Broken Visions

Two of the last images I made in France before I left there in September:

Yes I know, it's been a few months, summer turned to autumn turned to winter and broken glass does not leave my mind, even here and now in Haifa.
I still work from the old sketches and images of Bourbonne but I also started to integrate BG into the local scene. It just pops up here so very often inviting me to take a look, take a picture and see the world differently.
Haifa is beautiful sometimes with its unintentional coloring against clear blue skies, such as here:

But I do prefer it in the darker corners, like the market place that still needs a lot of cleaning and seems to me always in total chaos, set aside its liveliness and raw beauty in places; or a half abandoned office building where people still come for their shopping,  bored doorman at the entrance, a surprising slow elevator to nowhere,  and a church for the caregivers who come to work here all the way from the Philippines or elsewhere.
This is the square just before that building, drawn with glass markers on - well - glass.

I did this scene a few times, this one is pencil

But it is still new, the idea of Haifa broken glass, and I am studying it and contemplating it and making space for new ideas.
Another take - on plexiglass - of the scene in France, by now I may have painted it 100 times or more from various angles.

The above work is oil paint and scratch/sgraffito, again that place in France as well as all of these recent watercolors.

Still and Troubled Waters

Artist residencies may be required for most artists' CV but are hard to come by. In my somewhat short career I haven't been accepted to many. Still I get the chance, every few years, to stay and work in a place that has a studio, and at least enjoy my vacation, or even discover new ways to enhance my art making (like that summer in Trelex, Switzerland, I told about it here and here).
This year it's France, assisted by the honorable Daniela Belinga Agossa, artist and - since last year -also owner of Espace d'Art Contemporain Les Thermes, in the distant town of Bourbonne-les-Bains.
I spent a magical two months working mainly on one project.

Daniela's crazy colors
watercolor

The general theme was abandoned houses, of which there are many in the neigborhood as well as adjacent villages and towns. France seems to be in the whirlwind of abandonment while everyone is fleeing unemployment and boredom and recalculating destination Paris.
So there I was. Apart from admiring the natural beauty and serenity, I didn't have a clue. It started with some difficulties; I felt I did not get the spirit of the place; was walking every day for hours looking for ideas and wondering if I will forever make cute sketches of green pastures.

Park near the studio

Staircase, residency/house entrance hall

And then - I saw it.
It was a shattered glass in a bus stop, that remained intact and was not replaced; through it I could look at the residency itself, as well as - just opposite - a beautiful old abandoned hotel owned by the city.
I sat there to sketch, then took some photos and got back to it every other day, inspired more and more to understand this breakage as a focal point and a key to the life in this small town.
The following weeks I did a lot of drawings and watercolors of the scene with and without broken glass.
The glass already was present in my life and it continues to fascinate me, and now comes the time to make friends even further.

pastel



charcoal

Eventually I made a small wood panel too:

color pencil

On the longest day, June 21, I went out and saw a vision - beautiful setting sun rays hitting the glass with blinding splendor.

pencil

The last drawing below, as well as the first one, I made on glass. It happened that I miraculously found two glass shelves in the trash somewhere, took them to the studio and made two drawings with glass pens I brought with me. They are about 20x44 cm. 

Daniela is planning an exhibition to mark the first summer of residencies (four artists, all women), on August 24 and I will be there.
There's a lot more happening and I will keep you posted, the journey is not over yet and Haifa too is starring in this extraordinary year.