The painter who tells stories in colors: “What I wanted in life I managed to do at 41 years old”

An economist won the hearts of art lovers in front of whom she exhibited paintings and wooden works that tell stories, fulfilling her dream after decades of waiting. At work he negotiates and concludes contracts, and in the improvised workshop at home he works with his soul.

Cerasela Mirela Bradea exhibited in Slatina PHOTO: Alina Mitran

He showcased his talent after he turned 40, starting with the image of a plane taking off. One of the paintings sold at a charity auction for a price well above expectations, exceeding the price for which works by established artists have been purchased. “It was the story behind that painting,” modestly says the painter who today exhibits both in the country and abroad.

A similar painting was sold at a charity auction PHOTO: A. Mitran

Cerasela Mirela Bradea is originally from Morunglav, Olt county. He graduated from the “Ion Minulescu” High School in Slatina, majoring in Mathematics and Physics, after which he attended the Faculty of Economic Sciences. Today he works in Craiova, within the Romanian Post Office.

Six years ago he started painting and giving new shapes to the wood that “cries” to be saved, all starting from the image of a plane taking off. In love with fighter jets and passionate about quantum physics, Cerasela forgot her childhood passion for decades. Until one evening when a friend who knew his passion sent him a picture of an airplane. He then got his hands on the child's watercolors and painted him. The friend came back with a simple question: “But why don't you paint?”. It was enough for him to remember that as a child he participated in drawing competitions, that he studied carefully, for hours, the geometric figures from his father's (mathematics professor) doctoral thesis, or that he transposed in pencil the scenes from Dumas' novels.

So he started painting as if he had always done this. Thus he managed to get over the loss of his mother, and since then every work has told a story.

Fire and water, wood and glass, coal and paint

The painting and sculpture exhibition “Alchemy – fire water” arrived, on Monday, February 23, 2026, at the “Ion Minulescu” County Library in Slatina. The artist has thus come home, says Amelia Etegan, adviser at the Dolj County Center for Culture and Art and the man who said “Yes” to the idea of ​​the artist's first personal exhibition even before all the works were ready. Many years have passed since then, and Cerasela Mirela Bradea returned, last December, to the CROMATIC fairgrounds in Craiova with “Alchimie – apă foc”, the exhibition that can also be enjoyed by the people of Slatina until March 10.

“When she exhibited for the first time here in Craiova, at the CROMATIC galleries, five years ago, she was very apprehensive. She didn't know how her things would be received, she didn't know if what she expressed was okay, because every transformation at Mirela Cerasela Bradea means a step towards life. (…) It gives life to every object. Notice the woodwork behind me. It manages to turn them into something that means a lot to our existence, it expresses an experience. It expresses her experience from that moment,” said Amelia Etegan at the opening of the exhibition.

The artist pays special attention to wood PHOTO: Alina Mitran

“Not all artwork is easy to understand. Some need to be explained. It's best when these works don't need to be explained, but you feel them, or what we see here are works that you feel. Which seem to enter you or exit you. It's like an extension of the feelings that everyone has,” Valeru Ciurea, artistic advisor at the Olt County Center for Culture and Art, also described the works.

“Each of us can create art”

Cerasela artist Mirela Bradea revealed how she started to make room for color in her life again. His confession is actually a plea to follow our dream. “Each of us can create art, but we don't realize it until the moment we start doing it. Somehow, when you start doing something, it starts to lead you like a river, so it comes from inside and you can get out what you feel. That's how I started. After my mother died, in the nights when I didn't sleep, I started writing. And at some point – I'm into fighter planes – someone he sent me a plane. And I sent back that painted plane. And he said to me – Why don't you paint, that you paint so beautifully? – And I realized that since I was little I liked to paint everything around me, because I was told that you can't make a living from art.” said Cerasela Bradea.

The exhibition “Alchemy – fire water” was opened in Slatina PHOTO: Alina Mitran

In the first works, he actually exposed his experiences from those moments. After that, the artist stated, she started to notice the things around her. “I would find pieces of windshield and create a painting, or wood, or something else. That's why I say that each of us must express ourselves somehow, if someone trusts us and gives us that impulse that we can do everything we want. What I wanted in my life I managed to do at 41 years old”, mentioned Cerasela Bradea.

“Windows to the past” PHOTO: Alina Mitran

In the more than five years since he has been painting and creating works in wood, he has managed to reach the hearts of viewers. A painting of his sold at an auction to support a palliative care hospital for seriously ill children for the best price in the exhibition, although much better-known painters also exhibited alongside it. “There were other painters who had also donated, but because the story behind my painting was different, it wasn't just an image, it conveyed hope for that hospital that was being built for those children, the painting sold for three times the price of those paintings that were made by some established painters. People found themselves in my painting. That's what I tried to explain to them then, that if each of us put a dot of color on a black canvas, in the end it still looks like a black cloth, it's going to look like that universe out there, a lot of galaxies. And somehow the children are our windows to the stars and to the universe. That's why I'm trying to convey hope and a lot of blue.”explained the artist.

Blue dominates most of the artist's works PHOTO: Alina Mitran

The works of Cerasela Bradea are to be seen with the soul. The pieces of wood salvaged from various places tell their own story, the artist intervening to emphasize the idea. In the case of “Windows to the past” the idea came first not to let the old objects discovered in the grandparents' attic get lost, then followed the portraits drawn in pencil that frame them.

“Cyber ​​City” PHOTO: Alina Mitran

Cyber ​​City was created after, many years after the first viewing, Cerasela Bradea understood “Matrix” differently. Every work has a story, and beyond it is what it awakens in the mind of the viewer. The painter confessed to “Adevărul” that she would not part with some works, no matter what amount was offered to her, because they are the expression of special feelings.