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May 16, 2008
The calming palette of Israel
Natty Saidi loves sharing her painting secrets with her students.
OLGA LIVSHIN
On the eve of Thursday, May 1, 2008, Diane Farris Gallery in Vancouver was awash with Hebrew. The ancient language of Jews flowed joyously between the walls of the modern gallery, at home among Einat (Natty) Saidi's paintings, with their native Israeli palettes of ochre, brown and umber. Even the cool Canadian spring outside seemed warmer next to the large canvases of juicy peaches and pearly grapes, reminiscent of the scorching heat of Israel.
Born in Israel, Saidi is the daughter of prominent Israeli sculptor and muralist Moshe Saidi. During her childhood, she lived in a farming kibbutz and didn't have any formal art education, but her exposure to her father's clay work and the family's prolonged trip to London, when she was seven, set deep roots inside her soul.
A timid child of a famous artist, Einat Saidi doubted her artistic inclinations, loath to trudge in her father's shadow. Nonetheless, in her last year of high school, she attended Avini Institute of Fine Arts in Tel Aviv – but she wasn't convinced art would become her life. During her service in the Israeli army, Saidi worked as a graphic artist, making training booklets and field maps, but she still wasn't sure what she wanted to be. After the army, the young woman returned to the kibbutz and worked in a day care, but her heart wasn't in it. She kept searching for a way to liberate her creative spirit.
In 1981, Saidi enrolled in the fine arts program at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. Finally, she had stepped on the bumpy path of a professional artist. Soon after finishing the program, she got married and moved to Vancouver, where she studied graphic arts and interior design at Langara College. "I never worked as an interior designer afterwards," she recalled. "What I learned at Langara was commercial art. To succeed in it, I would've had to go into computers, and I hated computers."
On the other hand, she loved sewing. As a mother of two young children, she needed to support herself financially and was unable to indulge in the uncertain life of a freelance painter. Instead, she found a more stable outlet for her bursting creativity – she opened a sewing company, a clothing line for children. And she changed her Hebrew name Einat to its anglicized version, Natty.
Saidi enjoyed designing children clothes, but alas, she was an artist, not a businesswoman. The production aspect of business bored her to tears. "I wanted to stay home and design full time," she explained. "Instead, I had to buy fabrics, hire seamstresses and arrange distribution." After five years, she dropped the business and became completely immersed in her paintings. In 1996, she had her first professional exhibition.
Saidi's current exhibition is called After Garzoni. She considers Giovanna Garzoni, a renowned Italian female painter of the 17th century, her inspiration. In her artistic statement, Saidi writes, "My work is influenced by ... Garzoni and the rich texture and earth-toned palette of her still lives. Painting common domestic scenes, rendered in warm Renaissance lighting, with vibrant tones illuminating the subject matter, I have attempted to create a sense of comfort and tranquillity. The beauty and sensuality of the naturally imperfect fruit and the modest vessels in which they are contained remind me of my grandmother's kitchen and the security I felt there. With these paintings, I have tried to evoke a feeling of familiarity and invite the viewer to escape into the past and celebrate the plentiful wealth of nature as I do when I paint."
Unlike her beloved Ganzoni, Saidi paints from photographs. "Every fruit I paint comes from someone's garden," she said. She likes her subjects alive, with branches and leaves attached, not sterilized as in a produce store. "Oil painting takes time," she said, smiling apologetically. "The fruits don't stay fresh for so long." That's why she takes photographs first.
According to the artist, still life talks to her, whispering quiet words of peace and serenity, and she projects her feelings into her art. "The world is moving too fast," she mused. "We're bombarded with technology, but my fruits are the gifts of gentle nature."
Saidi's paintings radiate with the painter's nostalgia for her childhood and her homeland. Each one reflects the colors of Israel – almond, copper and sepia – presenting the audience with an island of calm, an escape from the bustle of everyday life in the hectic 21st century.
Besides painting, the artist loves teaching. Almost every day, she has pupils coming to her studio, most of them females: young girls, teenagers, mature women and wise grandmothers. Obviously, the core of nurturing calmness in Saidi's pieces touches female hearts. "What art does to people is amazing," she said shyly. "It's a privilege to share the wonderful secrets of painting with my students, to see how happy they are when they paint, how eager they are to come back."
Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer.
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