About the Process

Reem Tamar (ראם תמר) is a Jerusalem collage artist and a Bezalel graduate (2015). He grew up in Musrara, the neighborhood that is his source of inspiration and the location of his studio. The works are physical, on canvas. They are built from layers of acrylic paint, collage, spatula (שפכטל) and textures. They are not digital images.

This page describes the way of working as it takes place in the studio: from looking to a finished surface. It is not a closed recipe, and it does not include a full list of materials. It is an entry point for anyone who sees the work up close, or wants to understand how the texture on the canvas is made.

From looking to the surface

The work does not begin on the canvas. It begins with looking: at stone, at alleys, at walls, at light and shadow as they change through the day. Jerusalem here is not only a subject. It is the environment the artist lives and works in, and from it come the color, the texture and the rhythm.

Sometimes looking passes through drawing. The drawing is not necessarily the image that will remain on the canvas; it is a way to halt movement, to repeat a line, and to see what is left after the eye has already moved on. Only then comes the surface itself — the canvas — where the work in layers begins.

There is no need to invent a fixed order for every work. Some works open with a wide stroke, and some with the laying down of material. What they share is that the surface is built over time, not in a single step.

Layers of acrylic paint, collage, spatula and textures

Reem Tamar’s works are made on canvas, as a physical surface that gathers thickness. A layer of acrylic paint may cover the one before it, remain partly exposed, or crack and come back into view. Collage enters those layers: an adhered material, a fragment, or a surface added on top of what was already there, then painted, scraped, or partly concealed.

The spatula is a working tool, not an ornament. It allows a wide stroke, compression, scraping, and the leaving of traces. The textures that rise on the canvas are not only an external addition; they are the result of layers that were built, dried, and opened again. Up close one can see the thickness, the crack, the line of the stroke. From a distance the composition comes together — light against dark, an open area against a dense one.

What can be said with confidence is this: the work is handmade on canvas, in layers of acrylic paint, collage, spatula and textures, made in the studio, and remains an object one can stand in front of.

What the work is not

One distinction matters for anyone who meets the works for the first time, or encounters them in a photograph.

These are not digital works. The photograph is meant to document the surface, not to replace it. The light in a photograph, the framing, and the resolution on a screen can soften or smooth what is, in reality, rough, thick or cracked. That is why it is worth seeing the work up close when possible, and not settling for the image alone.

Standing in front of the work

When standing in front of the canvas, it is worth letting two distances work. From farther away the composition comes together: relations between light and dark, between an open area and a dense one, between movement and stability. Up close, traces of the process itself appear — the line of the spatula, the edge of a collage fragment, a crack in a layer, a place where new paint rests on old.

The process does not disappear when the work is “finished.” It remains visible on the surface. That is why a photograph, even an accurate one, is only a record: it can show the overall direction, but not the thickness or the touch. Anyone interested in a particular work is welcome to ask about it by email, and to see it up close when that is possible.

The studio in Musrara

Reem Tamar grew up in Musrara, draws inspiration from it, and works from a studio in the same neighborhood. Musrara is a place of growing up and of work, and not only an address: stone, movement, changing light, and closeness to a city that returns in the works.

Contact and visits

Email: reemtamar123@gmail.com

The Musrara studio is open to visitors by appointment. To arrange a visit or to ask a question: reemtamar123@gmail.com

Questions about an available work or about the working process can be sent to this address. Further entry points: the personal site, studio updates, and the about page (Hebrew).