Smadar Katz
Smadar started her professional career as a graphic designer and book illustrator. She has been painting for over 30 years, utilizing a large variety of techniques including oil, watercolor, pastel and drawing.
Her favorite subjects are portraits, male and female, as well as countryside landscapes. She enjoys painting live models and painting en plain air.
Smadar has been giving numerous demonstrations of Alla Prima model painting, an expertise of hers, to artists and students. She also specializes in commissioned traditional portraits.
Born and raised in the village of Nahalal in Northern Israel, Smadar is third generation to a family of farmers. She is married and has three grownup children.
A leader amongst the professional figurative painters in Israel, Smadar is highly proactive in promoting the improvement of professional painting quality in Israel. She lectures regularly on creativity and art, and the way creativity affects everyday life.
Smadar published several essays on figurative versus conceptual art. As of 2007 Smadar has been leading an online forum – The Painters’ Forum – in which she advises painters on painting techniques and answers art ethics questions.
Education
- Graphic Arts and Illustration, Technion Institute of Technology, Haifa.
- History of Art, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
- Painting, School of Visual Arts, New York (among others, under Mr. Irwin Greenberg).
- Painting, University of Wales (under Mr. M. Griffith).