Szilard Banyi - Jerusalem Study no.1

Jerusalem Study No. 1

Szilard C. Banyi (b.1993)

Egg-Oil Tempera on Canvas | 90 × 90 cm
•The Final Work of the Dream Series•

With Jerusalem Study No. 1, I wanted to capture something that exists somewhere between a remembered place, a forgotten dream, and a feeling I cannot quite put into words.

While working on this painting, I found myself drawn into a strange and quiet world. I imagined three figures sharing an almost ordinary moment, yet surrounded by an atmosphere that seemed to belong to another dimension. A child stands watching, two figures are absorbed in something close to the earth, and a stag appears in the distance, silent and majestic. I never wanted to explain exactly what was happening. Instead, I wanted to preserve the mystery of that moment.

For me, the stag became the soul of the painting. It represents something untamed, intuitive, and deeply connected to nature. Its presence brings a sense of wonder, but also a certain melancholy, as if it had emerged from a memory rather than from the landscape itself.

I was interested in the relationship between the human figures and the surrounding environment — how familiar things can become strange when seen through the eyes of a dream. The landscape gradually loses its geographical certainty. Water, earth, reflections, and fragments of colour seem to merge into one another. I allowed the composition to remain somewhat fragmented because I wanted it to carry the same uncertainty and emotional intensity that we experience when trying to remember a dream.

Throughout the painting process, I explored the tension between stillness and movement, presence and disappearance, reality and imagination. The muted earth tones, delicate turquoise accents, and darker expressive passages emerged as part of this search. I wanted the painting to feel quiet at first glance, but to reveal a deeper emotional complexity the longer one spends with it.

I created this work using egg-oil tempera, a demanding and fascinating technique that requires patience, sensitivity, and a very deliberate approach to layering. Working with this medium allowed me to build a surface that moves between transparency, texture, and expressive brushwork. For me, the process itself became part of the experience of searching for the right atmosphere.

This painting also holds a special personal meaning because it is the final work in my Dream Series. Bringing this series to an end felt like closing a chapter of my own inner journey. Each painting in the series has been an exploration of images, emotions, and fragments of an imaginary world. With this final piece, I wanted to leave the door slightly open rather than provide an answer or a conclusion.

Perhaps that is what I value most about this painting: it does not tell a complete story. It invites the viewer to enter, to remember something of their own, and to discover a meaning that may be entirely different from mine.

For me, this is not simply a painting of a landscape and its inhabitants. It is a painting about the mysterious places we carry within ourselves.

Artist: Szilard C. Banyi
Title: Jerusalem Study No. 1
Series: Dream Series – Final Work
Medium: Egg-Oil Tempera on Canvas
Dimensions: 90 × 90 cm