Unleashing the Abstract Beauty of Botanics | A Q & A with Tina Mona Cohen

Text by Irina Rusinovich

Born in 1988 in the south of France, Tina Mona is a self-taught French artist living for 6 years in Germany where she has her atelier. Always deeply attracted and connected to the cultural world, she first managed artistic and cultural projects before she decided to trust her creative talent and fully live her artistic vocation. Her work is deeply inspired by nature but also a meditative way to express herself.

Always experimenting with different techniques, she mixes media such as acrylic, oil painting, gold leaves, and resin, allowing her to play with the light and give her artwork a sense of vibrancy and life.

After a solo exhibition in Paris in 2022, Tina Mona is participating 2023 in multiple group exhibitions in Germany. Her works will be also shown at the collective Art Exhibition “ WILD SOULS“ starting 22.06. We decided to ask Tina a few questions about her background and arts!

What inspired you to incorporate botanical themes into your abstract artwork in the first place?

Nature is both all around us and deep within us, we are inseparable from it. However, too often we forget our connection to our own inner nature and get drowned by the troubles of the world. After experiencing a deep trauma, art helped me to rebuild myself and painting became a mediative way to learn how to be true to my real nature.
I want my art to remind every viewer that we should respect the nature all around us but also the nature within us and raise awareness about mental Health.

How do you approach incorporating organic elements such as leaves, flowers, and other materials into your pieces?

I find a lot of inspiration in nature. During long walks in the forest, I try to practice mindfulness and to be aware of the nature around me and that´s when I really absorbed a lot of inspiration. I am often inspired by the colors of unusual elements like the inside of a stone, a broken branch, the moss on the trees, the movements of the leaves, and the reflection of the sun… Nature brings me a lot of joy and comfort and intuitively it finds its way into my painting.

Do you have any particular botanical motifs or themes that frequently appear in your abstract works?

Through my painting, I invite the viewer to a peaceful walk in the forest where he could contemplate the vegetation above him, and feel nature in movement and the reflection of the light in it.

How do you balance the organic forms of botanical elements with the more abstract forms that characterize much of your work?

I apply multiple layers of paint, notably light shades of white, which manage to maintain a lightness, a weightlessness in my representations of shapes and colors that end up being quite buoyant. I often mix media in my painting using acrylic, and oil paint but also gold leaves and epoxy. This gives me the possibility to play with the light and give the artwork a sense of vibrancy and life.

Can you describe your process for developing the color palettes used in your work, especially those inspired by flora and fauna?

When I am painting, I enter a meditative state, I will not have a predefined pattern, but I am simply focusing on the colors. Rather than trying to make shapes, I focus on a small number of colors that I want to use, then just place dots onto the canvas with my paintbrush before using the brush to swirl these dots into one another, letting totally my intuition guide my painting. Often, I use different shades of blue colors as a reference to my Mediterranean roots.

Have you noticed any changes in how viewers interpret your work when botanical themes are present as opposed to when they are absent?

Botanical themes are speaking to everybody and the abstract side of my painting help to build a connection with the viewer and leaves room for interpretation.

Do you have any plans for future explorations of botanical themes in your work, or any plans to change your approach?

I always love to experiment with new techniques and media, that’s helping me to constantly develop my work. The only limit is my creativity!

I am currently working on developing relief effects and transparency in my art. I am experimenting with resin, and trying to incorporate paint directly in multiple layers of epoxy creating artwork on the border between painting and sculpture.

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