Painterly Approach
Israeli artist depicts life with family, and in the performing
arts, through watercolors.
SUZANNE CHESSLER
Special to the Jewish News
ir
oram Gal likes to tell color-
ful stories.
The Israeli writes them
into plays and films, and he paints
them on paper.
Gal soon will be visiting Michigan
to show and sell stories expressed
through watercolor projects corn-
pleted over the past four months. He
will take many to the Art & Apples
Festival planned Sept. 10-12 in
Rochester. He will bring others to a
private sale scheduled Sept. 19 in a
Huntington Woods home and a sec-
ond public show and sale mounted
Sept. 20 at Esther's Judaica and Gift
World in West Bloomfield.
The paintings depicting scenes
from his personal life and theater
projects will be joined with another
"Old City Port"• Gal's Landscapes are popular
Gal group. There will be landscapes
with buyers.
typical of popular places in Israel.
"People often laugh when they see
the scenes because there are reminders of all kinds of scenes from life," says Gal, 52,
represented locally by Beverly Kent Goldenberg of Huntington Woods. "Visitors
love to look at the big scenes, but they mostly buy the landscapes for their homes."
The Six Gals is an example of a personal scene, and features Gal, his wife and
young son sharing a meal with the artist's sister and two young nephews. The boys
are sitting at a small table next to the adults' table in the artist's home, and the three
adults are leaning toward the youngsters in a mixture of comedy and drama.
Jacob° presents a very intense
scene from a Gal play set in a ficti-
tious Italian town and represents the
artist's more grotesque works. The
painter-playwright, in this rendering
among 17 planned to give the direc-
tor a concrete sense of his ideas,
shows a terrorist holding a police
officer's mother at knifepoint while
an opposing terrorist holds his
adversary's girlfriend at knifepoint.
"I do very large paintings so I
have to work on my knees with sup-
plies on the floor," Gal explains.
"This prevents the paint from drip-
ping. I find I just take a brush and
some watercolors and go wherever I
want. I feel like a racing driver who's
so used to his car that he just gets in
and takes off."
Gal started painting when he was
12 and worked with watercolors
because they provided the simplest
"The Six Gals" A family scene.
medium for him to handle. He
found a teacher he greatly admired
and painted all through his army
service and years as a theater student. He decided to major in theater because he
thought painting studies would detract from the fun he had instinctively with the
medium.
After graduating from Tel Aviv University, Gal found work as an actor and began
writing. As his career grew, he was cast in the United States and England while earn-
ing most of his money by operating a touring children's theater in Israel.
'As I would play a role on stage, I would paint 40 or 80 paintings accompanying
the process of the work on the character," explains Gal, who brought his artistry to
New Venture
Linda Ross, formerly of Royal Oak's Sybaris Gallery,
again brings contemporary exhibits to local art scene.
SUZANNE CHESSLER
Special to the Jewish News
L
“Jacobo" scene: The painter uses his art to enhance the understanding of characters
and sets.
inda. Ross and Arlene Selik closed their Sybaris Gallery in Royal Oak
about a year ago, but the work they started in 1989 is being revitalized
with the launching of Ross' new business venture offering periodic
exhibitions at various galleries in and around the Motor City.
Linda Ross Contemporary/Art + Projects begins her exhibit initiatives with
"Black & White" and "Tea Time," two group shows running Sept. 11-Oct. 9
at the Next Step Studio in Ferndale.
While "Black & White" features sculpture, painting, photography, drawings
and ceramics in the contrasting tones, "Tea Time" introduces nonfunctional
teapot forms from Germany. Adding more subject matter will be a hybrid
spoon series by Haley Bates and related new works by metalsmith June
Schwarcz.
"I started with artwork in black and white because I was seeing a lot in these
colors and thought that the pieces were quite powerful," explains Ross, who
knew she would continue working in the art field at the time Sybaris shut its
doors. "The theme allowed me to include a number of artists, new and old. I
also wanted to show teapots because we did well with them at our gallery."
Diane Simpson, a Jewish sculptor based in Chicago, will be represented by
two black and white works related to domestic aprons and other protective
coverings, using her pieces as ways to reveal sociological roles. The white and