Bella Greene and Gel Wootton are the self-taught painters behind Gelbell.

When the pandemic hit, the highschool pals have been travelling abroad and have been pressured to chop their vacation brief to return residence. Little did they know they’d discover a silver lining within the subsequent two weeks of necessary isolation, once they determined to color collectively.

‘We used some random artwork provides we discovered on the home we have been quarantining in — some smallish canvases we joined collectively and acrylic paints,’ Bella says.

‘We have been on the lookout for issues to do and in addition had no cash from travelling,’ Gel provides. ‘It was Bella’s sister’s birthday, so we thought we’d make her one thing. It was an summary piece, us simply messing round with completely different methods and each of us mainly engaged on high of one another like we nonetheless do.’

It was completely different to any sort of artistic work that they had performed up to now. Bella has a background in furnishings design, whereas Gel studied inside design, they usually fell right into a pure rhythm of portray round one another. Bella says they typically work on identical piece on the identical time and typically commerce locations between two canvases, each including layers of acrylic paint, or scribbles from paint pens and oil pastels onto what the opposite has began.

However there aren’t any set roles for who does what. ‘We regularly attempt to describe it to folks that [we’re] nearly like one mind with 4 arms,’ Gel explains. ‘We couldn’t do it by ourselves, we do that as a result of we adore it and we’re impressed by working and downside fixing collectively.’

‘Each portray is completely different however we at all times understand it’s completed after we each concurrently excitedly react and are moved by a bit,’ Bella provides.

This telepathic-style strategy means their course of is equal components chaotic, spontaneous, and thrilling, which ends up in some effortlessly cool work.

Daring colour-block backgrounds typically characteristic Gelbell’s signature character, which the buddies name ‘satirical summary figures’. It’s a misshapen female kind sporting outsized cowboy hats and boots — paying homage to an exaggerated trend design sketch of epic proportions.

It helps that they’ve a fairly epic studio to work from. After persevering with to earn a living from home throughout lockdowns, Bella and Gel moved their now full-time apply right into a heritage-listed constructing in South Melbourne with hovering ceilings and exquisite arched home windows.

In only a few years, Gelbell have held profitable exhibitions and developed a cult-social media following for his or her distinctive, neon work. And so they’re already dreaming of their subsequent large factor.

‘Figuring out our work are hanging on partitions all around the globe could be very cool to us,’ Bella says. ‘We are able to’t wait to have solo exhibitions internationally.’