My name is Andreja Prpic. I am a contemporary figurative painter based wherever the weather is nice. I began painting in 2013 at the age of 36. I usually work on several oil paintings simultaneously, allowing the slow drying process to shape the natural rhythm of my studio life. I am especially drawn to faces and to that magical moment when a painted figure starts to feel alive.
My practice is rooted in curiosity and freedom. I paint in evolving collections that let me explore different techniques, moods, and subjects while staying true to my core aesthetic: joyful, expressive characters full of personality, humor, warmth, and a touch of surrealism.
Godless Beasts is my permanent, ongoing collection. These smiling anthropomorphic animals — especially the innocent vegetarian creatures we like to eat and overlook — have become a central part of my work. I keep returning to them because they allow me to celebrate the undervalued and underrepresented in art, while playfully questioning our relationship with them.
I follow my curiosity and move between collections rather than staying in one recognizable style. Each series explores its own emotional, psychological, or philosophical territory. Once I feel I've fully inhabited that world, I move on. For me, experimentation is inseparable from freedom. Repeating the same formula indefinitely feels less like discipline and more like self-imposed limitation.
My work is influenced by psychology, philosophy, human behavior, symbolism, and the tension between beauty and discomfort. I see art as both personal expression and a quiet resistance to conformity, categorization, and ready-made ways of thinking.
Through my paintings — whether small canvases or large-scale murals — I invite viewers to embrace their own weirdness, laugh, and see the world with more playfulness. My characters are meant to spark joy, conversation, and a bit of gentle mischief. I have painted murals in Spain and India, and my work lives in homes, studios, and storage rooms across Europe and beyond.