POTOW
EliYahu: The Businessman Turned Artist
EliYahu: The Businessman Turned Artist
When EliYahu’s real estate business went bankrupt, it was not only his finances that collapsed— his body gave out under the weight of stress and exhaustion. He understood: something had to change. It was time to live. And then, in a dream, came a voice: You are going to paint.
His wife, Emunah, was stunned. This rational man suddenly an artist? But his passionate conviction erased her doubt.
So Eliyahu began to paint. For years he wandered with his family—living in caravans, on sailboats, and in borrowed corners of cities and villages—from Spain to Berlin to the Netherlands, sustained by the sales revenue of his artwork, until the recession of 2010 struck. Once faithful clients stopped buying Eliyahu's art, and the possibility to paint stopped as well.
2018: EliYahu was living with Emunah, and their son, Ruben, in a yurt deep within the forest of Belgium. Their income coming from playing music on the streets. Perceived as poor by others, but feeling like millionaires. And then..... EliYahu took up the brush again—but this time his son Ruben, too, felt the pull, and together they painted, guided by the same calling.
Now, in Portugal, EliYahu knows that this time it is the story of a journey of warning and hope.
And EliYahu knows: it must be told...
Ruben: From Son to Co-creator
One of Ruben's earliest memories is of being two years old, sitting on one of his father’s canvases, smearing paint with his tiny hands— desperate to take part. Art was the atmosphere he breathed, the lens through which he learned to see the world.
The transformation that his father, EliYahu, had to make later in life, was simply Ruben’s normal. For him, there were no rigid lines between possible and impossible. Happiness, love, and joy naturally formed him into an artist without boundries. That attitude made him a fearless street musician together with his parents, to bring food on the table, and to interact with people of all walks of life. Experiencing life!
In 2018, while they were living in a Yurt in the woods, EliYahu once again felt the calling to paint.
Ruben, too felt the pull, and stepped fully into the work—this time as a co-creator. That season became his apprenticeship: learning, developing, discovering. He refined his techniques, explored new styles, found deeper stories and meanings of his own. And father and son, in the studio, started producing art born of unity, struggle, and love.
Two styles interwoven, one vision shared.
POTOW
Their name comes from Jeremiah 6:16 (NKJV):
Stand in the ways and see,
And ask for the old paths, where the good way is,
And walk in it;
Then you will find rest for your souls.
This verse is their compass—a call to return to the roots, to walk in the good way. The old and the new, tradition and modernity, nature and technology, beauty and decay, are at the core of their art.
POTOW Family
Father and son paint with acrylics, merging spray paint, stencils, airbrush, and hand-drawn detail. Each canvas is a crossroads where warning and hope speak in the same breath.
The family has grown over the years. Ruben found his wife, Avi, and together they welcomed children of their own. EliYahu and Emunah were blessed with the coming of Chesed, EliYahu’s second wife, and her children, Dawid and Yael, who were embraced as a true son and daughter. With Avi’s father, Azar, joining too, their circle has widened into a home of many generations, bound together by love and belonging.
Rooted in family, in faith, and in the silent ruins of forgotten Portuguese villages, their art is calling back to balance, to truth, to the old paths.
This all summarized by this often mentioned quote of the artists: