About me
Antea Delpin was born in 1993 in Rijeka.
She graduated from the High School of Applied Arts in Rijeka, and in 2017 she graduated from the Academy of Applied Arts at the University of Rijeka, obtaining the title of Master of Applied Arts.
It is from nature, the sea, the salty air and everything that surrounds her where she draws inexhaustible inspiration for the creation of her works of art - paintings, mosaics, jewelry, sculptures, chandeliers, and all other types of art and design.
The sound of the movement of the waves, the unexplored depths of the sea and everything in them encourages her thinking and creating.
Thus, the first series of paintings on the topic of marine organisms is created, and research in this direction is constantly extended through her further work.
She mostly paints in the technique of acrylic combined with acrylic markers.
So far, she has participated in numerous workshops, symposiums, group and solo exhibitions.
You can read more about the artist in the following text:
Behind the brand stands Antea Delpin, born in 1993 in Rijeka.
She graduated from the High School of Applied Arts in Rijeka, and in 2017 graduated from the Academy of Applied Arts of the University of Rijeka, earning the title of Master of Applied Arts.
She has been interested in art since she was young. Since kindergarten she attended various art workshops where she had her first exhibitions. At the age of two, they gave her crayons and brushes, and she still keeps her first watercolors, which were mostly brushstrokes in silver and blue (probably depictions of the sea). From an early age, she has had a great love for the sea, being at the sea, and all the unusual inhabitants that live in its unexplored depths.
She has been staying on the island of Pag since birth, where her family roots brought her. She spent a lot of time here with her grandmother and grandfather, lived here for three years as an adult, and still often stays here when she is looking for inspiration.
It is from nature, the sea, the hills, the Velebit, the salty air and everything that surrounds her here that she draws inexhaustible inspiration for creating her works of art - paintings, mosaics, jewelry, sculptures, and all other types of art and design.
However, she mostly draws inspiration for her works from the sea. Winter trips to the sea are special to her, when everything is calm and peaceful, when your fingers freeze while you try to catch some squid with various techniques from the boat and the shore.
Every trip to the sea by boat is inspiring, because if she is not fishing, then she is enjoying and meditating with the sounds of the waves, the breeze and the gentle rocking.
By visiting wild beaches, in addition to garbage (more in the post about ecology), she also collects driftwood, as well as colorful pieces of ceramics and wave-shaped glass (which she uses in her work).
The brand name came from a family nickname:
Madeliefie in Afrikaans means daisy, that was the nickname given to her by her grandfather when she was only a few months old, and which has followed her in the family throughout her life. She was looking for the language in which that nickname would sound most effective, and so she chose the African Madeliefie.
The idea for the brand arose in the process of creating her master thesis at the Academy of Applied Arts. In that period, she started making mosaics in driftwood. Her wish was to bring new life to discarded and damaged wood in the form of colorful stone elements, to combine two different energies and types of materials; to give stone and wood a new form, life and coexistence, symbiosis, but in the form of a work of art. The thesis consisted of three large pieces of wood, in the hollows and cracks of which she incorporated a mosaic. While making it, she also experimented with the smaller, neglected pieces of driftwood, and that's how she came up with the idea of making a necklace pendant out of one.
She liked the result very much, and continued to make mosaic miniatures. She had a desire to make her wooden mosaics more accessible to a wide audience, as well as wearable. They are actually wearable art.
Although she returned to her first love, painting, she started the idea for the brand by making mosaic jewelry.
MOSAIC
She has always researched and expressed herself in paintings, but she was also interested in creating with her own hands, in the sculptural technique. At the academy, she opted for the department of painting, and mosaic could be chosen as one of the subjects. This subject immediately intrigued her, and although painting was the main subject, she spent more time in the mosaic workshop.
Mosaic, as a combination of painting and sculpture, gives her the possibility of creating two-dimensional and three-dimensional living pictures made of rows of multi-colored pebbles.
Among other things, the mosaic helped to unite her passionate collecting of materials and arranging them into one kind of permanent painting.
PAINTING
She likes to paint with broad brushstrokes and lively colors. She believes that in the time we live in, full of uncertainty, environmental disasters, wars, pandemics, etc., we need to bring joy into our lives through colors. She is not limiting herself with the questions of which colors go well with which - they all go together and can all be used, even on the same canvas.
She wants her pictures and printed products to stand out from the crowd, to be noticed 'from a plane'.
She mostly paints in acrylic, and adds details with an acrylic marker or oil.
MOSAIC JEWELRY
The production process begins with researching and visiting beaches in search of material. If the weather permits, she gets in a boat and drives along the coast, scanning the wild beaches for the place where the sea threw up the most debris after a storm. Such wild beaches are the most fertile in terms of driftwood, and she especially likes such pieces because they exude a unique energy. She believes that a work has a special strength if the artists themself find the materials to use, when they live their art and constantly look for new materials. Findings of materials are completely random, but sometimes it seems as if a certain piece has summoned her by itself.
Wood that has spent a lot of time in the sea, in the sun and in the salty air has already been processed in a unique way. When choosing, she prefers pieces in which nature has made cracks and holes suitable for incorporating mosaics.
After collection, sanding follows. She tries to minimally modify the found wooden elements because of their natural uniqueness. She respects their natural shape, so she actually just sands their surface until it's fine enough to wear on the body.
Each wood has unique characteristics, cracks, slits and holes, each piece is different and therefore requires a different mosaic. The holes are filled with crushed multi-colored stones, marble, precious and semi-precious stones, as well as crystals and minerals.
When the mosaic is installed and the surface is sufficiently smooth, it is varnished in three layers of silk varnish. Finally, the surface is polished to give it a matte look and to make the wood look as natural as possible while also being protected.
The last stage consists of putting together the buttons, rings and ribbons, i.e. the creation of jewelry.
These types of wood are already special, beautiful and full of character, and the mosaic only serves to enhance their natural beauty and as a means of adding a new chapter to the story they tell.
Considering the complexity and sensitivity of the process, it takes quite a long time, at least a week per piece with all the drying and sanding. She mostly makes several pieces at the same time.
When the process is finished, the setting of the scene and photography follows.
