About the Paintings

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I paint contemporary landscapes. At times, they seem to have a symbolic meaning where one can identify a tree, a segment of architecture or a rock. Other times they appear only as a collection of brush strokes, lines and colors assembled into a shape of a landscape.

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Most of my works has a dreamy feeling to it. Sometimes it will be floating or flying sense of experience, and sometimes more mysterious and dark. The images are a fusion between the landscapes I walk through while being awake and also while dreaming. I paint only from memory or imagination, without planning. Therefore, the outcome is not predictable and relying on mistakes and spontaneous actions along the way.

 

The theme is the environment. But instead of showing reality I use fragments from it and arrange them in a new order to pin point the chaos and lack of logic in human surroundings. For example, when I look at natural area it is always full of objects such as wires, tubes, garbage, and many unidentified things. These elements fill up my painting's view. By doing so I make a comment about landscape paintings, which tend to be very kitschy when they try to portray a perfect environment. And of course, about the mix between culture and nature, and how humans set foot all around the earth while destroying natural habitats.

 

I do not show figures such as men or animals in my works, because I want the viewers to feel as if they are the only subjects within the painted environment.

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I use varied materials such as oil, ink, acrylic and gouache, on large to miniature formats. This variety of working methods allows me to stay fresh and open for new means of expressions. Most of my works are very colorful. It is because color is a major motivation for me. 

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Rotem Manor

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October 2016, Jaffa

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