This painting, titled “First Day of School,” is the work of a contemporary Israeli artist named Boaz Noy, who lives and works in Haifa. I had been introduced to Noy’s work in an oil-painting class that focused on his compositions’ use of color to indicate atmosphere, emotions, weather and mood. Curiously, I found nothing particularly Jewish about his paintings, except that they reflect Israeli locations. So, on a whim, I inquired in an email whether [...]

This month’s Oculus feature, titled “Windows From the Pandemic,” is an 18” x 18” collage, created with acrylics, oil sticks and markers on canvas by Judith K. Weiner, a founding member of the shul’s Judaism and Art group. “I recently came across a quote from Miles David which, for me, defines the artistic process,” the artist told The  Shofar. “Davis wrote, ‘Don’t play what’s there. Play what’s not there.’ In this piece, what’s not there [...]

      This month’s Oculus column features a painting by Judith Kaufman Weiner, a founding   member of the shul’s Judaism and the Arts group. The work, titled “Pandemic Windows,” opens multiple windows into private worlds explored from the vantage point of the pandemic.        Each window functions within a defined framework to identify a separate search, exploration and ultimate discovery. The artist asks, “Is this life imitating art, or art imitating life?” “Pandemic Windows,” a 36” [...]

This month’s Oculus column features an oil on Arches paper (22x25) done some years ago by Saul Rosenstreich, after a work by Daniel Bennett Schwartz (1929-2020), a prolific New York illustrator. Copying masterworks long has been used to teach painting skills, Saul explained, feeling that this piece — a compelling mix of representation and abstraction, featuring a lone Everyman negotiating the edge of a precipice, his arms outstretched to aid his balance, his feet in [...]