The Three Graces of Bat Galim – a neighborhood that is changing its face

(haipo) – I have been painting Bat Galim for a while now, and sometimes it is the people, not the sea or the landscape, that capture my attention. One day I was sitting in front of the Milhouse Cafe, located in the heart of Bat Galim and considered to be one of the pioneers of the initiatives that marked the change the neighborhood was going through. It was a bright sunny day, there were quite a few young people sitting around me, but my gaze stopped precisely on three older women. Something about their presence and the gap between them and their surroundings made me observe, they reminded me of the "Three Graces" from the history of art.

My three graces

The hats, layers, and clothes they wore seemed almost detached from the sunny day and the local landscape. I didn't know who they were or what brought them here, so I didn't ask. As a painter, sometimes the question interests me more than the answer.

When I looked at the three of them together, I thought of "The Three Graces," not as an attempt to recreate a classic image, but as a local and contemporary version: three women in a cafe in the heart of Bat Galim.

A neighborhood that is changing its face

Bat Galim has been undergoing a demographic change in recent years. Alongside the older population, more young people are present, and the change is also noticeable in the neighborhood's meeting places. Milhouse was one of the places that somewhat preceded this process and created a new meeting point within the old fabric.

Maybe that's why the three women interested me. In the young environment, they didn't seem alien, but part of a scene where the old and the new coexist in the same space.

Painting as a testimony to time

When I paint, I don't think I'm documenting history. Yet, painting preserves within it people, clothing, meeting places, and social changes.

A painting is influenced by the mindset of the period in which it was created, but also preserves it. Perhaps in years to come someone will look at these three women and see, not just a moment in a cafe, but the A wave of our time – a neighborhood that changes its face as I paint it.