One of Manchester’s leading artistic talents, Joe Gellert, discusses the idea of painting as a healing therapy.
Joe Gellert is a former private practice architect turned celebrated local painter. Following a career creating architectural drawings to help clients visualise his concepts, Whitefield based Joe has continued to recreate the rich cityscapes that fascinate him and the people who inhabit them, using methods from traditional watercolours and acrylics to modern water-based oil paints to produce photorealistic paintings.
Joe has received commissions from an ever[1]growing number of patrons to capture local townscapes, private houses and more recently portraits; his work now exhibited in galleries and owned by collectors throughout Europe and the US. Joe not only works from photographs, but has reconjured long-gone structures from the memories of clients, preserving them timelessly upon canvas.
In light of recent events, Joe feels compelled to imbue a certain “feel-good factor” to his paintings. But not only does he hope his work will be a source of light for his viewers in dark times, the act of painting itself has proved an invaluable therapeutic exercise to enhance his own wellbeing: “During the lengthy period of the epidemic, I have turned to my art as a counterbalance to the unsettling circumstances that have prevailed worldwide. On my daily walks, I have gradually broadened my search for subject matter for my paintings, to take in not only the built environment, but also to include scenes of an ethereal nature, such as colourful plants and gardens, sunsets and cloud formations.
“Consequently, I have found that by incorporating these features in my recent paintings, the process of creating the paintings has become quite therapeutic, which is greatly beneficial in these otherwise uncertain times.”
With each painting taking around 200 hours to produce, the months spent in lockdown have afforded him the opportunity to concentrate on his art in the comfort of his home studio: “I become completely absorbed in my unique painting process for hours on end, without being conscious of the passing of time. The range of my subject matter now varies from landscapes to cityscapes, waterfronts to holiday scenes, sunsets to portraits, and much more. No-one should underestimate the therapeutic effects of a painting, not only for the producer of the painting, but also for the casual viewer as well as the final owner.”
To commission or purchase a painting, email j.f.gellert@btinternet.com
We hear from previous JLife competition winner, Nadine Mudd, to discover the joy her prized painting has brought her…
This painting is based on a photo I took of a hotel we stayed in for a few nights while on holiday in Cordoba. It was a fab hotel within the Walled City near to the Jewish Quarter, with a beautiful terrace to watch the sunset. The window pictured is made up of reclaimed window frames, I love the idea of upcycling and the eco-principles of the hotel, which is run as a cooperative. I like the colours and the patterns of this unique frontage, and Joe painted the picture true to the original photo. He asked me questions about it and researched the patterns as part of his preparation. Joe has given me lots of enjoyment and happy memories.