A chronicle of the efforts of one artist to manifest a new creative vision.
Sylvia Baldeva
Art that moves me, that most inspires me, has a dreamlike quality. It is more symbolic than realistic. It emerges from somewhere deep with a message that, however vague, is somehow potent. Examples include Bob Dylan’s songs, Picasso’s paintings and improvised jazz music.
In painting, the art that most interests me has a relaxed freedom about it. Sylvia Baldeva, a French artist of Bulgarian origin, is one whose work I turn to for inspiration.
Her paintings carry the quality the Taoists called wu wei — effortless action, nothing forced, nothing withheld.
Here's an example:
Her technique captures the true beauty of watercolor as a medium with its delicate washes and vague shapes. She lived under communism until her teens and that, she says, gave her a love of freedom. She describes her art as an “ode to freedom.”
You can watch an interview of her here.
You can see more of her art here and here.
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