Oil and Water

Yes yes, do you hear the music playing?






pictures from opening night, and just an ordinary day at Hapina with my paintings all around

Better late than never - you are cordially invited to my new exhibition at the Corner Cafe (Hapina).  It will be on for another two weeks and change. Oil and Water just means the medium, in the most literal sense. No drawings, no markers.
It's already the second time I exhibit there, and I take it ever so lightly as I should a show in a cafe.
I had my share of gallery and museum shows in the past year, and why not go back to the one and only gallery in Haifa (well, sort of), now that they closed Gate 3 for good - oh, so sad.
Cafe Hapina, old faithful, still has Yair host the Tuesday night jazz event as well as a new initiative by Omer Ben David - also a jazz musician - called Jam Night. It is usually every other Thursday, people gather from all around and you never know what's going to happen, though after a while I noticed they too have an inclination towards well-known (yet well played) standards.
Jam night is using my drawings for the FB event cover photo. I must have become nearly official in sketching regularly at jazz nights - and other times - in this cafe.

So now I am making an oil painting using these last few sketches I made. The music it sweet in my veins and lifts me up and definitely contributes to the success of a sketch. I hope the painting is as good as some of these.

Out in the City of Haifa

Summertime. Leaves are dark green and grey. The light too cruel and direct, and I rise early to get before everybody else does to the nearby Binyamin Garden, a local green lung slowly turning into a charming spot. The people there, mainly Russian and Arabic speakers, hard working or unemployed, find their way into my paintings without ever noticing it. They go about their happy business with daily contentment. I am a temporary intruder.

These trees make a wonderful shade, may they live long and prosper. The rest of the garden is olives - not big enough yet.
Here is an oil painting I just finished. It's based on photos I took in winter. The color of the path is plain grey in reality.
Plywood 49x65 cm

Below is a small marker sketch of two cats. Following an idea I picked up on the web, I used watercolor paper prepared with gel medium. Strange results. The paint stays on the surface and doesn't sink in, so it can be moved around, like Winsor Newton promised their Pigment Markers would do if I used their own paper.

Another time same place, markers:

The card players, markers

At the end of the journey I go down to the market. This is Haifa, up or down. Down many stairs that lead me to the main street of our busy neighborhood Hadar.
And right before the market I notice these two beauties, so colorful I just have to draw them.

... and then you go down here.

Ah yes the market. Same street, two views.

Lower still. Downtown, Harbor street (Hanamal), on July 14th they had a cheerful French Revolution party.

A favorite spot downtown, not as colorful in reality but nice enough...

Portrait Made Easy

After the third "Yefe Nof" fair is over, I am happy to say that for the first time, I had some success, because I didn't participate this time. Why bother with framing and hanging when you can draw portraits for fun and even get some bucks for it?...
Discovery: people love to sit for a portrait. They love it better if it's a double portrait with their loved one. Too bad there are not so many people in Haifa - I could get rich.
Discovery #2: I'm rather good at it.
I am posting just a couple of pictures here due to privacy issues and the poor quality of the photos I took on the spot. Eyal is an exception because, of course, he is a friend, so he let me scan the image at home.

Except for Eyal I never got to paint less than two people in one painting, so I was really happy that I brought a few larger sheets with me. There were couples, small children and a breastfeeding mom! She said it would be the only way to keep him from bouncing about.

I already knew markers were "my medium" but I was still amazed at how easy it was.
Between "real" sessions we the artists were drawing one another. And lately I have been painting and drawing quite a lot of people, -  cafe sitters or people on the train, or standing in line at the post office, with or without details (sometimes you have to work fast and even then they go away faster). 

One of my friends, Michal, artist at work (drawing me while I draw her):

Yvonne Helmrich is a gifted friend who lives nearby and makes delightful paintings. At work too, here:

Another Yvonne, not much of a likeness, but a nice drawing:

Another artist friend, Sari Doveh. From photos, - a very different approach and to be honest I would really prefer to work from life. It gives you so much more information, such as color and character. Sari has a fascinating face and I made a few more drawings and paintings of her.

And then there's these guys, which I believe started it all.  I have worked over a month because it was from photos and not very good ones, and I know these people too well. ...
Oil 26x36 cm.

The Central Attraction

A man’s voice warning that doors are closing, a woman’s voice cheerfully singing next station names. Ladies and gentlemen we are being held because of. We are being held in New York City subway, but we are still very much in love.
I came to New York, after a long break, in 2006. I keep coming back and it's as if I never left. My first visit was for half a day when I was eight; my longest visit lasted a whole year. I have witnessed all seasons in the city (fall is my favorite, and then came Sandy). I have some friends. It's my home as much as I have any, because home is where the heart is. 

In the park I watch people under the sun rays running to and fro. I want to hold them firmly, tighten their legs to the ground but they fly away too fast, only stopping for a selfie. Any real lovers of the park here? Someone who just wants to linger, absorb it in slow motion? Not today: It’s sunny and warm and the bees have so little to do and so much time. Stop. Reverse that.

I should live here, I think. But I did live here. Why didn’t I stay? I do live here once a year for a month, sometimes more. The man I met today in the park said I looked like a local, like someone who goes there frequently and knows why. I know I belong. Places that you belong to are kind to you. But I believe this place is generous to everybody. It just opens up a bit more to those who wish to explore deeper.

It is a winter day of unbelievable 50 degrees F in January. Snow will come in due time, but not today.

The park in 2006 -- pencil, color pencil





And in 2014 - watercolor



2015 - a few marker drawings









And this is winter 2016/2017









Yes, I have been to more places (in my next blog entry, soon). And behold the people of New York beautiful and bizarre, scruffy and sexy,  found their way onto my paper. Get ready.

Backyard Garden

This painting done about two years ago made me think of water flooding the place, and then the desire arose in me to paint this image. Eventually I came up with only a hint of water - the painting below can be interpreted in many ways.

Wadi Siyah and the Khayat Orchard, at the foot of the Carmel, are some of my favorite spots in the city. Once a thriving beautiful  residence getaway for the wealthy Khayat family, it  passed hands until it became city property, but since then (the 70's) it has long been abandoned,  and the city does little to maintain this heritage site or make it accessible for the public (tax-paying, a-lot-of-tax paying public etc.).
The wadi or dry creek runs from the Carmeliya neighborhood on the Carmel range in Haifa, down to the cemetery. This drawing I made on a daytrip up the dry creek in summer. (In winter it can carry occasionally some actual rain water).

I made a few oil sketches there, but recently I take the markers or make a pen drawing.

After spending a few years painting and drawing in the Orchard, I started to see tigers in the deep shadow of shrubs and trees. The tigers are an ancient subject I dealt with some 5 years ago.

Some people live in the lower entrance to the wadi, across from the cemetery. There is a dispute going on with the municipality who wants them out. This is one of the houses, with a magnificent tree in front of it.

Some of the magic of the place is in its many staircases, leading from one level to another, sometimes made for leading the water down.