Ion Carchelan
Premiere watercolor artist from The Republic of Moldova.
Artist of Moldova, b. 1966, Nisporeni, Moldova
Collections
Moldova, Germany, Romania, Japan, England, France, Ireland, Belgium, Turkey and United States
Ion Carchelan’s career spans nearly twenty years: he is now considered one of Moldova’s premiere painters. Carchelan began his formal arts education in childhood, at the Children’s Art School in Nisporeni, Moldova. He studied painting continuously through university, and thereafter he toured Europe to supplement his academic training with direct observation of the work of painters.
Painting is for Ion a solitary pursuit and deeply personal; he chooses not to be apart of the larger art establishment, preferring instead to live and work in the small village in which he was born. Carchelan paints a full day, everyday, usually starting in the field and finishing in his studio.
The objective subjects of Carchelan’s watercolors are the people, places and things that he sees around him — harvest scenes, distant churches, farm yards, the ordinary act ivies of daily life in rural Moldova.
His paintings draw us in and settle us in to a particular place, in a particular moment and mood. Time spent with a Carchelan is always something of a meditation.