Even though Andrea Mongenie grew up in an artistic family in Paris, it took her 30 years to raise the courage to share her own art publicly. We are so glad she finally did.
Andrea Mongenie moved to London in 2007 to study fine art, as well as fashion and textiles. In 2019, after working 12 years as an interior stylist and art director, she decided to become a full-time artist.
“I deeply wanted a more fulfilling, more flexible career that would fit into my life and not force me to fit my life around it.”
Andrea Mongenie found herself more and more attracted to making art, and painting became a vital source of calmness and comfort in her life. The decision of becoming an artist coincided with another life-changing event; the birth of her first son. Andrea Mongenie describes painting as a mindful activity, where she could process her new role as a mother.
Photo: Jeanne Perotte
Andrea Mongenie is now back in France and works under the brand Borneo Studio. She describes her work as very emotive and personal. Almost like a balancing act, she tries to create harmony between colour, form, and textures in her artworks. With inspiration from her surrounding, nature, and emotions, Andrea Mongenie aims to achieve a certain calm and warmth in her art.
“The power of my final compositions comes from a sense of ritual: a lengthy process of colour mixing, resulting in the inexplicable harmony between colour, objects and place.”
In a studio outside Bordeaux, surrounded by beautiful nature, Andrea Mongenie has created the collection Growth for The Ode To. The collection, which consists of paintings combining acrylic and gouache, is a deeply personal collection of introspection and slowing down.
At The Ode To we love the way that compositions, shapes, and colours interact in Andrea Mongenie's art and the harmonic, yet lively, calmness it leaves behind.
