An artist at work in Cap d’Antibes

Meet Zarko Stefancic.

Back in early September I came across a great photo taken on the Cap by an ILCD follower Christophe Radwanski. The photo was of an artist at work just across from the little Port de l’Abri de l’Olivette. After contacting Christophe it turned out that the person in the picture was a regular on the Cap and that he could be found in the same spot most afternoons during the summer.

I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t seen him before so the following day I decided to go and find him. Luckily for me he was indeed in the exact spot where the picture had been taken so I took the opportunity to go and talk to him.

Born in Belgrade, Serbia (then Yugoslavia) in 1950, Zarko Stefancic graduated from Belgrade Academy of fine Arts in 1976. Since 1981 Zarko Stefancic and his wife have been living and working in New York City. When I met him they were here on holiday, in fact it was their last day before returning home so I was so glad to have found him before they left. 

I needn’t have worried though as there would have been other opportunities to meet him as Zarko comes to the Cote d’Azur with his wife, Ljubica twice a year and has been doing so for twenty years. They stay in a studio in Nice owned by close friends and they come to the Cap most afternoons while they are here, unless it’s raining.  It was these close friends who first introduced Zarko and Ljubica to the Cote d’Azur in 1998.

The photo which inspired this post. Photo Credit Christophe Radwanski.

When we first started coming to France we would stay at a friends’ apartment in Paris every summer. Our friends had moved there from New York so every year we would come and see them and stay for a month. Sometimes they would take their vacation and we would get to use their apartment while they were away. We continued this routine for several years until one year the husband of the lady we are here with today called me. “Zarko” He said “What are you doing in Paris in August? Come and join us in Nice”. So that’s what we did.

After that first visit and following 10 years of spending every vacation in Paris we decided it was time for a change. Now we come to Nice twice a year, once at the end of May and then again at the end of August. As much as we loved and still love Paris it doesn’t have the sunshine and the beautiful beaches that the Cote d’Azur offers and which we both love.

Pre 1990’s, when Yugoslavia was still one country, we had such a beautiful sea and beaches. We always used to spend 40 days every year by the sea however that all changed after the breakup of the Yugoslav state. When you live in the US you have to go to the Caribbean to be near the sea but the Caribbean was never really my thing.  I like the Mediterranean so when we had this opportunity to rent a studio in Nice we said why not?  We have been renting the same studio for 20 years now.

At the beginning when we first started coming we visited everything in the area.

We drove around to so many different places. However, after a while, I said to myself why I am spending 3 hrs sitting in my car going here and there? I want to paint!  So now that’s what I do when we visit. We relax in the mornings and in the afternoons we come here and my wife swims and reads and I paint.

So your wife has you until you start painting?

No no she still has me even when I am painting. In fact my wife is the only person whom I can tolerate talking to while I am at work other people just distract me.

You know in NY our friends will call us during the day, usually my wife is working in the office, so they call me as they don’t want to bother her at work. What they don’t seem to understand is that I am also working! They don’t see what I do as work which can be very frustrating.

That’s  why I like it here because nobody bothers me while I am trying to paint. Although sometimes people will come up to me and start a conversation or ask if they can see what I am painting.

Do you show them?

No. Usually I say  “Imagine you are going out to dinner and your wife is getting ready. Would you ask to see her before she has finished? She doesn’t want you to see her while she is shaving her legs, putting on make-up whatever. No she wants you to see her when she is ready. It’s the same with my paintings.” They generally leave me alone after that.

Where is your favourite place to paint on the Cap.

Right here where we are now. At the beginning there was another place that I went to on the other side of the cap. It was near the sandy coloured house on the cliffs which faces the old town. Just below there, there are some rocks but there  are only one or two motifs there. It’s so small so it’s not that interesting for me and I quickly ran out of things to paint. Then we discovered the plage des Ondes and the port de l’Abri de l’Olivette. Here overlooking the little port is a fabulous place to paint with many great motifs. I feel very lucky that I am able to paint in the environment where Matisse, Picasso, Bonnard, Monet and other artists I admired worked.

How many paintings do you think you have done from this spot?

I am not sure exactly but a lot. The number of paintings depends on the weather of course, but  if the weather is good we always come here in the afternoons and usually I complete one painting a day. We come to France for around twenty days each visit so I guess I complete between ten and fifteen each holiday.

Why do you love to paint here?

It makes me happy. When painting here I completely change my palette of colours from those I use in New York. Some colours here you just don’t see back home. For example since coming here I have started using pinks and yellows, I was not using those colours in NY so the change of environment teaches you new things and new ways of painting.

What happens to these paintings?

Everyone asks me that. I don’t sell them, I am not going to sit out on the street selling my paintings. They go into a cabinet at home and I keep them.  People say to me but why don’t you exhibit them. I don’t exhibit them because when putting together an exhibition you have to have some unity in your work. I don’t want to have unity in what I do here, I want to be free with my painting. What I do here is like my diary or my sketchbook and I don’t care what happens to the finished pictures. It’s the process that is important to me, that’s the main thing.

Did you study painting?

I studied for 5 years at the academy in Belgrade.  People used to say to me why do you bother to do this, what can you learn there if you have talent. My argument is this, the academy teaches you discipline, it gives you a space to paint, you have materials, an easel , you have access to  life models. All of those things aren’t easily available unless you are a student or have money. Another plus is that you are working  with 20 other people who are doing the same thing as you are. Basically it gives  you the opportunity to do nothing else but paint and learn for five years.

Do you have a favourite colour?

In painting no I don’t, I like to paint with many colours but in my life and at home I love Autumn colours.

What do you paint in?

Is this the kind of painting you do in NY?

No, not at all. What I paint here is nothing like what I do the rest of the time. The type of painting I do is incredibly precise and detailed, it requires a studio and a quiet environment. Here I don’t have that so I paint completely differently.

So how would you describe your other work?

The name for my style of painting is what they call Trompe-l’œil  , the fooling or deceiving of the eye. It’s a technique that uses realistic imagery to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects exist in three dimensions.

Along the Coast 2008

After that first visit to NY  I had  so much memorabilia from my time there. I had bus tickets, American cigarette packets, concert tickets, matchbooks, postcards, all sorts of things.

Up until that point I was painting Edward Hopper style facades of the buildings there, you know, without people and with long shadows. When we returned to Belgrade I said to my wife I need to paint something which will make me remember. All these facades of NY I have painted, what will I remember from them?  So I took all the things we had collected during our visit and I started to use them in my paintings.

At that time I already had a few clients so every time they bought one of my paintings I would give them a second one as a little gift using things which meant something to them. This could be things from restaurants where we ate together or places we had visited, books we  liked, you know things like that. That’s how it all started really.

Penthouse Serenade 2002

I then started using older things, items I had kept since my childhood. I have always been the type of person who keeps stuff and I have done so for as long as I can remember so I started going through some of it and using what I found in my work.

Your paintings are so detailed and realistic. I must admit I was completely fooled when you showed them to me. I actually thought that they were collages at first glance.

Don’t worry you are not the first one. I have seen people at my exhibitions actually trying to pick things up in the painting because they are so realistic, it’s funny watching people do this.

So how long does it take you to complete one?

The big ones take me between three to four weeks to complete, the smaller ones a little less time.

May I ask how much they cost to buy?

My paintings sell for between 4-5000 dollars each but I need to give 50% to the gallery. It’s a hard market I am working in. The trouble is people who invest in art only buy things which are much more expensive than that. They do not invest in a painting which costs 4000. My price mark is the most damaging for artists, rich people won’t buy  you and ordinary people can’t afford you. It’s difficult.

So this means I have to sell about 20 paintings per year. Well, you try and sell 20 paintings a year! It’s very tough. People pay more to eat in a top restaurant, stay in a luxury hotel or on buying a new car than they will on art but that’s just how it is.

Fortunately I am very lucky in that I have an amazing wife who supports me and believes in what I do.

My parents were also always very supportive of my talent.

They never discouraged me from pursuing it as I got older. Quite the opposite actually. My father once said to me “ Zarko, as an artist you will never make any money, therefore as long as I am alive I will support you and you will just continue to paint. Don’t drive a cab, don’t paint houses don’t do anything else just focus on your art and I am here to help you to do that”.

Then, when my wife and I started dating she was already working so she said “Listen, we don’t need much. We have enough on my salary so don’t do anything, don’t waste your time just paint”.

That’s why I can do what I do because of the support I have had throughout my life. The financial support gave me the time to paint and I was able to build up a collection of work with which to visit galleries. In the time I painted maybe fifty paintings my friends had five. They weren’t able to paint full time like I could. They had to work to support themselves which left little time for painting. So, after a relatively short time, I was able to start visiting galleries with my portfolio of work. As an artist you can’t go into a gallery with just five paintings, they would never take you seriously so I was very lucky.

It really is a privelege to be able to do what I love full time, not everyone has the chance to follow their passion in life.

If you are visiting the Cap next year in May or September then keep your eye out for the lovely Zarko but don’t ask him to show you his painting before it is finished:)

If you are an artist who also loves to paint in Cap d’Antibes then please get in touch. I would love to see your work!

You can see more of Zarkos’ work here

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