Livia Stanciu

Livia Stanciu was born and raised in Craiova, a town in southwest Romania. She has lived in Bucharest since 1980. She left the corporate world in 2012 and devoted herself to painting. After learning the basics on her on, Livia enrolled at the School of Art in Bucharest, from which she graduated in 2017 and she is currently a student at the University of Fine Arts in Bucharest, majoring in Painting (2019).

“I am fascinated by shapes and colors, the kaleidoscope of the sky and earth, as well as the living world. I also enjoy experimenting with various subjects and techniques. But most often, I find that my style flows naturally from the subject matter and from my state of mind in the moment.”

“I paint those things which stir me. My main sources of inspiration are nature and my travels: places where I've been, thoroughly felt with all my senses, and stored as both memory and emotion (most often by taking my own pictures). Seeing such images again always transports me back in time and brings back sensations to life. When I relive emotions in this way, I can project onto the canvas a fragment of my journey and a moment in the existence of faraway places and beings. I start from an idea, but the painting transforms as I remember it, and ultimately develops a life of its own.”

“In this process, medium and technique adapt to sensation and emotion. Whether I use the brush, or the painting knife depends on whether memory is sharp and clear, or hazy and mysterious. While my favorite medium is oil painting, I occasionally revert to watercolor or acrylic, when the subject or viewer perspective demands it. For my oil paintings, I use both the brush and the painting knife, in either wide or fine strokes, and in overlapping layers.”