I am a painter. I work in series of paintings and usually small intimate formats ranging from 21x29 cm to 1.5 meters.
I rely mostly on observation and use of my own photographs for my work. I never use a base sketch. Over the last decade I have been exploring watercolor techniques. I neutralize the subject from its original surrounding and address color, light, shadow and the placement of the subject in the rectangular or square space. I build a simple composition, without a narrative. The 'religious' practice of daily painting is the way I focus my gaze and intent. My work is realistic, loose painting influenced by Eastern Philosophies of thought and practice as well as Western classical techniques and contemporary painting. I concentrating on the senses, while borrowing terms from psychoanalytical theories. I collect, photograph and then paints leaves, branches, fruit, bowls, cups, plates and the landscapes around me. The kitchen, its contents and dishes are metaphors for the body. It is a space containing potential for passion, change and inner-outer movement. My work moves in cycles from painting close objects from observation, to painting more expressively using photographs to depict scenes with a sense of perspective and depth. I try to create an element of seduction in my work and play with terms of 'beauty'. My paintings capture light and shadows, beauty and anxiety entrenched in the essence of the world around me. I use the act of painting as a means to survive the tensions of our times; political, ecological and personal. This desperate act poses to emphasize life while camouflaging the underlying, ever threatening fear of loss and death. |
Photograph: Oren Barkan
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