When I was 6 years old, I started hanging out in my grandparent’s art studios in Bucharest, Romania. I was intoxicated (in a good way) by the smell of paint, turpentine (I know, but it was the 80's), their avant-garde artwork, but most of all - their art books.
While children my age in other parts of the world were into fairy tales and toys, I became addicted to art: colourful landscapes from faraway, eternally sunny and exotic destinations with funny trees, flowers and architecture that looked nothing like anything I had seen yet with my own two eyes.
Me, at 6 years old with a Modigliani portrait painting in the background. I was already drawn to the elongated, graphic lines and the exaggerated elegance this Italian artist infused into his artwork. You can see some of my portrait work that was influenced by him here.
Through modern art, I travelled to the South of France, Morocco, Algeria, Italy, Spain, and other magical new places I had never actually been to, or previously heard of, along the Mediterranean coast.
To be fair, I wasn't born an inherently artsy book nerd - I was simply the product of my environment, which was equal parts communist propaganda from hell, and being lucky to have parents and grandparents who were into arts and literature, and who believed knowledge and culture were the only ways to properly shape young minds and prevent them from becoming propaganda-spewing machines for a country that was being economically and culturally manipulated by the people in charge of it. In the midst of grey propaganda and cultural blah, I was gifted a mental, and visual, escape.
The dictator of Romania and his wife, who controlled the cultural narrative, economy and media of the country for over 25 years with government propaganda and a brutal policy, under one of the strictest and most ruthless Iron curtain regimes in Eastern Europe.
For a bit of context, I spent my early childhood growing up under a very strict Iron Curtain regime. In terms of access to information, Ceausescu's dictatorial policy in Romania restricted books, entertainment or basically any non-government endorsed communist propaganda. Even Disney cartoons had to be smuggled in for young eyes on the black market, and the repercussions were severe, to say the least.
So even if I HAD wanted to play with Barbies, watch The Simpsons, or indulge in what other kids my age across the world called Pop Culture, it simply wasn't an option; not only would I not have been able to, but I didn't even know they existed... and IF I had, getting caught indulging in it would have landed my parents, grandparents and caretakers in a cozy jail cell. So there's that.
What I'm saying is that for this little kid (me) that grew up, for all intents and purposes, under a grey communist propaganda-spewing rock, these colourful, vibrant and dreamlike paintings from the South of France were a delightful visual escape which fuelled my imagination, and added a significant spot of colour to an otherwise bleak cultural context in Romania's 1980's environment of blah and terror.
What Modern Art Taught Me About Convention, And Why Most Grown-Ups Suck
I loved how, despite being told by proper grown-ups to colour inside the lines, and that circles are always round, for example, these magnificent and exotic colourful artworks did not in fact adhere to these proper rules of how reality “should” be, according to said grown-ups. Circles were even sometimes square! Nothing looked as it "should", but it was even better this way.
Cezanne’s mountains, still life paintings with crunchy deconstructed apples and geometric, messy-but-elegant landscapes painted impulsively with graphic strokes and patches of contrasting colours in unlikely places, Picasso’s portraits which had WAY more (or less) than "just two eyes", (and they certainly did not sit in their proper place on their subjects' faces), Van Gogh's turbulent skies which seemed to be moving in dynamic swirls above dancing cyprus trees, and Matisse’s plants were which were cut out of paper! A dream, and a visual candyland of adventure, to my virgin eyes.
My landscape artworks have been heavily influenced by Cézanne's bold colours and graphic lines. You can see some of my recent colourful landscapes here.
For me, the art books I discovered in my grandparents art studio were an introduction to the notion that art was way more alive and interesting than realistic depictions of grown-up reality, or the communist propaganda about being a good little conformist worker, there to serve "la patrie".
And... these fascinating artworks that didn't follow the rules we learned in school were done BY grown-ups! Who were they? I was intrigued.
And so, my love affair with colour, exploration and travel was awakened, along with a delicious exposure to far-off lands and creative freedom... through art!
My Off / On Relationship With Art: My 20's
What follows is a brief history of my own relationship with art, following those early formative years in Bucharest, and my first discoveries of art from the South of France, which opened my eyes to a whole new world, and new ways of looking at it.
As far as my story goes, my relationship with art continued (off and on) throughout my life. After my family moved to Canada (we emigrated away from the oppressive Ceausescu dictatorship, because my parents didn't want my sister and I growing up in Orwell's 1984 - pour vrai!), I continued to draw and paint, off and on, in my new Canadian life. Art kept me grounded, a familiar terrain that provided beauty, colour and escapism while I was navigating my new home filled with capitalism, shopping malls, commercials, and all the things I could not yet wrap my mind around. En bref, art was my solace and escape in a transition of culture shock spent adapting to my new home sweet home in a land very far removed from everything I had previously known in Europe.
Fast forward 10 years, where I ended up getting a "sensible" university degree in Criminology, having followed the sensible life path that was prescribed by all the grown-ups in my orbit, and which made me want to scream with boredom.
Once again art and colour saved me from 4 years of complete and utter dullness through my Art History classes, which I minored in. They delved even deeper into the history of art and I was particularly drawn to by the French impressionists, post-impressionists and early cubism - especially the work that was coming out of France, with its vibrant colours, bold compositions and that familiar sense of Mediterranean "je ne sais quoi".
Love & Art In The South of France: My 30's
In my mid thirties, after extensive travels and adventures around the world, I met Jeremy, who would become my partner in travel, and in love. By this time, I had long since ran away from my future in Criminology, and had pursued a degree in Graphic Design, which married my passion for visual art and the power of language into one discipline. Oh, the delight of pairing imagery with words to communicate anything and everything.... I was in love!
By this point in my life, I was immersed in an amazingly cool creative career working as an Artistic Director and designer, while travelling everywhere and anywhere i could in pursuit of new places, inspiration, beauty and novelty...which in turn helped feed my craft as a designer, and which moulded my gaze as an art director.
After a particularly life changing 2 month trip to Bali ( I went across the world to close my eyes and be silent - more on this later), I returned to Montreal, and this is where I met Jeremy, aka mon coeur. He was working in Canada as an airline pilot (the irony!) and we bonded instantly over our love of exploration, travel, and our European roots. He knew nothing about art, and I knew nothing about planes or navigation, so we learned (and continue to learn) a lot from each on our adventures.
Through him, over the course of almost a decade, I discovered the South of France (Jeremy's a proud southern French man and a history buff) – and even though he exposed me to customs, places and history I did not know, I in turn exposed him to the rich art history of his beloved region.
My South of France life immersion has had a profound impact on both my design work and my art. In the beginning, I had no idea how much these first trips would affect the rest of my life. While circumstance eventually brought me to settle more permanently on the French Riviera, in the first few years of exploring the South of France, the trips were a journey into discovering beautiful new places and an art history pilgrimage into my past.
My Mediterranean art collection was influenced by the colours, seascapes and coastal explorations in the South of France, Italy, Spain, Corsica, Sicily, Greece, Turkey and Croatia. If you're into bold colours and modern Mediterranean wall art, you may like this colourful art collection.
I wanted to stand in the footsteps of the artists from my childhood, looking out at the source of inspiration (the landscapes, the colours, the sea, the plants!!) where they created their magical artworks. Finally, I was here. In real life, not just in pages and imagination. I KNEW these places, visually. I had seen them and felt them through my eyes in my formative years. They were a part of me.
And now I finally I began to experience (in 3D!!) the magical scenery, climate, and colours that inspired some of the greatest artists of all time. Lucky me. There are too many too count, but here's an overview of my absolute favourite art moments I experienced in this beautiful Mediterranean region.
How French Riviera Art and And Artists Painting In the South Of France Shaped My Life, And Influenced My Art
I can't help but reflect how finding myself, through a mix of a pandemic and a thirst for art, on the Côte d'Azur closed the loop on a full circle art journey: a love of art, freedom and exploration brought me to the very place where the artworks I discovered in my childhood were created.. and which allowed me to dive deeper into my own creative journey, making new art, inspired by my surroundings.
View from my studio in Nice: the circled building is the famous Hotel Regina where Matisse created his famous decoupage works and some iconic artworks at the end of his life and artistic career.
The beautiful irony of the fact that every morning, as I sip my morning coffee and say thank you for the view, I face the Hotel Regina (the last place Matisse lived in, and created his famous cutouts that have influenced my work for so many years) is not lost on me.
Some process work and abstract art I created in Nice, influenced by plants and landscapes on the French Riviera, and by my frequent visits to the Matisse Museum. In this series I mixed analog, handcrafted design techniques I learned during my Graphic Design studies and career, my love for Matisse's simple decoupage work, Mediterranean nature and landscapes, in a collection that blends my love for minimalism and expressionism... yet highly influenced by the landscapes on the Côte d'Azur and my design background. You may also like my Minimalist art Collection.
Art, like life, is not linear. It's made up of meandering moments, impressions and moods that dance in and out of our existence, influencing what we in turn put back out into the world.
The French Riviera, as we know it, became what it is through many factors, but it is undeniable that art, and artists had a pivotal role in shaping it, and diffusing its beauty around the globe through their artworks. And if their art could reach a 6 year old kid living under an Iron Curtain dictatorship and shape the course of her life, imagine the profound influence artists painting in the South of France, and on the Côte d'Azur had on the rest of the world?
So how did French Riviera art, and artwork created in the South of France shape my life?
It taught me to look at things in a different way; that there isn't just "one way" of doing things, of seeing the world, or of depicting it. My discovery of colours, new places, and the concept that you don't have to colour within the lines that are imposed on you by convention, led me to a life filled with travel, exploration, curiosity and creativity: a dance between art and adventure, each one feeding the other.... and then, after many years of creating in both visual arts and design, finding my unique way of expressing what I see. My way.
It taught me to seek beauty, novelty and magic. To try new things. And to let go of the idea that art has to be "perfect". Once you let go of the fear of seeing things differently and the need to be like everyone else, you eventually start to find your own unique voice as an artist, and are no longer afraid to share that with the world.
And who knows? You may just change the life of someone living under a rock.
To see some of the recent artwork inspired by the colourful landscapes and seascapes on the Côte d'Azur, check out the French Riviera Art Collection. And if you're more into black and white abstract art, see how Matisse's modern art influenced my interpretation of Mediterranean landscapes in my Abstract Art Collection.