#2. Creating as a process

Hello, dear friends, and thank you for the warm welcome to my first letter!

I started working in the studio at the beginning of February, and as always, a new year brings a blank page, a flood of ideas, and a touch of anxiety about how things will unfold. After last year’s intensity, I know I want to have more fun with my work while still focusing on long-term, meaningful projects.

Getting back into the rhythm of work is a process for me. I always start within my comfort zone—painting portraits, beginning on a smaller scale and gradually working my way up. People often ask why I paint portraits, and while the answer isn’t always obvious, I believe that drawing and painting are, at their core, ways to better understand the world. From the beginning, I was drawn to the human figure—not just for aesthetic reasons but because it’s our first introduction to human psychology, something that has always fascinated me.

Since the dawn of painting, portraits have served as evidence of existence, capturing both physical presence and deeper qualities. While I’ve painted friends and family for fun and practice, my portraits have evolved into something more—a way of exploring human character in general, sometimes even alien figures (like my series on gods from ten years ago). More abstractly, portraits are a familiar foundation for me, a constant source of play, a way to warm up to different shapes and compositions. They’re also my safe space for experimenting with colors, techniques, and materials before diving into something entirely new. So, whenever I’m searching for fresh ideas or the next project, I start with portraits. This time, I also had fun with animal-like characters.

I’ve been revisiting the idea of crowded compositions—clusters of faces—drawing inspiration from two lost paintings from my teenage years. I shared the story behind them in an Instagram post, including the funny memory of seeing them on a national television set weekends in a row. For years in my teens, I considered those paintings to be my best.

Beyond that, I’ve been working with body figures, pushing forward a project inspired by the female form that I hope to develop throughout the year. And, at some point, I found myself drawn back into my imaginary Garden of Eden—the world of my evil-enchanting flowers. Though, with spring just around the corner, it doesn’t feel so imaginary anymore. Every year, nature amazes me anew, reminding me of the sheer power it holds.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about expanding these plant-based characters onto larger canvases to see where they lead me. In my mind, they’re starting to form a vision of a better world—one where nature reclaims concrete.

In other news, I recently got back 16 framed original artworks that were exhibited at Art Safari last autumn. You can view them online, along with a longer text about the series, here: Weather Forecast – Works on Paper. If you’re interested in seeing them in person, feel free to send me a message.

Three of these works are also available as museum-quality prints: Printoteca.

www.ioana-nicoara.com