One of the artists featured in our ‘Spring Collection’ is Jina Gelder.
Northumberland based, Jina has been a professional artist for over a decade bringing her appreciation of wildlife and skill at capturing them to life through her work. She succeeds in highlighting expressive characteristics in her subject whilst retaining their wild mystery. Jina is able to capture the spirit of her subject and magically transfer that through her painting to us. We have many of Jina’s works in the gallery including original paintings and prints. In this blog we’re going to look at three of our favorites.
“Let’s Dance”
This striking original watercolour painting depicts two hares boxing. As many of you know, the opponents are a male hare (known as a ‘buck’) and a female (‘doe”). The boxing dance commences about when a female tired of being chased by a male turns around to fend off his advances and test his strength. Mating season begins in March, hence the well known phrase, “mad as a March hare!” In this painting, Jina captures the energy, movement and excitement of this unmissable spectacle in Spring.
When embarking on a painting, Jina prefers to use photographs she’s taken herself, however, when this is not possible, she visits galleries, museums and watches documentaries to study her subject. “I like to try and bring them (the subject) to life”- we think this has been undeniably achieved in this piece.
https://northeastartcollective.co.uk/product/lets-dance-jina-gelder/
“Martin”
Martin is instantly recognisable mallard drake. As one of our most common but colourful British birds, his iridescent neck feathers and contrasting rustic plum colour chest mark him as a beauty. Jina’s original painting captures a moment in flight, shortly after take off, revealing all his stunning colours and markings. When talking about the painting, Jina explained that she loved the contrast of the duck as a somewhat comical character, cumbersomely waddling on the ground, then transformed with his feet tightly tucked into his body into a graceful bird capable soaring through the air with ease.
https://northeastartcollective.co.uk/product/martin-jina-gelder/
“Willow & Bea”
Finally, I’d like to introduce you to a very special painting of a fox “Willow”. Jina explains that she painted “Willow” at a demonstration and wanted to have a focal point for her to be looking at. Unsure whether to use a bee or a butterfly, Jina asked the audience and a bee “Bea”-short for Beatrix, was decided on. It was so well received it has featured in her work many times being a natural addition to her other subjects, and on it’s own in original paintings. Jina is keen to highlight the significance of bees and uses them in her work to encourage the discussion around their importance and conservation. We think this painting thoughtfully captures the moment the tiny bee is seen by the fox. It is such a delightful and relatable human mannerism we can all appreciate.
This work is currently available as a giclee limited edition print.
https://northeastartcollective.co.uk/product/willow-and-bea-jina-gelder/
These are just a few of the many works available by Jina in the gallery. For a full range of works and more information please see our online catalogue.
https://northeastartcollective.co.uk/product-category/artists/jina-gelder/