? (Style, medium and specific techniques.)
Many of my paintings are completed in a single session - premier coup (first hit) paintings, with the goal of capturing the essence of the motif without extraneous information, in a short period of time, concentrating on the visual experience. It is a kind of poem or time capsule of a moment in space. The painting may contain color marks that seem flat and abstract, but there are also marks that create the illusion of three-dimensional space. I love when that happens because (for me) that is the moment of birth of a realistic painting.
On bigger paintings with multiple sittings, I use modern and Old Masters’ techniques, working with oil paint, acrylic, charcoal and other materials. I use wet-on-wet methods as well as wet-on-dry techniques. The larger paintings tend to include more details and information. I use the best quality materials to create the best paintings I can. If I am unable to find high quality oil paint, I prepare my own, as oil paint is my preferred medium.
I studied in Israel & Italy under many great painters for four years and have continued working to improve my technique over the past five years, including three years as a copyist in the Louvre. I have copied several masterpieces (Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Nicolas Poussin, Raphael and others), and continued creating my own personal and original paintings during that time.
My current project is studying natural light in different countries, and at different times of the day. I am fascinated by light and I try to capture it in paint. Light embodies the potential for a painting.
Please write a personal statement that best represents you as an artist (in your own words.)
I am a painter, and always have been. I see the world in visual terms. For me, painting is seeing. I see the world as beautiful, yet dangerously merciless and violent.
Painting and drawing are as crucial to me as breathing. It is the language through which I am able to transmit messages better than by using other languages. I love the challenge of creating something as real as what I see. I like searching and traveling in order to find beauty. I like the struggle and difficulty of producing a work of art. My work needs to consist of sensory and tactile values. My visual world is built out of a geometrical structure as linear as the skeleton of a living body, a tonal value structure as real as the muscles and the skin.
Painting is, for me, the answer to the riddle of seeing. I use painting as a tool towards understanding the world that I live in, and as a kind of diary. It is a form of experimentation, testing the encounters and interactions between mind and matter, in a kind of meditation which reveals something new about reality.
I am a figurative, realistic and perceptual painter, working from observation, painting landscapes, still life, and the model.
Many of my paintings are completed in a single session - premier coup (first hit) paintings, with the goal of capturing the essence of the motif without extraneous information, in a short period of time, concentrating on the visual experience. It is a kind of poem or time capsule of a moment in space. The painting may contain color marks that seem flat and abstract, but there are also marks that create the illusion of three-dimensional space. I love when that happens because (for me) that is the moment of birth of a realistic painting.
On bigger paintings with multiple sittings, I use modern and Old Masters’ techniques, working with oil paint, acrylic, charcoal and other materials. I use wet-on-wet methods as well as wet-on-dry techniques. The larger paintings tend to include more details and information. I use the best quality materials to create the best paintings I can. If I am unable to find high quality oil paint, I prepare my own, as oil paint is my preferred medium.
I studied under Israel Hershberg and many other great painters for four years and have continued working to improve my technique over the past five years, including two years as a copyist in the Louvre. I have copied several masterpieces (Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Nicolas Poussin, Raphael and others), and continued creating my own personal and original paintings during that time. Growing up in Israel, which has a relatively poor visual cultural heritage, has driven me to learn from other sources. Travelling in Europe, the Middle East and America opened new perspectives on light and landscapes, learning from museums and the Old Masters, and interacting with other artists. My encounters with Western art inspired me as much as taught me many things I try to incorporate in my paintings after years of being self-taught.
My inspiration comes from the geniuses of the ancient world, especially the Fayoum painters, Greek sculptors, Roman fresco artists, the Renaissance painters, the Old Masters, tormented painters such as Caravaggio, Artemisia Gentileschi, Hieronymus Bosch and others, as well as modern masters (such as Edwin Dickinson, Lennart Anderson, Antonio Lopez Garcia, Euan Uglow, and many others).
My current project is studying natural light in different countries, and at different times of the day. I am fascinated by light and I try to capture it in paint. Light embodies the potential for a painting. The concepts and ideas I wish to explore in the future will involve compositions with several models.