RADU SUCIU – ARTIST STATEMENT
I am a self-taught visual artist. I started working on my first three paintings two years ago when I turned twenty six. I recall an inner voice telling me what size of canvas to buy and what to do with and on it. I finished these paintings in about a month, and I worked on each one for as long as that inner voice would keep describing the details to be drawn. I titled the first painting The Eye Through which God Sees Us; it is now titled The Creator’s Eye. The next one was the depiction of a grossly overfed humanoid creature. The third is a self-portrait as an inspired creator; in this case, the voice stopped guiding me, so I continued without its help and the result was an abstract entity wearing a woman’s shoe.
Then I stopped painting altogether. One afternoon, a few months later, I was visited by a friend who is a lawyer and who had never been to my house before. He looked for a long time at the paintings hanging on my walls and asked me who had painted them.Smiling, I told him that I had authored the three of them. He asked me if I could do two for him as well, of different sizes. He bought the canvasses which I practically filled in over the course of the next few days. I started with the smaller one and I painted a human eye and a tongue sticking out of a nameless face. On the larger one I started painting what later became The Genesis. He liked both of them well enough to purchase three additional canvasses, and I filled them with the same dedication as the first two. I continued painting for other people and they, too, were pleased with the things I came up with in these paintings of mine.

SEAHORSE, 2016, oil on canvas, 80×70 cm

I think I found my vocation, at least as far as my present and future life is concerned. I paint with ease, and I’ve noticed that when each work is finished all the components of the painting are in the right place. I find that painting is a liberating experience which allows me to spend the energy I accumulate through the day. Additionally, as I paint I create a world of my own, and there are no boundaries—although there is structure and organization—to how I can use my imagination to shape my own life on canvas.
The variety of colors I use aids in getting to know myself better as an artist. In my opinion, any manifestation already found in final form in the mind of an artist is authentic. And only an authentic painter deserves to be given a chance to express with visual icons those concepts that cannot be expressed in words.
Some of my paintings may seem a little aggressive or downright violent. That may be because I use vivid colors to stress specific messages I want to communicate to each of the recipients through paintings tailored to fit their personality. I’ve noticed that my style has changed since about a year ago: in addition to oils, I am now using ink and pastel colors as well, and no longer fill in all the blank spots on the canvas like I used to do. I use a variety of curved lines as well as straight ones, and more recently I started drawing circular shapes, as well as abstract shapes of my own invention.
I want you to be introduced to my world through my paintings. It’s a world that desires to become known. The passion for color has always been part of me, even as a child, but it’s only since two years ago that it started pouring out of me. I would like to continue to paint and I am curious as to what stylistic direction my painting could take. It seems to evolve continuously, just like I do.

MOZART’S TRILLS NO. 2, 2017, oil on canvas, 50×100 cm

Painting has helped me understand that there is a fantastic world out there, a world which often we cannot see, but which we can imagine. I would like to fully explore my abilities and test my limits as a painter. I am only just beginning to really feel, understand, and have others understand what I do. Given the time, and with assiduous work I am sure I will be able to master my chosen field.
As a child I used to paint with no specific goal in mind, somewhat at random as far as the subject-matter goes, and that’s why my fifth-grade art teacher loved my work. All of my classmates believed in formal perfection and realistic reproduction. I have always thought that color IS form. It can also be used to fill in form, but the form itself does not have to be perfect. The color and message, however, have to be perfect. One can best express one’s ideas and message through color. I also think that there is a concordance between painting and words, and that they pretty much signify the same thing.
Instead of starting each work by creating an even background on which to paint a variety of small, abstract graphic elements and larger geometric shapes, I go the other way around and start with the elements and shapes themselves. They are all of my own devising and I carefully trace them individually on a raw canvas. Only after all of them are present in the painting do I fill in the adjoining blank spaces with color. This way the elements and transitional spaces are linked through color to form a single, large unit, just like a puzzle.

BRAIN 1, 2016, oil on canvas, 100×100 cm

Recently I have changed my technique and have adopted a more traditional approach, whereby I first create the background and then proceed to the tracing of the small, abstract graphic elements.
I foresee my painting taking a better, clearer, yet more fantastic road. I see my works withstanding the test of time not because they are special, but because long before I set brush to canvas I already feel intensely every line, dot, and splash of color. From then on, it is simply a matter of giving colored substance to these conceptual elements, which I carefully arrange and combine so that each takes its rightful place on canvas. It may be that the Universe is experimenting with me through these paintings; it also looks like this same Universe is becoming more and more satisfied with me.
In the future I will continue using concepts, colors, and graphic symbols which I suspect originate in a pink nebulosity—in fact, my subconscious self. I will continue seeing my painting as both enchantment and a manifestation of authenticity, and I believe that staying true to myself will enable other people to identify themselves with the core of my art.

BRAIN 2, 2016, oil on canvas, 100×100 cm

Although for me personally all art is partially playing, I do work hard at playing and I believe this is apparent in my paintings.
I plan on dedicating my second solo exhibition to my parents, and the next one to my lover, who has worked equally hard at helping me become the best I can as far as my art is concerned. I don’t think art is an exclusive attempt to express either good or bad: I rather think that art encompasses and incorporates both.
Thank you.
English Version: Luminița Florea

BRAIN 3, 2016, oil on canvas, 100×100 cm