Artist Biographies

Anna Gelbert

Anna Gelbert arrived in Canada in 1986. She graduated with a Master of Fine Arts diploma in 1979 from the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, Poland, where she studied under the guidance of the renowned Polish painter, Jan Szancenbach. As a result, her paintings have been strongly influenced by what has been referred to as the "School of Colour".

Anna studied Computer Graphics in Sheridan College and has used worked extensively as a digital artist and illustrator of scientific and medical texts. She continued her art education in Canada, studying Old Masters techniques with Michael Angel School in Toronto, and then Vancouver Academy of Art in Vancouver.

Her works are found in collections in Europe, Israel, Canada and US. She paints in number of media, including oils, watercolours, and the computer. Special projects include painting several portraits of actors and actresses for the film industry, design for murals, illustration, computer paintings, and also executing commissions for portraits and other paintings.

Statement: I come from a romantic country and this is probably why a passion for colour dominates my work. My work is strongly influenced by the tradition of picturalism which places a strong emphasis on the colour, textures and individual brush strokes within a painting. This influence brings a special treatment of colour to my work, which imparts emotional life to any visual medium I am working with. The content of my paintings is rooted in my childhood experiences. Nature with its whimsical spirit, wondrous blossoms and indescribable subtlety of colour and light has always hypnotized me. Nature is always beyond words - vibrant, transient and essential. Be it a garden or a reflection of ocean, I have felt the need to translate this onto the canvas. I am trying to evoke a sensation, an impression of the elements of nature I see around me. I am choosing signs, colours, strokes and textures to represent the intensity of emotion  be it vibrant and happy, or gloomy and mysterious - be it the shape of a flower, or light on water. I see leaves losing themselves in infinite abundance; waters and skies losing their definition in the fluidity of borders. For me painting is a way of expressing the life energy in nature with an emotional inscription.

View artworks by Anna Gelbert »

<< Back