The Artist

About Nelus Oana

Romanian Australian expressionist painter who left a secure life in dentistry, spending 33 days hidden in the hold of a ship to reach the Canary Islands, Spain and eventually Melbourne – to live entirely for painting.

Born in Pechea

Born in 1958 in the village of Pechea, Romania, into a large family of hardworking beekeepers, Neluș (Nelus) Oană grew up surrounded by fields, orchards and a home grounded in faith.

He trained as a dentist and practised medicine for several years, but a growing obsession with painting – and the example of Van Gogh – pushed him to make a radical choice. In December 1987, at the age of 30, married with one child and another on the way, he left Romania, spending 33 days hidden in the hold of a ship bound for the Canary Islands. From Spain he made his way to Melbourne, where he rebuilt his life and slowly became what he had always wanted to be: a painter.

Nelus Oana was born on 7 July 1958 in Pechea, a village in Galați county in eastern Romania. He was the second of six children in the Oană family. His parents, Neculai and Maria, were beekeepers and raised their children in a spirit of hard work, faith and respect. Long days among fields, orchards and animals, along with the religious life of the household, formed a deep connection to nature and to God that would later return in his painting as endless skies, flowers, trees and light.

The Journey

From Romania to Australia

01

1958 · Pechea

Childhood in Pechea

02

1981 · Cluj

Dentistry and the First Call to Art

He studied at the “Vasile Alecsandri” High School in Galați and then at the Faculty of Dentistry of the “Iuliu Hațieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Cluj-Napoca, graduating in 1981. During his student years he read Irving Stone’s novel Lust for Life, about Vincent van Gogh. The book affected him deeply and awakened a strong desire to paint. He joined the painting circle led by artist Gavril Lădiu, and later worked in the studio of painter Vasile Pop. For seven years he lived this double life – dentist by day, painter in training by night.

33

Days
at Sea

33 Days Hidden in a Ship’s Hold

In December 1987, at the age of 30, with a wife and one child and another soon to be born, Nelus Oana took an irreversible decision. Wanting with all his being to break with dentistry and become an artist, he left Romania. Together with a close friend, Silviu Grecea, he boarded a ship and hid in its hold. Only the ship’s cook knew they were there and secretly brought them food.

The journey to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands lasted 33 days. Later he would describe it as a real nightmare, a hallucinatory crossing spent in darkness and uncertainty. After arriving, he stayed in Spain for about seven months, doing hard physical work “carried on the back”, far from his previous medical profession, and saving what he could for the next step.

04

1988 · Melbourne

Starting Over in Australia

From Madrid, convinced that his place was not there, he left for Melbourne, where his brother had emigrated a few months earlier. He arrived in Australia in 1988 and obtained Australian citizenship in 1990. To support himself and later his family, he worked for many years in various jobs – caring for elderly people, courier work, driving taxis, working in construction – while continuing to study and paint.

He enrolled at Moorabbin College of Visual Arts (TAFE), graduating in 1992. He then studied at the Faculty of Visual Arts of Monash University in Melbourne, in the Ceramics department, graduating in 1996. Throughout these years he travelled widely through Australia, absorbing deserts, coasts, plateaus, forests and unusual climates. These impressions became the raw material for his later expressionist landscapes.

1992

Moorabbin College

1996

Monash University

1999

First Solo Exhibition

Artistic Vision

Style & Technique

Expressionist, atmospheric, and deeply physical – painting as prayer.

Expressionist & Atmospheric

Nelus Oana defines himself as an expressionist and "atmospheric" painter. Rather than copying a specific place, he prefers to "swallow" a landscape and paint later what remains in his memory – the atmosphere, light and emotional tone. Critics describe his works as chromatic and graphic hymns dedicated to nature and, implicitly, to God.

Texture as Language

Oana typically works on large canvases placed on the ground rather than on an easel. He applies oil paint generously, sometimes directly from the tube, and models it with brushes, palette knives and especially with his gloved hands. Observers have likened his way of working to incandescent lava bursting from a volcano: instinctual, virile, and deeply physical.

Nature & Faith

Raised in a religious family and surrounded by nature from childhood, Oana sees God as the supreme creator of the universe. Human figures almost never appear in his paintings. Instead, trees, flowers, birds and insects take centre stage, acting as axes between earth and sky in a kind of cosmic silence animated only by colour and gesture.

Between Two Homelands

Romania & Australia

Today, Nelus Oana lives and works between Romania and Australia, spending time in both countries and painting intensely in each. Romanian fields, villages and forests, the Danube Delta and the hills of Moldavia coexist in his works with Australian coasts, deserts, forests and skies. The two geographies are not separated; they flow into each other, filtered through memory and emotion.

This life between two homelands gives his painting its particular character: familiar yet difficult to place, rooted in specific landscapes but transformed into universal atmospheres.

Recognition

Exhibitions & Collections

Since the late 1990s, Nelus Oana has held solo exhibitions in Australia and Romania, including shows in Melbourne and several exhibitions at the Museum of Visual Art in Galați. His works have entered private and public collections in Europe, Australia, North America and beyond.

Notable: One of his paintings, “Myocardial Infarction”, is part of the permanent display at Monash Heart Medical Center in Melbourne, where it hangs in the entrance hall.

Selected Exhibitions

1980 – 1987 Participates in solo and group exhibitions in Romania and Germany.

1987 Settles in Melbourne, Australia. From that moment on, he participates in solo and group exhibitions in Australia, Spain, Germany, U.S.A., and Romania.

2004 Solo exhibition in Karlsruhe, Germany. Organized by Dr. Dana Corina Schmidt.

2004 His works are promoted by Professor Angela Dibello at Agora Gallery in New York.

September 2007 Solo exhibition at the Museum of Visual Arts of Galati, Romania.

February 2008 Solo exhibition at “Tonitza” Galleries in Barlad, Romania.

March 2008 Solo exhibition at “Carpatica” Arts Hall in Cluj, Romania.

September 2008 Solo exhibition at “Artemis” Art Gallery in Targu Mures, Romania.

October 2009 Solo exhibition at the Metropolitan Cultural Centre for Youth in Bucharest, Romania.

November 2010 Solo exhibition at “Constantin Brancusi” Art Galleries in Bucharest, Romania.

2012 – 2019 The Autumn Salon of Romanian Artists from Galati, Romania.

2018 Promoted by Bluethumb Online Gallery, Australia.

2018-2025 Nicolae Mantu Gallery in Galati Romania-participating every single Art Saloon- four shows every year,spring,summer,autumn and winter!

2024 One man show with launching the art album Nelus Oana by Corneliu Stoica at Nicolae Mantu Gallery in Galati, Romania

2025 One man show at National Library in Bucharest, Romania!

He has works in private and public collections in Europe, Canada, Australia, and America.

In His Words

“I was born in a village in Romania, in a family of beekeepers, surrounded by fields, orchards and faith. I trained as a dentist, but after reading about the life of Van Gogh and spending years in painters’ studios, I understood that I could not stay in that profession and live honestly with myself.

In December 1987 I left Romania, at 30 years old, with a wife and a child at home and another on the way. I spent 33 days hidden in the hold of a ship on the way to the Canary Islands, then worked in Spain and finally reached Melbourne, where I studied art and rebuilt my life from the beginning.

When I paint, I work on the ground, with thick oil and my hands, guided by memories of Romanian fields and Australian light. I do not try to reproduce a place exactly. I try to paint its atmosphere and the state of my own soul. For me, each painting is a small hymn to nature and to the God who created it, and a reminder of the freedom I crossed the sea to find.”

— Nelus Oana

Explore the Work

Expressionist landscapes and florals – chromatic hymns to nature and the hard-won freedom to live as an artist.