Blanche Serban is a Romanian-born American painter who combines elements of abstract expressionism with impressionism. Born in Bucharest, Romania, she studied painting at the School of Arts in Bucharest with Nicolae Iorga. After getting a B.A. and a License in psychotherapy from the University of Bucharest in 1996, she completed a M.A. in psychology at Syracuse University. Serban lives and paints in Storrs, Connecticut, and often summers in the south of France. Her works are in collections in the United States, Romania, France, Germany, U.K., and South Korea, and she has shown often in one-person and group exhibitions in the United States and abroad. She is represented by Chabot Gallery, Rhode Island.

STATEMENTInspired by the local landscapes, Blanche Serban invents bright forests that make a reference to something that transcends the immediate experience and understanding. The practice of daily painting allows the familiar images to evolve on canvas into fresh visions that distance themselves from any particular place and encourage the viewers to find an equivalent in their own memory. The result is a body of work that celebrates the vibrancy of life and art.

Starting with a planned and controlled approach of each painting, the artist surrenders to the spontaneity of the creative process, taking the liberty to edit the reality and loosen up the brushstroke. Thus, the realism of the work becomes open to abstraction. The effect of light is explored both by building up the paint, modulating the color and texture, and by removing it, in a gestural technique reminiscent of graffiti. The forests give form to our inner journeys to formless and beyond.

In this entangled forest
you are the hidden treasure –
the owner of infinity.