Big Brush

Roni Taharlev "Self Portrait with Big Brush"  2011

Roni Taharlev (b. 1964) is an Israeli painter who paints mostly figurative and portrait pieces. She studied at the Jerusalem Studio School  and has been highly influenced by that institution's founder and artistic director, painter Israel Hershberg. Many artists of the past are important to her as well and Taharlev says, "...of course I have all my dead friends: Rembrandt, Cranach, Francesco di Giorgio Martini, Lorenzetti, and many roman artists..." In fact this particular self-portrait exudes a distinct likeness to Fayum (greco-roman-egyptian) portraiture, both thrillingly alive and (faintly, disconcertingly) funerary.

Taharlev has won numerous prizes and awards. Most recently, in 2012,  another of her self-portraits was selected for the BP Portrait Award- a group exhibition held annually at the National Portrait Gallery in London. The artist divides her time between her house in a small village up in the Gallillee mountains and her studio in Jaffa. Her website can be seen here.