Romanian painter Nicoleta Nica spent more than twelve years in fashion design before coming back to the medium she first loved as a child. In an interview published by Singulart on October 26, 2026, she traces how that long detour, an extended period painting in the mountains around Poiana Marului, and academic study at the Faculty of Arts and Design in Timisoara combined to shape the luminous oil paintings she makes today.

Oil paint suits the way Nica works because it stays open. Its slow drying time lets her build compositions in fine layers, creating deep texture, smooth shifts of color and a sense of dimensional depth that faster media cannot match. Two recent works anchor the approach: Metamorphosis of Water, where lush floral forms dissolve into reflective, watery surfaces in pinks, warm golds and deep turquoise, and Echoes of a Morning, whose corals, purples and golden light capture the atmosphere of a single moment.

The turning point in her career came when she left fashion to spend an extended stretch painting in the untouched landscape of Poiana Marului, surrounded by mountains and clear waters, watching how light constantly dissolves solid forms into fluid reflections. She later consolidated that experience through research at the West University of Timisoara, where she learned to let technique serve feeling rather than forcing each brushstroke into a plan. Her master's dissertation project, Non-Space with a Function of Passage, took the idea further: a panoramic pencil drawing measuring 150 by 450 centimeters, exhibited at the National Museum of Art in Timisoara, in which an organic vortex of energy on one side gradually breaks into fragmented geometric structures on the other. Visitors could not take it in at a glance and had to walk along it, turning looking itself into an experience of time and passage.

Today Nica's central search is for light. She is working to bring a distinct inner light into every new canvas, layering oil paint and harmonious color so that light feels as if it radiates from within the painting rather than simply being depicted. Her hope is that viewers feel warmth and quiet restoration, and find their own story in the color and light.