Ala Ilescu

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Ala Ilescu is a Canadian artist who was born in Eastern Europe. She is a former circus artist and juggler. Being part of a circus family, she traveled everywhere around the world on several tours. She has a University degree in show management.


At the age of 26, she decided to emigrate to Canada, where she met her husband. They have two children together. While in Canada, she retired from circus life and explored other careers like customer service and real estate.


Ala was always a creative person. In 2018 she started painting, exploring different mediums and styles. "I feel like I found myself when I discovered watercolor".
Ala loves painting women's portraits in abstract, fantasy and surrealist styles.
Ala gets her inspiration by reading poems.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

Ala Ilescu is a Canadian artist who works primarily in watercolor. She paints beautiful realistic portraits of women and adds an expressive layer of emotion with color and surrealist elements.
She likes to combine the spontaneity of this unpredictable medium with realistic, detailed elements, achieved through a layering technic.
Her paintings are mostly inspired by poetry. She likes to illustrate what poets beautifully describe in words. Ala wants her art to evoke feelings and strong reactions, by challenging the mind and intellect on different subjects.

$400.00 CAD

Watercolor on paper.

11x15"

Original watercolor artwork "A man isn't truly free enough to fly" 2023 by Ala Ilescu Watercolor on 140 lb paper 11" x 15".Vertical position. Signed. This is the original painting from the art/ poetry book that I published in 2023 "My sad is sadder than yours" Here is the poem featured with this painting:
on a sunny day
a blue fluttering butterfly
decided to spend time with humans
to get to know them better
as she was dancing and flowing
in the air from house to house
she could hear different stories
good ones and bad ones
but in all of them
humans would love to be free
they wished they could fly
while they had been chained
to their made boundaries
so she understood
why humans didn't have wings
she understood
a human isn't truly free enough to fly

Mehran Hashemi

Ala Ilescu

$400.00 CAD

Watercolor on paper.

11x15"

Original watercolor artwork "Cursed beauty" 2023 by Ala Ilescu Watercolor on 140 lb paper 11" x 15".Vertical position. Signed. This is the original painting from the art/ poetry book that I published in 2023 "My sad is sadder than yours" Here is the poem featured with this painting:
I wish I were a girl physically
Or at least a boy mentally
I wish people could see me
Without judging my beauty

Mehran Hashemi

Ala Ilescu

$400.00 CAD

Watercolor on paper.

11x15"

Original watercolor artwork "A child with no identity" 2023 by Ala Ilescu Watercolor on 140 lb paper 11" x 15".Vertical position. Signed. This is the original painting from the art/ poetry book that I published in 2023 "My sad is sadder than yours" Here is the poem featured with this painting:
i am a child with no identity
an angel with no face
i am trapped with no way out
home was never a safe place

i stare at this wall
and no one comes to comfort me
rejected from the moment I was born
a life of abuse and misery

the many masks I have to wear
just to make it through each day
i pray for help, but to no avail
i can't keep the monster away

'but monsters aren't even real', you say
so, why do they always come?
there's a monster climbing the stairs right now
it's the one I call my mum.
[A child with no identity]
Susannah Lee

Ala Ilescu

$400.00 CAD

Watercolor on paper.

15x11"

Original watercolor artwork "YOU hold me hostage" 2023 by Ala Ilescu Watercolor on 140 lb paper 11" x 15".Vertical position. Signed. This is the original painting from the art/ poetry book that I published in 2023 "My sad is sadder than yours" Here is the poem featured with this painting:
you moved in with me
little by little
step by step
stored your clothes
in my drawer
placed your slippers
at my door
(quietly)
wrote your name down
on my doorbell
put your toothbrush
next to mine
step by step
little by little
you moved in with me

so gradually
I didn’t see
or hear
you coming

and now you decide
whether I sleep
or lay awake all night
whether I eat
or feel nauseous all the time

you decide
whether I get up
or stay in bed all day
whether I step outside
or hide myself away

you hold me hostage
in my own body
in my own home
rob me of everything
I thought I owned

it’s not mine anymore
it’s yours
nothing’s mine anymore
it’s all yours.

[ my disease is a freeloader.]
Michaela Malek

Ala Ilescu

$400.00 CAD

Watercolor on paper.

11x15"

Original watercolor artwork "Do not underestimate me" 2023 by Ala Ilescu Watercolor on 140 lb paper 11" x 15".Vertical position. Signed. This is the original painting from the art/ poetry book that I published in 2023 "My sad is sadder than yours" Here is the poem featured with this painting:

do not underestimate me
do not taunt my sensitivity
do not abuse my caring capacity
i have healed from your cruelty
i have set my inner child free
i am as fragile as I want to be
my fragility connects me to life's beauty
your ill-treatment was the making of me
i no longer care what you believe
it is I who holds the key.
Susannah Lee

Ala Ilescu

$400.00 CAD

Watercolor on paper.

11x15"

Original watercolor artwork "Here I stand 3" 2023 by Ala Ilescu Watercolor on 140 lb paper 11" x 15".Vertical position. Signed. This is the original painting from the art/ poetry book that I published in 2023 "My sad is sadder than yours".

Ala Ilescu

$400.00 CAD

Watercolor on paper.

11x15"

Original watercolor artwork "Here I stand" 2023 by Ala Ilescu Watercolor on 140 lb paper 11" x 15".Vertical position. Signed. This is the original painting from the art/ poetry book that I published in 2023 "My sad is sadder than yours" Here is the poem featured with this painting:
Breakdown

i am still standing
after things that I have seen
feeling better now
than I have ever been.
i have searched my soul
broke free of my past
discovering myself
at long last.
shed fears and anxieties
that for so long kept me down
now swimming on the current
on which I almost drowned.
so here I stand
tall and proud
looking forward to a new tomorrow
i have brushed off all doubts and fears
and have no more sorrows.

Donna McCabe

Ala Ilescu

$400.00 CAD

Watercolor on paper.

11x15"

Original watercolor artwork "Here I stand 2" 2023 by Ala Ilescu Watercolor on 140 lb paper 11" x 15".Vertical position. Signed. This is the original painting from the art/ poetry book that I published in 2023 "My sad is sadder than yours" .

Ala Ilescu

$400.00 CAD

Watercolor on paper.

11x15"

Original watercolor artwork "In full bloom" 2023 by Ala Ilescu Watercolor on 140 lb paper 11" x 15".Vertical position. Signed. This is the original painting from the art/ poetry book that I published in 2023 "My sad is sadder than yours" Here is the poem featured with this painting:
Endurance

under sheer pressures
and many storms weathered
i have persevered, stood tall
now is my time
to bloom and blossom
celebrate the very roots
that kept me going
helped me through it all.

Donna McCabe

Ala Ilescu

$400.00 CAD

Watercolor on paper.

11x15"

Original watercolor artwork "Pressure" 2023 by Ala Ilescu Watercolor on 140 lb paper 11" x 15".Vertical position. Signed. This is the original painting from the art/ poetry book that I published in 2023 "My sad is sadder than yours" Here is the poem featured with this painting:
i feel extra blood
within my head
that wants to burst
as my heart bleeds
for my body
and sheds tears
for my soul

pressure

Mehran Hashemi

Ala Ilescu