Photography:

Joost Gerritsen creates small, intimate worlds with his studio set-ups. The still lifes are a reflection of his walks in the Serranía, Spain. The colour of the earth, seeds and pieces of wood, combined with a human artifact here and there.
In his latest photographic work he explores the identity and relationships between objects and how they relate to himself. In the process of collecting and bringing together the objects to create the still life, Joost tries to find the true character that’s inside these objects. Like a family with different personalities, he makes a group portrait, depending on the combinations the objects show their characteristics.

Drawing:

The drawings are based on shapes and colours found on my walks. I always take a camera with me and make black and white photos. The sunlight revealing hard shapes and shadows. I use these natural shapes in my drawings. The drawings are a free interpretation of the black and white photos I took. Translating black and white into colour and natural shapes into abstract lines and paters. The drawings become more autonomous in this way and less a representation of the reality.

Short bio

Joost Gerritsen graduated cum laude in 1993 from the A.K.I., Academy of Fine Arts, in Enschede, Holland. Since 2006 he lives and works in the countryside of Valencia, Spain. In 2007 he won the Art in the Volkspark Award and has exhibited extensively throughout the Netherlands, UK and Spain. His works are in many collections including the RABO Bank Enschede, SBK Amsterdam and the AKI Academy of Fine Arts, as well as in various private collections.

In 1992 he started with his cousin Merijn Bolink who is a sculptor the “Drawing club.“. Every week they came together for a still life drawing session in one of the artists studios in Amsterdam. Drawing huge installations, often with parts of unfinished sculptures or paintings in it.

When Joost moved to Spain the Drawing Club stopped for a while, but since 2021, thanks to Skype/Zoom the Drawing Club has started again and every Monday there is a still life drawing session.

In 2019 he was also asked to join the London art collective. “The Ground Collective.” A group of 7 artists and a poet that makes work inspired by their daily walks. Walking, collecting, creating. The Ground Collective organizes yearly an exhibition in the UK. but perhaps they will show their work in Spain too in the future.

Three Questions……

1:) Can you explain your artistic process?

Simply put: I walk, collect, combine, draw and make a photo of the “still life¨.

Walking gives me time to contemplate and experience the nearby surroundings. I see how discarded objects live together with trees and bushes. I collect them for the still life’s.

To take the object away from the place where I found it is the first disturbance and change. The next one is to combine them with other objects I found in other places. Bringing them together creates a narrative. I draw in the still-life to interfere, to enter the discussion. Then I take a photo to move the whole story even further away from reality so that the image becomes autonomous.

2:) Can you explain something about the content of your work and the inspiration/impetus behind it?

I love to work within the language of drawing. Lines, planes, structures, spaces etc. But on top of this abstract framework I touch on the questions about the ¨nature¨ of nature. The identity of objects and how they relate to time, their environment and to us. 

I think it’s important to connect with the world around us, on an empathetic level. Being aware of not only the living world around you but also the world of objects.

3:) How and where do you make your work?

I’ve built a studio in the garden, in the countryside, near Villar del Arzobispo, (approximately 50 km from Valencia), following the example of my grandfather who was a painter and violin builder.  I always loved his studio and hoped that one day I would be able to built my own studio in the garden too!

It is full of boxes with things I’ve collected over the years, organized by material, size or shape. There is a box for dried-out pomegranates and shelled almonds, another for rubber or iron objects.

I have two tables. One I use for drawing and one I use to build a still-life on, set up for photography.
I’ve put in a skylight window in the ceiling, which gives lovely light, but in the summer it can be pretty hot too!.

One side of the studio is a chaos full of boxes and canvases, the other I have to keep empty as it’s where I work. I prefer to work in a chaotic environment, it keeps my thoughts creative and open for random input, but, on the practical side, I need an empty space around the latest piece I’m working on.