For decades the one and only art Jef Blancke (Anderlecht, 1945) really tried to engage in was the noble art of living. But then, in his late forties and to his own surprise, almost simultaneously he found himself writing and painting.
It was nothing less than an outburst. In two novels and several hundreds of paintings he created a stunning world of homunculi. Modest people confined within their physical, psychological and social boundaries. They are Blancke’s favourite subject. The few animals or objects featuring in his paintings are but pictorial adjectives to the loneliness of these people in search of identity, attention, respect and love.
Watching Blancke’s parade of poor devils, misfits

and wretched dreamers, one cannot avoid the
idea that one has met them before in crowded streets or railway stations, in turbid dreams,
in the background of an Edward Hopper painting or in one’s own bathroom mirror.

Marc Ruyters in (H)ART, 21.10.2010

" In a glance, gesture or pose Blancke often flawlessly and profoundly strikes the very soul
of those portrayed.

Thanks to the quick development of his technical skills, he has been able to portray the people around him as a keen and sensitive observer
with a great knowledge of the human heart.”