Nelly Vrânceanu

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F.B. Profile © Toporaş online art gallery 

Nelly Vrânceanu takes great interest in depicting landscapes that immerse the viewer in a sight ruled by emotions even if the hues are calm and there is not much contrast. She chooses to speak about feelings because she believes they accentuate our values rather than just helping us obtain things.

'Advocating for or against something makes us chose every time to be on one side or the other', she says. 'In such a way we could create a utility for any art object. But then who would speak about feelings? Who would move the fibres of perception? What would the colours be? What would the values be?'

In her paintings, Vrânceanu refers to sadness or objects of contemplation, the infinite, death and light – everything she considers important and a worthwhile landmark on her artistic journey.

There is a metaphor behind every landscape painted.

'Painting for me is not just a view, not just a story, not just a location where I am or where I work, but it is a metaphor, a completed action of a narration of an illustrated story', the artist says.

Vrânceanu’s works have a vague sonority of the romanticism style with a slightly metaphysical discontent with society and with oneself -- a niche she considers unexplored in Moldova. Her intention is to make the viewer search in order to discover what is hidden in the mystery of the sombre colours.

Choosing to work in opposition to realism, Vrânceanu moves away from depicting something in the foreground as a starting point for her story and opens instead a broad view from an aerial perspective characteristic to the luminism style, from which she also adopts the concealing of visible brushstrokes.

But she retains a slightly naturalist approach – tighter and more traditional brushwork – to depict landscapes with gloomier weather. The tonal qualities of her paintings remind us now and then of the Barbizon school technique of loose brushwork and softness of form.

Vrânceanu studied fine arts at a pedagogical university in Moscow. Nevertheless she considers herself more of an autodidact eager to learn painting techniques continuously: painting for her is more than simply a profession.

'Painting is not a handcraft or a therapy for me, but it is a necessity. If I feel stagnation in the process of work or that I am inhibited in some parameters, I cannot work', the artist confesses.

Vrânceanu believes passionately in spiritual freedom and individual creativity. She cherishes freedom of choice and the chance of creating works with attention to detail and an originality that represents her true self. 

She was born in 1963 in Frumoasa village, in the Călăraşi district of Moldova, 80 kilometres northwest of Chisinau. But because she established herself in Dordogne, in southwestern France, several years ago, her recent paintings are a mixture of symbolic elements from exceptionally beautiful landscapes, from the countrysides of both Moldova and France.

The artist finds similarities between Moldova and France: limestone, cliffs, vineyards, trees and water. She also emphasizes the differences between these two geographical spaces. The intention is to create her own country representing her combined – Moldovan and French – surroundings.

Vrânceanu is not tempted to imitate; she aims to express her own voice, her unique inner vision.