Image of the Week: Mount of Olives Cemetery
© D. Yael Bernhard
Mount of Olives Cemetery is the image for March in The Jewish Eye 5781/ 2021 Calendar of Art. As with many of my landscapes, this painting shows a distant view through a close-up frame. The crumbling aperture in this stone wall dates back to ancient times – as far as three thousand years – while the tombs in the distance are relatively new. We look from the past into the future.
The Mount of Olives Cemetery is so thick with graves, many are laid on top of each other. Tombs upon tombs blanket the broad slope, like a crazy staccato 3D quilt that tumbles down toward the Old City of Jerusalem. City and cemetery glint in the bright light, as if winking at each other across the valley. The Middle Eastern sun is relentless, as is the vast sense of time that is palpable here. Walking among these stones, I felt very small – like a tiny pebble tossed on a grave to remember the long and patient dead.
I could not possibly sketch this place on site. Relying on memory and a mediocre photo, I zoomed in and cropped the field of vision tightly around my subject. The stones close at hand went through an "erosion" process whereby I painted the underlying colors, then partly erased them with neutralizing colors on top. In other words, I deliberately ruined, or undid, part of what I painted.
This undoing technique, in which part of a painting is sacrificed, is extremely useful. It can make a surface such as stone or clay look naturally aged or weathered. It can simplify a subject, or render an effect more subtle. Undoing also involves surrendering my ego's agenda, as sometimes the painting demands that I blot out something I like. It's not easy to toss out a cherished invention. One time I painted the most exquisite bird up in a tree, only to realize it didn't belong in the painting at all. I had no choice but to blot it out with foliage. It's hard to obey this sort of commandment, but if I let my preferences dominate the purpose of the painting, inevitably it fails.
Besides, the bird alighted in another painting, where it found a better home. No image need ever be final.
I never tire of the contrast between near and far, warm and cool, coarse and fine. Contrasting scales are especially satisfying, as large and small seem to vibrate against each other. The enlarged textures in the foreground affect the cool, densely-chiseled shapes that march toward the horizon.
All over Israel, ancient and modern talk to each other in a language that is music to my eyes. Through these polarities of form, I tried to convey a sense of place and capture a moment in time. My goal was to not only preserve the scene, but to create a meeting of old and new.
A moment in time passes quickly, but an image lives into the future.
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The original oil painting of Mount of Olives Cemetery is for sale. Please inquire if you would like more information.
A good week to all!
D Yael Bernhard