The female figure appears constantly in my watercolors, almost always as a symbol of resilience, strength, and growth. But the Inspiring Women series was a turning point in my work: here, I didn’t want to work solely with symbols, but rather to create a true portrait of womanhood. I wanted to accompany women through different moments in their lives—when they make important decisions, when they overcome difficult times, when they learn to live in harmony with their inner world while daily life goes on as if nothing were happening.
The face we show and what’s going on inside
Many women work, care for others, socialize, and seem to be doing just fine. What often goes unseen is what they’re feeling inside. They live highly demanding lives day in and day out and are expected to put on a brave face even when they’re broken. Some of these watercolors depict precisely that gap between what is shown and what is experienced.
These are women going through tough times that aren’t always openly expressed: difficult days, silent tears, periods when they’ve felt trapped inside even though everything seemed normal from the outside. In my watercolors, these women, who have endured so much, begin to spread their wings: they want to fly freely, reclaim their voices and their space.
Painting What I Couldn’t Put Into Words
This series was, for me, a great source of inspiration during a time of profound inner transformation. It helped me express in my watercolors what I couldn’t say with words. They were my voice: each painting became a way to bring out everything I needed to say but didn’t know how to put into words.
These are women who appear to lead easy lives but are weathering storms within, feeling silenced or oppressed. In these paintings, I wanted to honor that silent strength and transform their experience into a landscape of color, symbolism, and shared hope.
“What Kind of World Do We Want?”: A Question in the Form of a Portrait
In works like What Kind of World Do We Want?, this conflict becomes more visible than ever. I depict a beautiful young woman who looks directly at us, with intensity, almost pleading for help that few perceive. Her hands are completely bound by iron chains that immobilize her and prevent her from acting.
It is a metaphor for today’s false freedom: many women seem to have it all on the surface, but they carry invisible shackles that prevent them from determining their own destiny. On the outside, the world sees confidence, presence, a life that “works”; on the inside, there is tension, fear, difficult decisions, and a deep desire to break those chains. This work distills, in a single image, the idea that runs through the entire series.
This way of depicting the female figure caught the attention of international critics. In its review of Women Who Inspire, the Whitney Gallery highlighted how my watercolors reveal what is not visible at first glance and capture inner feelings with intense human empathy, portraying real women—far removed from stereotypes—each portrait reflecting identity, sensitivity, and determination.