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Realistic Car Paintings: Michelle Jakelj’s Escape on Canvas
Edited by Marco Rallo / Photos courtesy of Michelle Jakelj
Turns out cars are way more than beautiful objects bringing you from point A to point B in a love-filled journey that probably started long ago, as a child. This kind of unconditioned emotion could began once playing with little colored toys, but as adults we petrolheads do not intend to lose the grip on what makes our days better: beautiful cars. So why not snapping the beautiful shape of our dream ride, or even the one we have just parked in the garage, and let it come inside our home, embellishing an environment with what they commonly call art. Not just a good photograph this time, but something that has a story on its own, so it can really embodies all the meanings the aforementioned car has to us. Yep, ‘cause a young girl from Slovenia decided to join her two passions and start creating exclusive hand-made reproduction of cars of all sorts. This is how Michelle Jakelj found her safe place, an exciting escape made of pencils, brushes and a lot of love. We decided to meet her for an inspiring chat.
Hi Michelle, introduce yourself to our readers.
I am a 22 year old self-taught painter from Slovenia and I’m specialized in painting cars. Cars have been a huge love of my life ever since I was born and so was art. I was always creating artful things with my parents and sister, and even if I never got to study art, it was always huge part of me. As for cars, I got my driving license with accompanying person as soon as I could, at 16, and my official driving license at 18. And the first time I actually put the two passions and loves together was one day, when I got to see a 2016 Mustang at a shopping center. As soon as I got home, I went and drew a huge drawing of it and to my amazement it wasn’t even that bad. Ever since that drawing was done, I kept doing it because it felt right.
How did your passion for cars started? And what about painting?
My passion for cars started when I was born, and I know that sounds funny. My parents always told me that I never wanted to play with dolls, always with cars or trucks, they kept me smiling and “well occupied”, I could play with them for hours. With years passing by, my love just got bigger and bigger, passion kept growing and soon cars became my safe place in life. No matter if it was drawing/painting or driving them. I started drawing cars in the first year of high school, when bullying in school became too much and when I finally transferred to another school, I kept doing it, mostly when I couldn’t sleep because of nightmares and every free hour I had, I got better and better and I soon got into painting because I wanted to upgrade my knowledge. Once my first ever painting was done, that’s when I decided “this is what I want to in life”.
What makes a handmade painting so much exclusive than a photograph?
To me, it’s a huge difference. Everyone with a better phone can take an amazing photo of a car in today’s world, but a photo takes a second, maybe a minute if you need a few tries. A painting can take days or weeks. Everyone can print a photo, that’s also true, but you can print it many times and it will always come out the same. But for me, it’s that special feeling, when you know it took someone weeks to paint a scenery from your mind, and there is no way a painting can be reproduced, it’s unique. Every painting takes me at least a few days, the longest a painting ever took me was more than 220 hours. And yes, paintings have their imperfections, but they also have so much more meaning and I get to paint cars through the eyes of their owners. A photo can rarely have as much meaning as a painting does. Because I spend hours learning about each car I paint and that shows in paintings. Plus, there is so much love in each of my paintings, I can’t even describe it.
Comparing to your very first painting, what did have changed throughout the years?
Well, a lot has changed, definitely. I’ve grown as a person and as an artist, I’ve become more patient, I now know that I need to take my time with paintings and that reflections are a must, I now understand how light reflects on a car. I now know how to make paintings realistic. People have to know that I’m not an artist with an art degree, honestly, I’ve never even taken an art class. Everything I know, I’ve learned on my own, with so many fail projects. Practice was everything I could do to learn. The problem is that even if we live in a modern world with YouTube, there are basically zero videos of how to paint cars. I started drawing cars in 2016, I painted my first painting in acryl in 2018 and in 2020 I painted my first one with oils. It wasn’t perfect but that’s when I decided I’m only going to do oil paintings. Because it was a challenge, it was the hardest to work with and I loved challenges, I still do. Plus, oil paint gives paintings that shine and warmth that cars need in my opinion. The first car that I’ve ever painted was a red Mercedes CLA, that painting took me almost a year (I was doing drawings in-between) and I have learned a lot from it. It wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t a failure either. It’s honestly the only painting I’m never planning to sell because it means so much to me.
Are there projects you feel you’re most connected with? If yes, which ones?
Yes, absolutely. Each painting I ever painted and I ever will has a special place in my heart and each one takes a little piece of it with, wherever it may go. But until this day, if we are talking only about my oil paintings, there have to be the two that weren’t commissioned (which is quite rare, because I mostly do commissions). The first one was a painting of the legendary SL 300. That painting was a project that I started in 2020, once the pandemic started and it was done during summer. We were all dealing differently with the situation back then, well for me, this painting was an escape from what reality was back then. It kept me in good mood and I’d lie that I wasn’t crying when, a year later it was sold. The funny thing is that two months after the painting was done, I was so lucky that I saw the original SL 300 in Slovenia, which was mind-blowing. And let me tell you, it was an absolute perfection in real life.
The second painting that absolutely took the biggest part of my heart, is the one I still own and it was finished this year. The biggest painting I’ve ever painted, a painting which I wanted to paint ever since I started my drawing/painting journey, of my dream car. The painting of the GT500. This is also the painting that took me more then 220 hours and it honestly was a project and a half. I wanted to paint it ever since. It’s my dream car as far as I can remember, but I wanted to really be quite good at painting because this needed to be perfect.
Have you ever had a particular request related to a bespoke project?
I absolutely had! There were so many unique and beautiful projects which I was lucky enough to paint and there were so many new people and friends which “my work” let me meet. The best part of any commission is always the story behind it. Even if it’s only finally owning the dream car and then getting the painting of it, or maybe even getting a commission of a dream car just so they can, at least, own a painting of it. I also had commissions from old polaroid photos, which were quite challenging and at the same time so meaningful, there were so many sad stories from that, which will always follow me through my life. Or crazy ideas like Tesla in space, or American cars in Italy. With a painting, every dream can become a reality and that is what’s so special about it. I could absolutely write a book about some of the commissions.
How do you see “Realistic Car Paintings” in 5 or even 10 years from now?
Hopefully with an even bigger and more special collection of painted cars! But honestly, I just hope I can forever do what I truly love so much. Hopefully with many more commissions where I can get to know stories that stand behind the car I’m painting, or getting to know the stories behind the particular reference photo, where I get to meet even more car lovers, like myself and hopefully, (maybe), even have one (or a few) exhibitions where people can see for themselves what’s the difference between a painting and a photo in real life! I have big dreams and huge ambitions, and I honestly love what I do, even if it can sometimes be quite hard. I want to see how much my knowledge in art and cars can grow and how my paintings will look in 10 years. And, hopefully, get even more people to see that there is someone who takes care that some cars will live on forever even if just on canvas.
Time to say hello to our readers then, it has been a real pleasure Michelle.
Hello there, I hope you’ve enjoyed reading a bit about my passion and my art journey! Just remember to follow your dreams and do things you love in life. If not any other dreams, at least follow the one to own your dream car one day!
And if you like seeing paintings of cars (and sometimes even motorcycles), you can follow my art journey on my Instagram or on my website
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