Hello!
My name is Carmen Costea
My motto is:
“Your talent is God’s gift to you. What you do with it is your gift to God.”
- Leo Buscaglia
As a child, my talent stood out in my primary school drawing class, and my mother was advised by my teacher to enrol me into the local art school. My mother thought that I would die of hunger if I was a painter, so she guided me towards the exact sciences instead. Luckily, I really loved science because it is set in stone, and thus, I could really get to the bottom of it.
I rediscovered the pleasure of drawing almost ten years ago, after a tragic incident happened in my life. Drawing became an escape from real life.
One year later, I became fascinated by a watercolour tutorial on YouTube, and I tried to paint in watercolours myself. At first, I tried to teach myself, without any help. My paintings back then looked like anything but watercolour.
About a year after this, I met Iuliana Florea Lucan – a wonderful artist and teacher, who was very honest to me and said, “You know nothing about watercolour.” She pulled me to reality, and with her help, I started to learn the techniques behind painting in watercolour.
The lesson in which I started to understand the meaning of watercolour was the class in which I painted with Indian ink. In that moment, I observed how beautiful the pigment dilutes into water and spreads on the paper. I was fascinated. I learned that colours and water are very hard to control, but at the same time they challenge you to play with them. To obtain a beautiful painting in watercolour you have to let the colour dance with water on the paper, merely suggesting a direction for it to go. I attended Iuliana’s watercolour classes weekly, improving my skills, and I paint by myself in every spare moment I have. These times are relaxing moments for my soul, an escape to another world – the world of imagination, colours, peace.
Through trial and error, I learned that it is not enough to know how to paint. You also need quality materials to ensure an awesome piece of work is completed. My favourite tools that I like to use are Canson Moulin du Roy, Arches or Saunders Waterford – 100% cotton paper, and Winsor & Newton, Schmincke, White Nights St. Petersburg or Sonnet watercolours. I also use squirrel, horse or synthetic hair brushes, and I have some from Da Vinci, Raphaël, Tintoretto, ProArte along with a few other brands.
My favourite techniques include trying to reproduce the texture of materials such as wood, glass, pearls, lace, embroidery or ceramic, the transparency of water or tea, and thus, I like to paint still life. I like to reproduce aristocratic, vintage, delicate things, but also I like to capture raw facial expressions in my watercolours.
Later, I discovered soft pastels which is my favorite painting medium and now, I feel that it is the medium that suits me best. As brands I have used Schminke, Windsor&Newton, Sennelier, Rembrandt, Faber Castell, Toison D'or, KOH-I-NOR, pastel pencils from Cretacolor, Faber Castell, Derwent, but not only.
Currently, I am a 3rd year student at The Art School im Bucharest and I’m learning graphics with Antonia Gorgoja and painting with Iuliana Florea Lucan. I do oil painting at school, but only there due to the strong chemical smell.
One day someone asked me if I would like to paint some bags so that they could be put up for auction and the money raised would be used to help children with autism. Initially, I thought that bags could not be painted with watercolours or pastels and I refused, but that night I thought why not try to buy and paint bags with textile colours. So I painted a few bags that brought money to the association, making me proud of my attempt.
Trying to fill my time with beautiful and relaxing things, I remembered how I used to knit when my girls were little and make them funny clothes, and I started knitting again, mainly for myself, but also for them or my friends on their birthdays.
When I visited my daughters last Christmas, my eldest gave me some knitting yarns and asked me to crochet myself some, and so I started crocheting and made my first cardigans for the summer. Beginning to crochet, I tried some Amigurumi, and I loved making them and giving them as gifts to my loved ones.
I like making things with my hands and because of that I tried also to create candles and clay little objects.
Creating things bring me joy and makes me feel useful, and I love making other people happy by gifting them.
