Ayda Demirci grew up surrounded by art. Her father, an accomplished Turkish-Armenian painter, filled their home with canvases, brushes, and the scent of oil paint. He once told her, “Now I’m a real painter because my child is also a painter.” This unspoken legacy moves through her work—not as mere inheritance, but as a dialogue between past and present, tradition and evolution.

She resides in her father’s former studio located in the Kuzguncuk neighborhood of Istanbul, often working on several paintings at once. The shifting light throughout the seasons and times of day dictates her color palette: a pinkish warmth near sunset, cooler tones in the bright midday. She embraces bold black, though sparingly, using it not as an absence of color but as a declaration of presence. Her mother, also a contemporary painter who primarily works with floral motifs, influences her colors, while her father’s abstract forms and portraits continue to shape her sense of composition.

The house Ayda lives in is her sanctuary, an ever-present reminder of the artistic lineage she continues. It sits on two levels with a private garden, a quiet refuge in the heart of the city. The stairs connecting each floor creak softly underfoot, adding to the warmth of the space. On the ground floor, a wooden chair designed by a Turkish artist she cherishes sits as a quiet tribute. Upstairs, her atelier is bathed in warm, golden light that shifts throughout the day, illuminating the canvases leaning against the walls. A large chevalet stands in the space, bearing the weight of her current work, a steady witness to her process. Frames are scattered across the space—some resting from past exhibitions, others carefully packed, waiting to be shipped. The studio carries a quiet energy, filled with the rhythm of creation and the echoes of past works.

In 2023, Ayda Demirci participated in a residency in Cappadocia and adapted her style to a smaller paper format —a chosen size she now often returns to, framing her evolving narrative. Her creative process remains consistent: she begins painting from the center, letting the composition unfold outward. Jazz music fills her studio, guiding her brushstrokes in rhythm with its improvisational energy.

She finds much of her inspiration through her book collection, which features works by Marguerite Duras and Hermann Hesse but also from Cézanne, Picasso, Howard Hodgkin, Matisse, and Rothko. Among these volumes, she also treasures a book of watercolor flower paintings by her mother, and a collection of her very first childhood drawings—fragments of early creativity that remain integral to her practice. In the studio, a cupboard from her grandmother stands as a piece of family history, seamlessly woven into her everyday surroundings.

Art has carried her across disciplines and borders. She studied cinema, worked with photography, published a magazine, and speaks fluent French. But painting remains her anchor. It is more than a craft—it is a continuation, a way to keep her parents’s style alive, extending it through her own voice.

When artists pass, their work remains. For Ayda, the act of painting is a form of continuity, a bridge between generations, a living language that does not end.

In November 2024, Demirci held her second solo exhibition, İki at Ambidexter Gallery in Istanbul. The exhibition featured a series of abstract oil paintings on linen and paper created that year, some of which are shown through this series.