About the Artist
Andreea Cataros
Between wilderness and presence
My work exists in the space between wilderness and stillness , where nature is not observed from a distance, but felt as something alive and immediate.
I am primarily a wildlife painter, drawn especially to birds, but also to animals and landscapes. These subjects are not symbols or decoration, but living presences: fleeting, alert, and deeply connected to the environments they inhabit.
My paintings are rooted mostly in the landscapes of Transylvania, a place where wilderness still carries a sense of mystery and autonomy, where forests feel older than human memory and the air itself seems charged with quiet meaning.
I travel frequently through these regions, often working directly in nature through plein air studies, sketches and so on. These journeys are much more than documentation, but encounters: moments of attention, silence, and observation.
Through my father’s lineage, I carry a personal connection to this land, which deepens my sense of belonging to its rhythms and visual language.
The studio practice
I work primarily in oil, using the alla prima technique and acrylics; painting wet-on-wet in a direct, intuitive process that allows the work to remain immediate and alive.
This approach mirrors how I experience nature itself: transient, shifting, never fully fixed. Each painting is completed in a continuous act, preserving the energy of the moment in which it was created.
Whether in the studio or outdoors, my process is guided by observation, but shaped by instinct, movement, and atmosphere. I am not interested in idealized nature, but in its living presence: alert, fragile, and constantly changing.
Birds, animals and the living landscape
Birds are at the center of my work: not as subjects to be studied, but as presences that move between worlds: earth, air, silence and motion.
Animals and landscapes follow as extensions of this same language; fragments of a larger ecosystem that cannot be separated into parts.
I see wildlife not as something distant, but as something we are still connected to, even if we have forgotten how to listen.
Painting becomes a way of returning to that connection.
Timing & release
Over time, my work has been collected internationally through direct connection with my studio.
I release original paintings in small, intentional collections throughout the year. Many works are acquired shortly after release by collectors who follow the studio closely.
This direct relationship allows me to remain fully dedicated to painting in a slow, responsive way, guided by seasons, encounters, and moments in nature rather than external pressure.
Philosophy
I am interested in immediacy, in what happens before control takes over.
Alla prima painting allows me to stay close to that moment where perception and action meet.
It preserves uncertainty, gesture, and presence.
In a world that moves toward abstraction and reproduction, I choose directness: oil, surface, hand, and the living subject in front of me.
Each painting is a single encounter with nature: unrepeatable and complete in itself.
Based in
I work from my studio in Romania, and spend much of my time hiking the wildest mountains of Transylvania, traveling through natural landscapes for deep connection, direct observation and plein air studies, sketches and references.
These environments - mountains, forests, wetlands, open skies, and remote rural areas, continue to shape the visual language of my work.
Collectors
My paintings live in private collections across Europe, the United States and beyond.
New works are released periodically and are first shared with the Studio Collector List.
