Landscape paintings

This is a small corner of a large oil painting I just finished.

This week is our last week in Colorado before our trip to New Zealand.
I am finishing commission works, taking photos, making sketches, packing art to ship to clients and overall, getting ready.
In the studio I am working on the 12 commission pieces of the landscapes of Northern Israel in oils.

It is a landscape I know so well.
I used to travel in this region at least twice a month when I lived in Israel.
But for painting it takes more than "knowing" a region.
Painting is collecting symbols that identify an area and its spirit.
If my collector wanted a "real" representation of the area, he would have not chosen me to do this commission, or he would have framed some large photographs of the area.

I am picking symbols of the area and creating what I think is interesting compositions.
I use the olive trees, the sheep, the quaint houses, the tall thin cypress, the large oaks, the green pines, the blossoming almond trees, I use the stone wall fences that boarder the rural scenery.