Romanian Artist Creates By Imagining the Possibilities of Fluid Acrylics

As an artist, Adriana Groza embraces possibility over perfection.

She doesn’t work from sketches. The inspiration behind Adriana Groza Art comes from doing, not preplanning.

Energy, movement and texture infuse her vibrant, abstract work expressed on canvas with fluid acrylics. That means she doesn’t use a paint brush or a palate or even an easel.

Instead of traditional painting, Adriana pours. And swipes and blends. A hairdryer with a diffuser is among her favorite tools. She uses straws and often improvises.

“I go with the flow of what feels right,” says Adriana, a member of the Princeton Art Collective who shows annually at Rose Squared Art Shows.

Nature inspires her, particularly its resilience to flourish in a new environment, which describes her own art journey. Adriana is a Romanian immigrant who enjoyed being creative growing up but never had any illusions of making a career of it.

“I was raised with the mindset of being pragmatic and studying things that would get you somewhere financially,” she said.

That explains her degree in business administration and early career in sales. Deciding she needed a graduate degree, Adriana weighed interior design against project management.

Practical won again.

Shortly after marriage in 2004, Adriana moved to New Jersey, which remains home today. She and husband, Dan, bought their first home five years later and Adriana wanted to fill the empty walls. But nothing in the stores spoke to her.

“I didn’t really understand the concept of original art,” she said. That led her to dabbling in making art of her own, which opened her eyes to possibilities. Adriana met a local painter skilled in textured oils and saturated colors.

Something he said resonated. “If you want to make a painting, you’ve got to use paint.”

Raising children delayed Adriana’s plans to seriously pursue art, but when a friend reaffirmed how naturally gifted she was, she started to believe. The idea was still in its infancy but selling her first painting at a show to a customer who didn’t know her was a defining moment.

“I received validation,” Adriana said. “I could do this, and people would connect with my work.”

Even then, she wasn’t visualizing making a living as an artist. But she was eager to explore what was possible. Hundreds of hours of YouTube videos introduced her to fluid acrylics, and that became her chosen medium.

It’s a literal labor of love as Adriana typically creates on large canvases. She doesn’t pour her mixture of paint from a paper cup as many online videos demonstrate. With her canvas often resting on four oversized containers of kitty litter, she pours paint that is the consistency of heavy cream from quart jugs.

Doing that for hours requires upper body strength she gained through yoga and weight training.

“Once you commit to start, you have to finish,” she said. “Everything is done in one sitting.”

The process can take five or six hours, time and then days to dry. During that time, Adriana is mindful of being distraction free so she can listen to what she’s feeling to guide her steps.

Fluid acrylics “is unscripted and free and freeing. It’s filled with all the good things that I should be manifesting in all aspects of my life,” she said. “Painting is my safe space where it’s OK to be as I am as I’m feeling. It’s about accepting a lot of what happens because I’ve caused it to happen.”

For the first time this year, Adriana’s work is part of a museum exhibition. Trenton City Museum showcased her paintings as part of an exhibit highlighting local artists from Eastern Europe. It is a milestone in her career that fills her with gratitude.

“For years I had applied for group shows and gotten rejected from that museum,” she said. “Last year the curators approached me and invited me to be in the museum.”

Her work also hangs in the New Jersey Department of Taxation and in local businesses in addition to the many homes. Adriana is a white glove artist capable of virtual staging and installation.

Rose Squared Art Shows hold a special place in her heart because they were among her first. She made friends among the community of artists there and appreciates the staff that once saved her work during a destructive thunderstorm when she wasn’t onsite.

Find Adriana’s booth at the Rose Squared Art Show Fall Brookdale Park (Oct. 18-19).