ORLY SHALEM

ORLY SHALEM

I was born in Jerusalem, Israel in 1966. I am married and have two daughters. I live and work in the community settlement, Nili, in Israel.
I am an artist and a painter. I graduated with honors from the Hadassah College in the field of graphic design, and successfully completed my studies as an art instructor at Beit Berl College.
I paint abstract style, mostly with acrylic paints on large canvas, using a variety of tools and techniques (brushes, spatula, rollers, hands, engravings and dripping).
My paintings are rich in color and movement, sometimes turbulent and expressionistic, other times serene and lyrical, like life itself. Painting, for me, is an existential need to express myself and my feelings. My painting starts from a free and unknown beginning, saturated with emotion that floats within me and soars through color, texture, stain and line until it “settles” into a painting that “fits” well on the canvas and feels total and complete.
I choose acrylic paints or oil pastels because they react well to the frenzied instincts that take hold of me during my creations, drying them quickly, allowing me to continue the process spontaneously and continuously without having to pause and wait for them to dry.

My inspirational sources are sights that I have seen, landscapes engraved in my consciousness, music in all its diversity, my emotional world and small moments of grace and sentiments.
When my paintings are viewed, I feel that a quiet and authentic dialogue is taking place between the audience and me. This dialogue exists without words, in a language of color, stain, texture, movement, rhythm and composition, including all the sentiments that passed from me to the canvas and onward to its audience. All this interaction takes place within a private language – a language of art.

 

Website: http://www.orlyshalem.com/
email: orly1.shalem@gmail.com