Young Israeli Soldier

So, I wanted to paint subjects that were a little less morbid, and get away from photos of victims of state repression..

Ideally, I would have painted a portrait from life.

But, since logistically, I have no way of doing that, I had to use photographs.

I settled on color portraits by contemporary photographers, including Rineke Dijkstra, a Dutch photographer, who did a series about young people serving in their nation's military in uniform and in mufti.

I was quite taken by this particular portrait and decided to paint it.

1 additional image. Click to enlarge.