Late for Shul: A light-hearted painting of Shabbat in Raanana

Jewish humorous art, Late for Shul,, Jewish men running, painting in progress,

“Late for Shul,” is the first painting in a new series of Jewish humorous art. With these paintings, I’ll be reflecting a wide range of Jewish life by painting people, places and situations which will be familiar to many in Israel and elsewhere. Working in a simple and colourful style, I want to convey a joy in life, in community and in the world as I see it. I hope that you will recognize the scenes, and feel that they are a part of your world too. The people shall mostly be fictional, although sometimes I’ll put in people I remember from my childhood or other periods in my life. They could also be people I know today. The location of this first one is a bit generic, although in my mind it’s roughly in the area of Akiva St in Raanana, but I’d like to base the next ones on exact locations. I’m thinking about focusing on Raanana, where I Iive now, and Edgware (just North of London), where I grew up. You can read a bit about my background on my “about” page, and you can buy a print of this painting here .

pencil sketch for painting, showing a man going to shul in a desert setting
Initial pencil-sketch, which I called “Going to Shul “(Negev desert)

 

Jewish humorous art, late for shul, painting in progress
As in the sketch version, this shul-goer was running surrealistically through a desert landcape……

 

“Late for Shul” started as a painting of Ernest Hemingway’s “Old Man and the Sea.” That painting didn’t turn out well, and I overpainted it in white gesso. Then, on this canvas, I started a desert landscape (above). This picture waited for months to be populated, and stood, devoid of people, barren and lonely, in a corner of my studio. Eventually, after an idea which I quickly sketched out, a man appeared, hurrying through the desert to shul (synagogue), his tallit (prayer shawl) flowing out behind him.

 

Jewish humorous art, late for shul, painting in progress
With just the one man, the canvas still looked empty. He obviously needed some mates. (The tallit, however, felt wrong for the composition).
Jewish humorous art, late for shul, painting in progress
Adding colour begins to add life to the picture. First I filled in the figures with white gesso, giving a solid base for the colour and making them stand out against the ochre background. The skin tone would not work well if painted straight onto the ochre.
With their eyes still blank, this should probably be called “Return of the Zombie Shul-Goers….”
Jewish humorous art, late for shul, painting in progress
Here I’ve started to add the street background. I liked the surreality of them running in the desert, but my vision for this as a series is for more day-to-day scenarios…..The two guys in front also lost their hats, which are more Edgwarish than Raananish really…..

 

Jewish humorous art, men running to shul in Raanana
A quick view of the finished picture on the easel, complete with almond tree, cypress tree, and every paving block in Akiva Street in Raanana! (Not the best photograph – my apologies)

 

Naive art, a cat, darius-art.com, all rights reserved
A cat (close-up of the painting)
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