Meidad Moshe Landoy

Meidad Moshe Landoy is a spiritual realist painter. With gentle brush strokes, Landoy threads reality in a multiplicity of color. Landoy inspects the view, whether pastorale, city landscapes or interiors; he even studied cultural institutions like the Israel Museum and created a series of paintings which observe the situation – the combination of modern spaces, classical art and the people occupying the space, and through the delicate balance of the three, create intricate compositions.

Landoy studied painting under Leonid Balaklav, the famous Jerusalem painter. There he learnt the precise techniques of realistic painting and the way Balaklav captures the light. In addition, Landoy develops his own unique techniques and experiments different mediums. Like that, for example, in many of his latest artworks he paints on Formica wood, which gets Landoy to re-think the painting process and create wonderful results in the material.

Landoy is a constant explorer, which looks outside the same way he looks inside.

Excerpt from the artist’s declaration:

“Painting interested me from the beginning of my journey in the world, even before I expressed myself with words, painting was a tool of self-expression for me.

Along the years I realized that I have a lot of emotion who I desire to voice, painting turned to a tool that allowed me to express strong feelings along-side moments of peace and tranquility. I have always remembered the feeling that I don’t have the possibility to paint like the painters of the past whose ability of expression and emotional depth I was very attracted to. After my service in the army, I’ve began to study painting professionally and there I felt the way in which I can find expression to my deepest emotions I experience in contemporary reality.

At the same time as my art studies, I was opened to new directions, I had a desire to connect and find strength and inner energy. Because of my religious background, I dealt a lot with questions concerning the preservation of my individuality vis-a-vis the religious institution. Later I understood how to connect my passion for art and my spiritual religious passion. The new connection to the religious world was not easy for me as a person who tries to walk without labels. It was difficult for me to reduce myself to the existing social framework. At the same time the intense passion for art and spirituality that I felt was strong and through it I found spiritual teachers who showed me the way in which I could shed the physical patterns. My spiritual world connected with my strong desire to paint, through art I express the energies and emotions I feel. My art practice allowed me to understand that the present, the moment itself is sacred, through which an inner and emotional experience can be expressed. I seek and find holiness in simple reality.

What interests me to do with the abilities and passion for painting is to express the emotional depth found in every simple moment and look for the holiness in it.

I paint with oils and use the material as a research process, what defines my way is the experience and self-study that comes from the desire to control the material. All this so that the material will help me express my most authentic feelings. Oil paint is an open and flexible material and as such allows me the freedom to create. “