Lotta Teale ROI – Moldovan Summers: A Museum Exhibition in Chisinau co-hosted by the ROI

Lotta Teale ROI has been living in Moldova for the past 18 months and since arriving has painted a collection of new work directly inspired by her new surroundings. The paintings were exhibited at the national museum and it was co-hosted by ROI. The opening attracted several ministers, heads of UN agencies and ambassadors and three television crews. Lotta has written a wonderful account of the experience and there also some images and a video to enjoy.

“This Autumn I was lucky enough to exhibit my works on Moldova in a solo show at the National Museum of Moldovan History, co-hosted by the ROI.

The exhibition entitled ‘Moldovan Summers’ featured about 30 paintings made over the course of the 18 months I’ve been living in Chisinau. For those less familiar with Moldova, it is a small country on the edge of Europe, situated between Romania and Ukraine, with the capital only 3 hours drive to Odessa, though sadly we haven’t been able to go there for obvious reasons. Unlike Romania, it was a part of the USSR until 1991, and while the country has developed significantly in recent years, this shadow still hangs over it. It has the lowest tourist population in Europe, is characterised by significant emigration of youth, its weather is these days similar to England, it is in many ways poor and there are high levels of depression.

Yet it also has elements of life that have been lost elsewhere and can be appreciated, particularly perhaps by outsiders. Life is slow and entertainments are homemade: many people have a grandmother living in the countryside, yards are productive with grape vines and fruit trees, the picking and preserving season are an important part of the annual routine. People spend time on handicrafts and most things are mended when they break. Every other weekend there is some sort of festival with locally made products. Unlike many cities, Chisinau is very green, with plants allowed to grow wild along the small streets lined by one storey houses. Because I paint from life, whenever I’m in a new country I inevitably paint the things around me. So in Moldova I found myself painting still lifes of the berries and grape vines, landscapes of sunflower fields, and architectural paintings of little blue cottages or the glistening onion domes of the Orthodox monasteries. I found myself a little samovar in the market which became a reliable prop, and would buy flowers from babushkas in headscarves on the street.

The nature of plein air painting is such that you stand for long periods quietly observing your subject, and in Moldova I’ve found that gradually nature comes alive around me, perhaps not noticing I’m still there. A fox cub eating mulberries a metre or so behind me; a colony of frogs singing their glorious chorus better than any opera; butterflies enthusiastically fluttering around the lilac branches I’m painting.

All of this became part of my paintings and my exhibition at the national museum co-hosted by ROI. I was so pleased with the reception of the show. The opening attracted several ministers, heads of UN agencies and ambassadors, and to my immense surprise three television crews. The common thread in visitors’ comments were that they were so pleased that an outsider was able to see the beauty in a place which is often denigrated by its own residents. Several also told me about individual memories brought back by specific paintings, from their grandmother’s diligent limewashing of the family cottage to the time their mother’s aubergine exploded. I felt so happy to be able to evoke such memories, and privileged to be able to show my paintings in such a prestigious venue.

I am particularly grateful to ROI for co-hosting the show with the national museum – it could not have been a more suitable partnership and warm words of praise were delivered about both ROI and the Museum by the various dignitaries at the opening of the show.

The complete set of works shown at the exhibition can be seen here.”