Dr. David Bar On • Meet the man behind the beloved paintings

(haipo) - Dr. architect David Bar On from Haifa, returned to his great love - painting, in a unique and inspiring way. You get to see his illustrations every week here, in Hai Pa, today you will get to know a little about the fascinating man who stands behind them.

Hello dears, this is my grandmother and we continue to meet and get to know mature people, grandparents who do and initiate wonderful and inspiring things.

I would like to thank those who commented on the article about Yitzhak Madan last week (it's true, as many of you wrote, Yitzhak is a man of the beautiful land of Israel...), for those who haven't read yet - highly recommended!

This time I am happy to introduce you to a man whose wonderful works you already know, he is my colleague here, on the live site here, and he is the person behind the beautiful paintings you see here every week, on Fridays - Meet the architect Dr. David Bar On.

Dr. David Bar On is a Haifa architect who, in parallel with his design work, also taught at the Technion in the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, is married, father of children and grandfather of grandchildren.

I met David at the "Stella Maris" cafe (which he likes very much). What, Romney likes sustainable foods? It turns out that it is! The truth is that it's hard not to like their Apfelstrudel (apple strudel, for those less knowledgeable).

In my conversation with David, his love for the city of Haifa, and especially for its old buildings, which are loaded with fascinating stories, was very evident.

Although I am a returning resident of Haifa, I did not know many of the stories I heard from David's mouth, so that I found myself sitting in front of him with my mouth open many times during the meeting. He revealed some of the stories to you here in his regular section in Hai Pa, such as the amazing fact that the "Imahot" maternity home in Haifa, among others, gave birth to babies from the Jordanian royal family!

"Later, between Dr. Finya Rotenberg and the King of Jordan, Abdullah, a special relationship of friendship and appreciation was forged, until the wives of the King, led by the Queen of Jordan, Zein al-Sharif, came to give birth at the "Motherhood" maternity hospital. We do not know today which of the princes of the Hashemite House They were born on Carmel, who knows, maybe even the future King Hussein was born here," says David.

David is a man of the house who makes his home, until Corona David was mainly involved in planning and teaching at the Technion, and when the Corona forced everyone to stay at home, it of course did not spare the Bar On family either. David's doctor wife continued to treat the victims over the phone. In the meantime, an architectural project that David was told to carry out was canceled. Luckily for him, the Technion studies moved to Zoom, and he quickly adapted to the new situation, thanks to his many years of familiarity with computers. As he says with a smile: "I've been married to my wife since 72 and computers (Apple, but what?) since 86...".

David's first love was painting, from his early youth he enjoyed drawing. In 2011, the first change in his life took place, when he switched from traditional painting to digital painting.

With the Corona closures, a friend who knew his works and the Hai Pe website and the people behind it, uploaded it almost two years ago, with his paintings and writing receiving enthusiastic responses from readers who do not spare themselves from expressing their love for his section and his special works.

Painter in the soul

But without a doubt, the most significant change in Bar On's life is the transition from architecture to painting that took place when he retired in 2021, which actually returned him to his first love, which he learned and paid off in his youth and in fact, as he reveals to me in our conversation, it has always been his dream - to engage in painting David defines himself: "An architect by profession and a painter in his soul...".

Until he retired, he devoted but little of his time to painting, "You know, my friend, the livelihood..." he says. Fortunately and happily, he used to accompany his wife on her many trips to medical conferences abroad, and thus he had the opportunity to break away from work from time to time and paint from morning to... dinners The festivities that were part of the conferences. "From my travels with my wife I could hold several exhibitions..." he says with a smile.

And we will return to Bar On's digital transformation in 2011: When the whole world shut down at once with the arrival of the strict corona as no one yet knew where things would turn out and the fears of the mysterious virus were terrifying with most of us, David discovered many painting groups that arose through zoom around the world. Today it already seems obvious, but who in Israel back then knew about zoom? David, who as mentioned was no stranger to the computer, soon discovered the possibility of combining digital media (iPad) with the virtual environment (Zoom).

Brown excitedly tells how surprised he was by the number of participants in the Zoom drawing groups. "It's unbelievable how many people around the world participated in drawing sessions from home through Zoom! Groups of dozens of people and even more", he says and adds that today there are hundreds of drawing groups around the web, which were established during the Corona period, everyone finds themselves in groups that suit them. You pay a participation fee ("pay as you can") and draw, dozens of people from all countries of the world. Not everyone draws on an iPad, some draw with the traditional techniques.

It is enough to take a look at his iPad and see hundreds of paintings he drew without a drawing nest or dirty colors, much to the delight of his wife... His paintings are amazing and varied, to your delight, you get to see some of them here on the website, but there are many, many more, in different and varied styles.

Later, with the corona virus, groups of virtual urban landscape painting arose, whereas in the past they would sit in front of the landscape and draw - something that required the painters to travel to distant places at times, the possibility that opened up with the zoom led to a real transformation - a camera transmits the image of the landscape, the site, the garden, etc. And thousands of people from all over the world sit in their homes and draw...

His studio today is on an iPad. It's true, they don't smell, they don't get dirty, the sensations are different, there's no doubt, but these problems can be circumvented and there are also many advantages to this.

David must be seen when he talks enthusiastically about his work, showing pictures that prove that the technology in digital painting has become so sophisticated and allows for an almost unimaginable artistic expression. I was absolutely amazed.

Finally, David tells about a great English painter - David Hockney - who also works on an iPad and participated in an exhibition that was successful on a global level. Hockney's paintings are so amazing that it is hard to believe that they were not painted in the conservative way...

"Were you able to share this idea with other painters?" I asked him. David replied sadly that many people are conservative and afraid of change, therefore it is difficult to convince them to change their habits. Drawing on a computer or iPad is repulsive for them. But he has patience, he says, and anyone who wants to try drawing on the computer is welcome to contact him, as far as he is concerned, this is completely his "baby".

Personally, I really hope that Ber On will plan some new exhibition of his works soon, maybe some of you know that he already had one recently. Anyway, I will continue to follow him. I do not have any drawing talent, but I definitely like to enjoy the drawing talent of others, and you?

Yours, my grandmother.

Reminder: welcome to talk to me!

If you also want to share your new path with us, you are welcome to contact me with your stories, I am here, waiting to hear from you, to write and publish here, on a live website here, and perhaps also to inspire other people of our age, who are entering this special and charming age, which may also cause difficulty , but no less than that, opens up a whole world of possibilities and inspiration.

You are welcome to contact me, I am eagerly waiting for your stories and yours.
Until the next article, goodbye and have a great weekend,
from me, Thidi • 054-485-5116