Cypress Trees - Acrylic on Canvas, by Jerusalem artist Chanan Mazal.

ברושים בשדות - ציור אקרילי של האומן הירושלמי חנן מזל

My first larger painting of Cypress trees on canvas. Based on my first gouache painting of this series, it was created in calmness. The trees and fields have inverted color perspectives. The trees are lighter, warmer and purer in the foreground, the fields are the opposite. This confuses our perception of depth, flattening the image. Distance is restored by both the decrease in size of the far trees and their placement on the top of the canvas.

My subsequent paintings in this series became more expressive, freely painted and layered. Even wild.

Old Farmer with his Date Palms

A return to my doodling days. Pencil. I drew this 5 years ago.

דאס קליינער איז מיד

Still Live in Browns - Gouache painting by Chanan Mazal, Jerusalem

Ah! The richness of mud pies! The "ugliest" of colors lead to the loveliest of color discoveries.
ציור גואש של חנן מזל
46 x 61 cm (18" x 24") on 100% cotton Arches paper

 

Unmatched Chairs - Gouach painting by Chanan Mazal

כסאות לא תואמים - ציור גואש של חנן מזל

46 x 61 cm (18" x 24") on 100% cotton Arches paper 

Yellow Table - Gouache Painting by Chanan Mazal

I am constantly fascinated by flattening perspective via color and pattern, and breaking the hierarchy of objects and background, even in such clearly defined objects such as here.
ציור גואש של האומן הירושלמי חנן מזל
46 x 61 cm (18" x 24") on 100% cotton Arches paper 

Bronx Crossing - Original gouache painting by Jerusalem Artist Chanan Mazal.

An emigrant's childhood memory of going to visit his Grandmas in the Old Neighborhood: Carsick in the back seat of the 1956 Oldsmobile; admiring the George Washington Bridge; Mickey Mouse' water tower, and loosing my hearing, while bumping over the cobblestones under the screeching Jerome Ave El train.

ציור גואש מקורי של חנן מזל, ירושליםזכרון ילדות
46 x 61 cm (18" x 24") on 100% cotton Arches paper 

Farewell to the Old Country - by Chanan Mazal

זיי געזונט, דער אלטער היים
George Washington Bridge, with the world's largest US flag on the New Jersey tower, and the Little Red Lighthouse (ah, memories of kindergarten) surviving under the NY tower.

Original gouache painting by Jerusalem Artist Chanan Mazal. 46 x 61 cm (18" x 24")
ציור גואש מקורי של חנן מזל, ירושלים. זכרון ילדות

One weeks work - original gouache paintings by Chanan Mazal, Jerusalem
46 x 61 cm (18" x 24") on 100% cotton Arches paper

 Original gouache paintings by Chanan Mazal, Jerusalem.
ציורי גואש של חנן מזל, ירושלים

Cypress Trees by Chanan Mazal

Original gouache paintings by Chanan Mazal, Jerusalem 31 x 41 cm (12"x 16") on 100%cotton Arches paper
ציור גואש מקורי של חנן מזל, ירושלים

Gouache 26 x 36 cm, by Chanan Mazal
Once again, I used my recurring symbols of olive trees, the round, teraced Judean Hills, the walls of Old Jerusalem and a flat yellow-orange sky, to experiment with patterns rhythms and enlivening musty colors. Alas, even after photoshopping, the colors are off.)
ציור גואש מקורי של חנן מזל, ירושלים

Ink Drawings
25 years ago, I knew that that india ink was my medium, but never devoted myself to it. I find the expressiveness of the flexible quill, and the warm black washes, to be close to my soul. And it is much less expensive than psychotherapy.
Back then, in my foolish youth, I used rapidographs - fixed thickness technical pens, for drawing. How awfull!

The model was set up by others in my drawing class and had a lot of drama: A somewhat androgynous wooden doll ( I made it more girlish) an rather overly macho plaster cast, and an umbrella handle.


My first ever drawing using white ink. Next time I will dilute the ink more. I wanted to redarken sections with black ink - but ran out of time.

New Giclee Prints by Chanan Mazal!
23 x 30 cm. Signed and numbered, edition of 200
Please contact me for purchasing. Available framed as well.
הדפסים חדשים של חנן מזל

Pomegranates, Oranges and Figs
Acrylic on canvas. Sold
More of the fruit series - two with an ancient association with the Promised Land, and one modern. (Actually they are native to India, and not to Florida and Sicily.)
Each fruit was painted over a ground of it's complementary color. The figs were a greater color challenge, as they ripen from green to purple.

Love Thy Neighbor

My new series of small giclee prints will be published this week. Most of my recent work has been on paper, and I completed many that I was happy with. Choosing which to print was hard. In the end, I chose mostly painting that I did several months ago.
The newer paintings, like this one incorporate lettering and very thick textured layers of gouache.

אלטע היים
"המולדת הישנה" ציור שמן של חנן מזל
The Old Country
Oil on canvas by Chanan Mazal
71 x 111 cm, 28" x 44"
George Washington Bridge, NY-NJ.
My signature circa 1961, is copied from the inner cover of "The Man Who Didn't Was His Dishes", by Phyllis Krasilovsky

Greeting Card Designs











My greeting cards are now distributed by Palphot Ltd. Last week, I completed a collection of 20 new cards, which will be printed within the next few days. I added this preview of a few styles. (Sorry, the blog program wouldn't let me add more to this post.)

I have been experimenting in abstraction, monochromatic palettes, large areas of color, and in general, breaking old painting habits. Alas, these canvases are hard to photograph in a way that looks half decent on a computer screen. Even when seen "live", subtle changes in lighting, can tun them dynamic, deep, flat, or just into a mass of shiny reflection. Sorry for not posting them, until I figure out what to do with the photography.

Yet, this work in oil paints has had a wonderful influence on my gouache illustration work:

Unlike aquarelle, gouache can be used in layers, taking advantage of the thick textured brush strokes and papers. When working with little water, the brush bristles only catch on the bumps and ridges, leaving the undercolor revealed in the little "valleys", as may be seen in the Bar and Bat Mitzva cards.

My use color had progressed as well. After a hiatus of several years, I had rediscovered the sophisiticated and quite beauty of muddy colors. When placed next to a bit of purer shades, they never cease to complement each other. And these neutrals are tricky chameleons: The same batch of color can look green when painted next to gray violet, an then rich purple when painted by lime green. We may not notice it happening, but the visual cortex in our brains tries to make sense out of it all. Quite engaging!

I have painted many canvases, and designed dozens of greeting cards recently. But I have also been delinquent about posting any images here. I beg your pardons.
The intensive card work in gouache has given me opportunities to experiment with less conventional color palettes.

Mud colored gouache, 15.5 x 23 cm

Archeology of My Current Painting:

Undercoat - all complementary colors. I was happy with my choices.

Strong! Good depth and vibrancy. The "empty area" in the center works well.
I like the open contours of areas of color

Too busy! The universal use of dabbled paint and pattern flattened the painting.

Looking for contrast between "noisy" and quite areas.

Present coat of paint.

I'm not sure if it is done yet. I liked the freshness and excitement of it's second coat of paint, and the quite sophisticated colors of the present coat. Sometimes I wish that I could go back and make a clone of the painting as it was, so I could have both!
חג שמח

Layer 100
It's almost done. I guess. Please compare to earlier stages of this painting in earlier posts, Layers 4 and 8.