Putna in the Mirror, oil on canvas, 50x70 cm, 2011, Elite Art Gallery, Bucharest, portfolio, http://www.eliteart-gallery.com/
The Romanian and international media wrote a lot about the special relationship of Prince Charles of Wales with Romania. Now the public opinion knows the reason: among the ancestors of Prince Charles there are some famous Romanian kings, like Dracula (Vlad Tepes), as many major genealogists asserted.
One of his preferred places is Transylvania, a beautiful historical region in the center of Romania, where he bought some rural properties and spends, almost every year, his holidays.
But his first visit and his first investment ( a farm in Falticeni area) was made in my region, Bucovina, one of the most famous and beautiful places of Europe, with some Medieval monasteries/masterpieces painted inside and outside, like Voronetz, Sucevitza, Moldovitza or Putna (a kind of Mecca for all the Orthodox Romanians).
I was a journalist when Prince Charles visited Bucovina for the first time, in May 2003. He had the idea to hike the 20km between Putna and Sucevitza Monasteries, and now that trail is unofficially named ”the Prince Charles walk”.
Sucevitza, my Love, oil on board, 2010,private collection, France.
Sure, as a journalist, my dream in that period was to make an interview with Prince Charles, but the local authorities told me that this was a private visit, and no journalists were allowded to interfere with the British Royal Family distinguished guests. But the Destiny made an overhelming gift to my family:my son, Ciprian, 26 years old in 2003, met occasionally Prince Charles and his few companions, in a forest on the way from Sucevitza to Putna! After some minutes of full surprise, my son had a short dialogue with Prince Charles about the difficulty of the trail, etc.
Winter at Voronetz, oil on canvas, 40x60 cm, 2011, portfolio of Elite Art Gallery, Bucharest.
In the same year, 2003, a well-known Romanian publisher, Paralela 45, published my book ”The Sacred Empire. Monasteries and churches from Northern Moldavia” and later, in 2010, I began to paint all the major monasteries of Bucovina. I hope one day I’ll find a foreign major publisher for a possible English edition, illustrated with my artworks with monasteries from the Sacred Empire
Prince Charles in Romania, photo by Lonely Planet.
Moldovitza, Simphony in Red, oil on board, 2010, private collection, Switzerland.
