Armon and others

Oil on plywood 89x59 cm

Please meet: Armon - or palace in Hebrew - a notorious office building on one of the main streets in the 'hood - built over the ruins of an old movie house (hence the funny name), and just standing there in front of my eyes every time I sit in my balcony, which used to be quite a lot in the first few years in this apartment. 
For quite obvious reasons I included it in many of my paintings and drawing. Recently I took it as main subject matter for a while. The above painting took me a year or two to complete - but the others were very fast.  That ray of sunlight reflected in the upper windows only occurs in winter, because in summer the sun's too high for that; and around 2 PM suddenly my back yard terrace is flooded with light, while all winter I don't get any sun in that place. The color of the sky is pure imagination. 

from top:
Oil on plywood
55x40 cm
55x80 cm
55x44 cm

Once I put my attention to Armon, things started to happen there. Now it hosts a local cultural center with various events such as movie screening (yes!) and dance parties and figure drawing and such, and it has been bought by a real estate company and some major changes are taking place after the building was virtually deserted (save very few businesses) for years. I am very curious about the next developments around this building, which after so many years suddenly got a new life - isn't it a good sign? 
Shortly after the sun ray painting was finished I packed myself to go to New York and stayed for the usual 2 months and a few more days. I painted mostly in oil, so came back with fewer works than normal, also left some behind to dry. Here is some of the work I brought with me. I am calling these "sketches" because some were done very quickly - 1-2 hours. Maybe added some touches after the paint dried a bit the next day. 

oil on canvas board 40x30 cm

oil on plywood 25x35 cm

oil on canvas 30x48 cm

oil on canvas 60x45 cm

Alas the country I came back to isn't quite the one I left. But I knew it already and did not come back earlier to vote; things have to run their course and I have little say, or so it seems sometimes. But the most important thing has to be art. It sounds shocking, given that so many grave issues are at hand, but I believe art lies in a deeper realm than the comings and goings of everyone's life. And art done right and in the right state of mind can move mountains, let alone win wars. This is the state of mind I'm in today - I guess when the time comes to raise a flag and get up on my hind legs, I will do all the necessary moves - but the studio is my world. And it is not so small a world as such. 

Let's Go for a Drive

 

Pencil on paper 35x93 cm

Almost a year since my last post. Soon I am going to see New York and my friends there once again, and apart from that was busy as hell in the studio producing tons of drawings. There was a small exhibition in a charming little venue in town (Haifa) called HQRN Art Cluster.  It's run by Guy Karlinsky, a writer/poet who  curated his first exhibition here, everything from choosing the theme out of the multi-chaotic oeuvre of the artist, :) to hanging the exhibition according to his taste and writing the text about it.
The show was about paintings or drawings of scenes from a car in motion. It went fine, and while preparing my other artwork for it I was inspired to do even more art - like this top drawing that I chose to be the centerpiece, definitely the largest work in the collection. 

So this is a decent selection of works about driving around. Since then, it was in late spring, I started working in oil again and probably my next post (soon) will have to do with that. Looking forward to the next NY trip and wondering what this time will bring.