About

About me

(Taurus, watercolor and a touch of quiet)

I am a woman born under the sign of Taurus – supposedly an introvert.
Astrology says: order, tradition, responsibility.
I would add one more thing: a love of beauty. And of silence.

For years, I admired beauty in other people’s paintings.
But I never had one on my own wall.
Because I felt that artists would enter too deeply through them.
Into my private space.

How does an introvert end up with watercolor?

I never went to art clubs.
The idea of being locked in a room with strangers and expected to create felt more like a horror plot than a creative evening.

Then my daughter happened.
Or rather – she happened and dragged me to a painting class.
(Thank you. Without you, this website wouldn’t exist.)

And instead of disaster, something shifted.

I met an artist who showed watercolor differently.
Not as a technique.
But as a sensitive way of looking at the world.
And, importantly, someone who could clearly explain the small traps where many watercolor hopes quietly sink.

Then the Bull woke up

Because watercolor…
Watercolor does what it wants. It doesn’t stay where you put it. It spreads, fades, changes its mind.

Every time I thought I had it under control, it showed me the middle finger.
(Sorry – the brush.)

That’s when my second Taurus self appeared.
The stubborn one.
The one that should probably stay out of the arena.

By the way – do you know what is added to water to help pigment flow better?
Yes. Ox gall.
I can’t say it isn’t symbolic.

My third self

An introvert with artistic obsession who sometimes has to pretend to be an extrovert with a plan.
Confident. Decisive. With a presentation. With goals.

And maybe that’s why I eventually said to myself:
“If I’m giving this so much of my time, why not take it further?”

That’s how Hastal Fine Arts was born.
A website. A blog. A shop.
A gallery of experiments, mistakes, and paintings I carried inside for years before finally letting them out.
And also a bit of serious-not-so-serious storytelling.

This site is like a newborn.
Sometimes it throws up on your shirt.
But it breathes. It grows. And it is unmistakably real.

And somewhere in between, there is Israel

A place I fly to when Prague turns too grey.
Where I paint, dig my fingers into warm sand, watch the sea and palm trees.
Where I collect colors and stories from Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and the Negev.

A place that gave me shades I hadn’t seen for a long time.
A place where my heart beats in a different rhythm.

I’m glad I’m here.
And I’m glad you found your way here too.

Maybe you’re just reading.
Maybe you’re looking for a painting that speaks to you.
Maybe colors are entering your private space as well.

That’s fine.
That’s how it’s meant to be.

The adventure has only just begun.