Artist Statement: The Nouveau Gardens

 

Artist Statement: The Nouveau Gardens

Title of the Work: The Nouveau Gardens Medium: Acrylic on canvas Size: 16 panels, each 12" x 24", forming a composite work of 96" x 24" Year: 2025 Artist: Alexandra Popescu-York

My featured work, "The Nouveau Gardens," is an intricate composition of flowers (irises, magnolias, lilies and peonies) rendered in soft pastel tones. It's a radiant homage to the Art Nouveau masters, particularly Alphonse Mucha, and embodies an almost mystical stillness. Through my signature precision and emotional nuance, the piece highlights layered petals, curved lines, and ethereal hues that echo the rhythms of both nature and femininity. This floral dreamscape channels not just visual elegance but a deeper meditation on resilience, grace, and identity.

In "The Nouveau Gardens," I explore the symbiotic connection between femininity and nature, drawing upon the lyrical elegance of Art Nouveau. Inspired by Mucha's visual poetry and his fluid interplay of organic forms and the female figure, this work reimagines the garden as both a personal and universal space of transformation.

Peonies and irises — chosen for their sculptural contours and symbolic resonance — emerge as central motifs. They embody the layered facets of femininity: vulnerability, sensuality, endurance, and rebirth.

Color is at the heart of this narrative. My palette is deliberately soft, yet emotionally charged—blush pinks, faded lavenders, pale celadons, and powdery blues create a visual hush, like dawn mist over a garden just before it wakes. These hues suggest gentleness but carry an undercurrent of quiet strength. Ivory and gold accents introduce warmth and timelessness, while delicate touches of silvery gray provide a subtle tension—echoing the complexity of the feminine psyche. The colors are not confined within rigid outlines but flow in organic transitions, blurring the boundaries between figure and ground, dream and memory. Each panel contributes a tonal rhythm to the overall composition, as if the entire work breathes in gradients rather than lines.

This multi-panel composition unfolds as a contemplative narrative. It is less a depiction of a garden and more a meditation on inner landscapes — a place where softness becomes strength, and stillness reveals depth.