From Rio to the world: 10-year-old girl will have works on display in Paris | Rio de Janeiro

Artist Sophia Helena, 10, is about to have a career milestone that many adults dream of achieving. Born and raised in Madureira, in the North Zone of Rio, the girl had her works selected to be exhibited at the Louvre Carrousel, a space dedicated to new talents within the renowned Louvre Museum, in Paris, France.

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It was a teacher at school who noticed that the child, at 6 years old, had artistic abilities that were different from others his age. The teacher asked her mother, Daniele Moreira, to invest in this talent. At first, Daniele thought it was something childish. But, after the girl’s insistence, he bought the first painting and started looking for a painting course to enroll his daughter.

“It’s a world I don’t know, I don’t know anything about the arts. I’m learning the hard way, I’ll be honest. She was 6 years old when the teacher called me to a meeting and said: ‘Invest!’. I didn’t even take it seriously. , until she saw an artist painting on TV and asked me to buy a canvas. She drew like the artist, reproducing all the lines he made and painted it her way. After that, she showed it to me and asked me to make one. painting course”, reports Sophia’s mother, Daniele Moreira.

“It was very difficult to find, as they were all very far away and we lived in the suburbs, until I found a studio in Valqueire, and put her in an experimental class to see if she liked it and adapted, as there was only her as a child in the class, and she loved it,” he added.

“When I was 9 years old, I asked my mother to take a painting class. On the first day I started a painting ‘A casa de Friburgo’, which is my first painting”, said Sophia Helena.

She learned new techniques and improved her paintings. Among the different ideas and inspirations, she usually paints what she likes, such as landscapes and animals, using acrylic paint. In the little artist’s collection, she has around 20 paintings and references artists such as Van Gogh, Claude Monet and Leonardo Da Vinci.

“The painter who inspires me most is Van Gogh. He brought different feelings to his canvases, I also try to express the same thing with my feelings, but in my own way”, said the girl.

Start of a dream

The international opportunity arose when Daniele saw the announcement of the competition on social media, which would be carried out by an artistic consultancy company, Vivemos Arte, which exhibits at the French museum. The student’s mother sent her daughter’s portfolio with ten canvases, and the girl did a video conference interview with the company’s director, Lisandra Miguel, to find out more about the child.

“I felt very happy, it’s very surreal. I want to go there, see several paintings by famous painters, I want to see the Mona Lisa. I never thought about it, it was very new for me, I didn’t know I could expose it. Who knows, down the road, maybe I’ll become a renowned painter”, said the child artist excitedly.

Currently, the little painter is working on producing exclusive works for the exhibition that will take place in October this year. She has to develop eight, but only two will be selected to be displayed in the museum.

“I want to give people, with my art, a lot of joy. Everything I feel I want to pass on to them. Only good things that make people feel good and comfortable”, said the student.

“I think no one can give up on their dreams, because you may have a gift, but you just don’t practice it yet, but if you manage to stick with it, or if you don’t have a gift, you can insist and achieve it, if you persevere”, recommends Sophia.

The whole family encourages and supports the girl. Her younger brother, Daniel, aged 7, considers himself his sister’s biggest fan and the parents give their daughter full support.

“At first I was scared, her father and I were a little worried even about her exposure, since it’s a world we didn’t know. But it is an achievement for us, for her and for the whole family”, said Daniela. To get to the French capital, the family is looking for sponsorship and also opened an online fundraiser.