In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, ‘Is it good, friend?’
’It is bitter—bitter,’ he answered;
’But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart.’
~ Stephen Crane, In the Desert
I was born in communist Romania 5 years before The Revolution. I always felt my destiny is to be an artist and to bring beauty in the world, but the time and the place of my childhood didn’t allow such dreams. So I have chosen the path of engineering and graduated 2 polytechnic universities.
Although it was very frustrating at that time, now I’m grateful I got the chance to study engineering, as the more I studied the more I felt arts and engineering go hand in hand. For both one needs imagination and an out of the box driven mind to thrive.
The Universe has been kind to me and during high school I had the opportunity to study theatre for 2 years at Sigma Art where I had discovered The Method by Stanislavski. This experience has taught me to play with feelings, ideas and images.
Shortly after graduating Uni I have stumbled upon a fascinating book, My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk, and was mesmerized by the ideea that every painting should tell a story. It was also around that time when the artistic flame in my heart started to burn again with great force.
Again the Universe was kind with me and presented me the opportunity to move close to London. And so, a whole new world of opportunities laid before me.
At The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts I have studied:
- Traditional oil painting and the alchemy of colour with David Cranswick
- Traditional Persian miniature painting with Farkhondeh Ahmadzadeh and Vaishali Prazmari
- Sacred Geometry and Arabesque design with Tom Bree, Lisa DeLong and Adam Tetlow.
Then more geometry and arabesque with Adam Williamson and Richard Henry at Art of Islamic Pattern.
All this newly gained knowledge gave me the freedom and ability to translate images from my imagination into works of art.
Through my paintings I express feelings impossible to express in words, each one of my paintings hides a story.
I work with natural pigments and grind them myself into oil paint or watercolour. For my colour palette I mainly use the Umber, Ochre and Sienna colours, Terre Verte, the Lead colours, Verdigris, Madder Lake, Quinacridone, Caput Mortum, Antwerp blue, Indigo, Lapis Lazuli, Malachite, Cinnabar, Shungite, 23k Gold and Silver.
