Efka is a French painter, born in Morocco.  

Attracted to painting from her childhood, she did not paint on canvas until 1990.

In 1997, for the first time, she unveiled her work to friends, who encouraged her to participate in the 25th Art Expo fair in their city, Ballancourt sur Seine. She then exhibited 2 paintings there among those of artists such as Henrik Kinsky and Pierre Jutand. This 1st exhibition marked her deeply: “when I saw my 2 paintings among the works of these recognized artists, I felt tiny, I took the measure of the path I had to go”, she says .

His second exhibition will take place in 2002, still on the initiative of friends. The town of Champagne-sur-Seine, near Fontainebleau, is organizing an event where she will exhibit the paintings she has been painting since 1990.

She won a prize for her portrait “Recollection”.

At the same time she developed an interest in sculpture.

In 2013, she took part in an annual exhibition which took place for 4 months in the town of Moret-sur-Loing. His paintings are exhibited there at the Moulin à Tan, in July.

A gallery owner notices her work and offers her to exhibit at Barbizon, which she does from October to June 2013.

In 2013, a hand injury condemned her to cease all manual artistic activity for 3 years.

In 2016, she resumed her activities in the Charentes where she lived for 2/3 years, then again in Paris in September 2019. She is currently working on sculptures.

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Self-taught by choice, her creative process draws its sources from everyday life: noises, smells, colors, movements, she absorbs everything around her.

“I absorb everything around me, I don't analyze it. This gives me emotions that I reproduce on the canvas in a spontaneous, impulsive, sometimes quite violent way. At this stage, my painting is guided by the absolute necessity of the gesture. When I paint, I don't think, I do. Only the movement counts, and what I release in the movement”.

Efka almost always paints freehand, without preparation. Sometimes all at once, often by superimposing the layers, until her painting matches what she feels. This trial and error is part of her approach, she integrates it into her paintings: her errors and imperfections, which she does not want to deny or reject, have their imprint in the successive layers of certain paintings.

Efka, existentialist painter?

“I don't know, but in any case, I am not interested in established obligations, doctrines or considerations, nor in conventional learning, unless they are part of the need to evolve something in the expression of my painting. Finally, I like this permanent uncertainty and doubt that being self-taught gives me, it stimulates me. What I want is to learn, to progress, by following my own path, authentically, by seeking in "doing" and not in "thinking" or in "correctness", as close as possible to my feelings, to my instinct and remaining open to chance, intuition, coincidence, and other unforeseen events.

I build this creative process. Unless it is this creative process that builds me... My paintings, in various styles, are the reflection of this construction, always evolving, always spontaneous, and only that counts”.