While I didn’t atone as thoroughly as my mother would have liked this weekend, I did manage to scarf down enough whitefish, lox and chicken liver salad to make today’s rising difficult. I think overeating on holidays may call for its own kind of atonement. In any case, I thought I would take this opportunity to show some Kobi Israel landscape work, which is painterly and often involves fog.

I’ve known Mr. Israel primarily for his more Intimate work, so these are nice change of pace. Have a look.

from Promised Lands, Cannan

“Born into a traditional Sephardic Jewish family I was given a biblical name – Yakov Israel, both the names of Jacob, one of the biblical patriarchs.
As a child growing up in Israel, bible lessons took a major part of my primary school studies. The heroic stories captured my imagination and seemed like powerful fairy-tales. I remember daydreaming of the ancient Israelites escaping Egypt and wandering the desert for forty years in search Canaan, God’s Promised Land.

When I reached the volcanic terrain the biblical tales re-emerged.”

from Promised Lands, Cannan

from Promised Lands, Cannan

from, America

“17 years after I first landed at JFK airport to visit my family, who had immigrated to the US, I am standing in midtown east Manhattan watching the sunrise over Brooklyn and Queens. They all followed the American Dream in search of a better life, lived in Brooklyn, their new ‘Promised Land’, and worked in a locksmith shop in Queens.”

from, America

from, America

from, (Obscure) Landscapes

from, (Obscure) Landscapes

from, (Obscure) Landscapes

from, (Obscure) Landscapes

Lovely.