Land of Painting
Between Body and Landscape
This developing series connects body and landscape in different ways. These are not generic bodies and landscapes, but rather the body of the painter and the landscape viewed from her studio. Years of working on the landscape (here and here, for example) form the foundation for this series, which brings the artist and the viewer into the composition.
Land of Painting, 2019, oil on canvas, 105 X 170 cm/41″ X 67″
In the work Land of Painting (which shares the series’ title) a figure walks on a slackline over the Lower Galilee landscape, keeping balance with a paintbrush in hand. The landscape viewed is perplexing: it combines direct observation with aerial views, while juxtaposing near and far, with a close-up of the soil as well as a view of the entire land of Israel. The imagery suggests that the act of painting itself, as well as life in this place, are like walking a tightrope – suffused with both love and trepidation.
Land of Painting, details
In contrast with a traditional self-portrait in which the artist portrays her image apart from herself – her mirrored reflection – in most of the paintings in the series she is present inside her body and inside the painting; yet her image is incomplete, missing the face. Instead, attention is drawn to the feet. In Walking: Earth, Flesh, Paint, five images form a progression in movement and texture, ending (or beginning) with empty footprints in the soil.
Walking: earth, flesh, paint, 2018, oil on canvas, 5 parts, each part 45 X 40 cm/18″ X 16″
Two Swing paintings show the landscape from the viewpoint of a figure swinging.
Swing 1, 2019, oil on canvas, 2 parts, 140 X 60 cm/55″ X 23.6″ (total)
Swing 2, 2019, oil on canvas, 140 X 60 cm/55″ X 23.6″
In Swing 1 sky and earth appear separately in two canvases showing the extremes of the swing’s motion, while Swing 2 presents a single, more holistic image of the world viewed from the swing. If the works viewed until now suggested an analogy between the act of painting (embodied by the reappearing paint-stained work clothes) and walking – on the ground or on a tightrope – or to swinging, Shomer Yisrael seems to liken painting to praying.
Shomer Yisrael, 2020, oil on canvas, 120 X 100 cm/47″ X 39″
A pair of works entitled Painting Landscape refer directly to the action of the hand while painting, just a moment before the first mark is made, in daylight and at dusk.
Painting Landscape (Day), 2020, oil on canvas, 140 X 70 cm/ 55″ X 27.5″
Painting Landscape (Dusk), 2020, oil on canvas, 140 X 70 cm/ 55″ X 27.5″
Unlike the other works in the series, in the next two paintings the head of the painter appears, with her viewpoint within the composition. Yet the shadow on her back (and the hand on her shoulder) represent an awareness of a viewer who is obstinately present throughout the creative process. This viewer, critical or encouraging, is a seemingly external figure, but perhaps is no other than the painter herself, the fruit of her consciousness, and its shadow is in her image or that of her parents, looking on.
The Blessing (and Curse) of Consciousness, 2020, oil on canvas, 110 X140 cm/44″ X 55″
Shadows of Parents and Mountains, 2020, 70 X 70 cm/27.5″ X 27.5″
Tightrope returns to the image of the painter walking on a rope above the landscape, and intensifies the meeting of close-up and faraway views. Yet who is approaching her from the other end of the rope?
Strip of Land, 2020, oil on canvas, 120 X 100 cm/47″ X 39″
Hashkiveinu (Lay us down in peace) and Modim (We give thanks) bring us back to prayer, and to the connection – almost an embrace – between body, text and landscape, with nighttime and daytime views.
Hashkiveinu (Lay us down in peace), 2021, oil on canvas, 140 X 70 cm/55″ X 27.5″
Modim, 2021, oil on canvas, 33 X 71 cm/13″ X 28″
The next pair of paintings may form the start of a new series, or a series within a series, in which landscapes created at different sites form mutual views of one another. Here the sites are the rooftops of homes of two families, one in Eshchar and one in Sachnin.
Rooftop Paintings: Eshchar-Sachnin (morning); Sachnin-Eshchar (afternoon), 2021, oil on canvas, 73 X 95 cm each/28.5″ X 37.5″
And each one separately:
Eshchar-Sachnin (morning), 2021, oil on canvas, 73 X 95 cm/28.5″ X 37.5″
Sachnin-Eshchar (afternoon), 2021, oil on canvas, 73 X 95 cm/28.5″ X 37.5″
Photography: Maya Lifshitz, Dror Miler and Alon Levite
A selection from the series was exhibited in the solo show The Acrobat, in Tel Aviv in 2022, in the group show Derech Eretz in Yavne and Hoshaya in 2023, and in the group show “Field of Vision” at Kupferman House, Kibbutz Lohamei Hagetaot, in 2020.