Ala Ilescu
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.
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
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
$400.00
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
$400.00
Watercolor on paper.
11x15"
Original watercolor artwork "Indulged in the apple" 2023 by Ala Ilescu Watercolor on 140 lb paper 11" x 15".Vertical position. Signed.
$400.00
Watercolor on paper.
11x15"
Original watercolor artwork "Life's lemonade" 2023 by Ala Ilescu Watercolor on 140 lb paper 11" x 15".Vertical position. Signed.
$400.00
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
$400.00
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
$400.00
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".
$400.00
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
$400.00
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" .
$400.00
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
$400.00
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
$400.00
Watercolor on paper.
11x15"
Original watercolor artwork "I never knew I was a lotus" 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’m a flower bulb
that was told
it wasn’t meant to bloom
so i never tried
i dipped my world
in pitch black color
and shut out the sun
for years
i turned into the blot
they reduced me to
defined myself by the dirt
i was tossed into
my soul overgrew
with brushwood
and thorns
like a garden
that’s been neglected
and forlorn
i never knew i could shine
through the darkness
of past experiences
i never knew i could rise
through the murky waters
and float upon the surface
i never knew i could bloom
untainted by the mud
from which i emerged
i never knew i was a lotus - not a rose
i grow in different places
i bloom in different ways
but that doesn’t mean
that i’m not worth the same.
[ lotus. ]
Michaela Malek