“In the most difficult moments, painting is where I find my peace and my light.”
A Journey Shaped by Images, Movement, and Discovery
Alessandra Carrea is an Italian artist based in Genova whose creative path has unfolded through travel, personal transformation, and a sustained search for inner meaning. Growing up with a father who was an artist, creativity formed part of her everyday environment from an early age. Artistic expression was not a distant ambition but a familiar presence woven into her upbringing. This early exposure laid the foundation for a lifelong relationship with visual language, though the direction that relationship would take remained uncertain for many years. Rather than following a predetermined plan, her artistic identity evolved gradually through lived experience, curiosity, and emotional exploration. The result is a practice that reflects both personal history and a continual willingness to embrace change, allowing each stage of her life to influence the next chapter of her creative development.
Photography became her first artistic language. At the age of fourteen, during a journey through China, she began taking photographs and discovered a powerful way of engaging with the world around her. For much of her life, she considered herself primarily a photographer, concentrating especially on black and white portraiture. Through the camera, she developed a sensitivity to atmosphere, light, and human presence. Portrait photography offered a means of observing subtle emotional nuances while refining her ability to capture moments of intimacy and reflection. These years shaped her visual instincts and cultivated an appreciation for simplicity and emotional depth, qualities that would later reappear in her painting practice through very different forms and materials.
Everything shifted during a visit to Japan. The experience produced a profound internal response that extended far beyond travel itself. Immersed in a culture that resonated deeply with her sensibilities, she encountered emotions and perspectives that remained with her long after returning to Italy. Japan became a catalyst for personal renewal and creative redirection. The memories, sensations, and connections formed during that journey opened a new chapter in her artistic life. What had once been expressed through the lens of a camera gradually transformed into an urge to work directly with color, gesture, and material. This transition marked not only a change of medium but also a deeper engagement with her own emotional landscape.
Alessandra Carrea: Painting the Invisible Through Color
The turning point that led Carrea toward painting emerged from a seemingly simple encounter. While in Tokyo, she discovered a library that offered painting materials and colors that immediately captivated her attention. Drawn to them instinctively, she purchased the paints despite not fully understanding why. The attraction felt intuitive rather than rational. Only later, after returning to Italy, did those colors reveal their significance. Encouraged by her yoga teacher to express her emotions and memories of Japan through painting, she began experimenting with the medium. What started as an exploration quickly became an essential form of expression. Once she began painting, she found herself unable to stop, discovering a creative language capable of communicating experiences that words and photographs could not fully contain.
Her paintings emerge from a highly personal process rooted in intuition and emotional awareness. Rather than relying on traditional brushes, she works with her fingers and sponges, creating a direct physical connection between herself and the canvas. This tactile approach allows her to engage with the painting in a spontaneous and immersive way. Through touch, movement, and layered application of acrylic paint, she creates surfaces that feel alive with sensation. The absence of conventional tools reinforces the intimacy of the process, transforming painting into a form of meditation and self-connection. Every mark becomes a reflection of emotional energy rather than a calculated compositional decision.
Color occupies a central role within this practice. Inspired by the emotions awakened during her time in Japan, Carrea embraces vibrant palettes that contrast sharply with the monochromatic language of her earlier photographic work. Soft transitions, luminous hues, and atmospheric layers invite viewers into spaces of contemplation rather than representation. Influences from artists such as Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock can be sensed in her attraction to emotional intensity, abstraction, and gesture. Yet her work remains distinctly her own, guided by a desire to communicate states of feeling, memory, and spiritual awareness. Through color, she creates environments that encourage reflection and emotional openness.
Gold, Music, and the Search for Inner Light
Among the recurring elements in Carrea’s paintings, gold holds a particularly important place. She incorporates gold throughout her work because it symbolizes light, a force she describes as guiding her both internally and externally. This luminous presence functions as more than a visual accent. It becomes a metaphor for awareness, hope, and spiritual direction. Gold introduces a sense of radiance that moves across the surface of her paintings, creating moments of brightness that suggest pathways through uncertainty and transformation. The material reflects her belief that art can serve as a means of reconnecting with deeper aspects of oneself while illuminating unseen emotional landscapes.
Spirituality forms another essential dimension of her artistic language. Rather than approaching spirituality through specific symbols or narratives, she expresses it through atmosphere, sensation, and emotional resonance. Her paintings emerge from introspection and a desire to understand her own inner world. This orientation toward self-exploration influences both the process and the finished works, which often evoke calm, openness, and contemplation. Painting becomes a space where personal reflection can take visual form. Through abstract compositions and luminous surfaces, she seeks to create experiences that invite viewers to pause and connect with their own feelings and perceptions.
Music also plays a significant role in shaping the environment in which her paintings are created. Carrea typically works in the evening, surrounded by the silence of her home and accompanied by carefully selected playlists. Among her favorite sources of inspiration is the soundtrack of The Last Samurai, whose emotional depth and cinematic atmosphere support her creative focus. Music helps establish a rhythm that informs the flow of color and gesture across the canvas. In this way, sound becomes intertwined with the visual process, influencing mood, movement, and energy. The resulting works often carry a sense of harmony and fluidity that echoes the musical experiences accompanying their creation.
Alessandra Carrea: Swimming Toward Peace and Possibility
One artwork that holds particular significance for Carrea is SWIMMING, an acrylic painting on canvas measuring 50 by 50 centimeters. Created using only her fingers and sponges, the work embodies many of the themes that define her broader practice. The painting reflects a deeply personal experience of finding solace through creativity during difficult periods. For Carrea, painting became a source of peace and illumination, a place where emotional challenges could be transformed into moments of clarity and acceptance. Through this work, she articulates a vision of movement, openness, and trust in life’s unfolding journey.
The accompanying reflection she wrote for SWIMMING reveals the emotional foundation beneath the image. She describes painting as an experience of floating through a sea of peace, wonder, and golden light. The language conveys feelings of comfort, gratitude, and readiness for change. Rather than resisting uncertainty, the work embraces it as part of an ongoing process of growth and discovery. This perspective reflects the broader philosophy that guides her creative practice. Art becomes both a refuge and a means of transformation, offering space for reflection while encouraging openness to new possibilities and experiences.
Today, Carrea continues to expand her relationship with painting through daily exploration and an ever-deepening appreciation for color. She is preparing to exhibit works in Milan and remains focused on developing her artistic voice through continued experimentation and self-discovery. Looking toward the future, one aspiration stands above the rest: exhibiting her paintings in Japan. The country that inspired her transformation remains central to her imagination and creative identity. For Carrea, Japan represents the place where a new chapter began, where a hidden aspect of herself emerged and where the foundations of her painting practice were first set in motion. That connection continues to guide her work as she moves forward.
