Natan Elkanovich – My Story

I was born in Moldova in 1966, under the communist regime of the former USSR.

Since 1976 I live and create in Israel.

I do not remember much of my early childhood. I do remember that I didn't like living under the rigid communist regime.

As a kid, I was introvert and didn't have many friends.

Most of my time was spent at home, especially with my Mom in our kitchen.

She was an excellent cook and from a young age I used to help her with all sorts of kitchen chores.

The kitchen became the place where I most enjoyed spending my time at.

In addition to helping Mom with her cooking, I used to arrange and decorate the food before serving, using all kinds of kitchenware and foods that my Mom cut for me, and with that I did all sorts of little art creations on the plates to be served.

As a child of free artistic spirit, it was not easy for me to freely express myself and I had to be careful not to say certain things that could be considered subversive, certainly not out loud, for fear of the authorities or whistleblowing neighbors, so the solution was to decorate my ideas with food on the dishes.

Whatever I drew, no matter how bold the statement, would disappear within minutes and be eaten with great appetite by the family members, without leaving a trace..

Later on, in Israel, I`ve attended Shenkar, College of Engineering and Design, Tel Aviv, and got my Bachelor of Design Degree in Fashion Design

Since 1995, in parallel to my painting career, I`ve worked as a senior costume designer in the Israeli cinema and television industry.

To date, I`ve been awarded four Israeli Academy Awards for best costume design.

One of the highlights of my career was to design the costumes for internationally acclaimed actress Gal Gadot for her last Israeli movie prior to being selected to play the role of Wonder Woman. When our work together was done, I`ve presented Gal with her portrait.

Natan Elkanovich – About my Unique Technique

Ever since painting became an integral part of my life, I`ve worked to develop my unique painting technique. I mix all kinds of plastic materials in different quantities, which include amongst other things silicon and acrylics, and apply them using kitchenware on canvas or aluminum. This medium creates a rigid 3D texture on the surface.

Sometimes I add Swarovski elements, diamond dust or kinds of glitter to

the end result. The materials are painstakingly and entirely mixed by me and applied on the surface manually by me and there is no machinery involved in the process.

I work with the best paint manufacturers and artistic materials suppliers in the world, which ensures that the result will be maintained as is for decades.

Using kitchenware as my painting tools stems from my deep-seated roots in the

kitchen, embedded in me from early childhood.

While painting, I repeat, with a lot of patience, same movements over and over again

These movements, which have been so ingrained in me since childhood, create a meditative and repetitive movement that connects me, while I draw, to the energy of light and serenity, like Nirvana.

I believe that the rigid and rigorous Soviet education I received contributed a lot to this.

Natan Elkanovich – Artistic Philosophy

My motto in life is love, appreciation, respect and gratitude for people and the environment in which I live. I try to illustrate this in my art.

I was always entranced by people and I consider myself a

humanist. What interests me in particular is the positive side of human beings.

I’m not interested in dealing with hate, envy, anger, war and other negative

aspects of humanity.

I was always driven by love: the love to my family, friends, to nature and its

surroundings and the love of creating. Perhaps because of this, when I paint,

I choose to emphasize those positive aspects of humanity, together with love,

yearning, nostalgia, longing, appreciation, honor and gratitude.

Among other, I paint portraits of famous people and also homages of famous

works-of-art which have influenced and impacted my life deeply both through

philosophy and Pop Culture.

These people were my ‘babysitters’ and by painting them now, I express, without the slightest hint of cynicism, my great appreciation and endless thanks to them for their contribution to me.

My paintings come from my great appreciation and personal gratitude to the painted figure and not out of a desire to educate or preach any message other than love and gratitude.

My paintings are exhibited and sold at prime galleries all over the world, and are included in numerous private art collections.