One Day with Oda Jaune 

ONE DAY WITH | MASTERS & MUSES | WORLD OF CABANA

In this series, we glimpse into the daily routines and rituals of artists, creatives and tastemakers. Beguiling Bulgarian painter Oda Jaune talks Sophie Goodwin through her day in a wide-ranging conversation that touches upon the compulsion to create, the thrill of surprise, dining like a medieval Queen and creating an artistic universe.

INTERVIEW BY SOPHIE GOODWIN | MASTERS & MUSES | 22 MARCH 2025

I thrive in the mornings and paint until 5pm.My process when I am inside the zone is the same the world over. I fall asleep with the thoughts which wake me - the piece I am working on. When the daylight goes I resume a normal life.

I am a nomad, and exist in many different places. However, a typical day (wherever I am) is when I paint. All the other days are the exception; 80-90% of my life is spent this way, and when I am in this period other things don’t matter as much. My heart belongs somewhere else, and is connected with another reality. I am creating a world beyond the daily life, so I can imagine things entirely differently.

I don’t have breakfast, and once I am up, I go straight to where I paint. When I am in Paris, this means crossing the river from St Germain to the Marais. But I change spaces all the time. Repetition kills all imagination. I like to be surprised and try not to walk the same street to my studio. In the same way, I don’t do any sketches of my work before I paint. I [like] unpredictability; if I think too much I won’t paint.

Where I work depends on the size of my canvases. I’m currently in an abandoned building with a six meter high ceiling floor painted mint green. I always find spaces before they are turned into construction so this won’t exist much longer. This suits me. I don’t like the idea of traceability. As humans we should move on.

I live in a tiny studio-apartment behind the Bonmarché. It's on a long narrow street with little shops and quirky cafès which crop up and disappear like mushrooms. It was intended as a sculptural studio so it's ice cold in the winter as well as the summer. It has rough marble floors, as I took out all the wood. However, this is temporary as my home is a construction site. I have a dream to make everything myself, so nothing is bought (apart from functional items in the kitchen and loo).

I want art to consume me 360; it is the only way I can cover reality. The remarkable space [where I paint] is situated in the Marais between Centre Pompidou and Musée National Picasso - which gives an amazing sentimentality. We get light from both sides, and even at night there is a warm beam from an old Dickensian street lamp so I am flooded with a romantic type of energy 24 hours a day.

I love walking and at lunch time I'll go out to search for food. It's a very visual experience. I’ll choose what is quick and easy, and will give me energy: today I had two cucumbers. It is good to be hungry while you work. Instead I have very big dinners, and forget about the day. I like to be surrounded by a lot of food in the evening.

I prefer eating one on one, more than four people overwhelm me.I am such an observer, I don’t get the essence of people otherwise. Which seems fruitless. So, I dine typically with one other human, more often than not my love, Robin (Scott-Lawson). He is such a huge part of my life and I am almost always with him in the evening (when we’re not in different countries). Meeting him was a bolt out of the blue, and now I can’t consider existing without him. Meals last for hours till it gets really dark and then I go home. Then I start as I began, thinking of the painting I will face in the morning.

My daughter, Ida, is the most precious. At 23 she is such an old soul, even as a baby. Despite this, she has such a special innocence. As a child you have very simple questions, very logical. When you grow up, you don't question things in the same way. 

At dinner, I choose the most forbidden thing to eat. In Paris, I go for foie gras cooked in the pan with frites, I love anything very meaty and extravagant. The fattier it is, the more I love it. I adore every kind of potatoes, especially the super thin cut ‘Boulangere’. I make French mayonnaise myself, I can’t wait to cook in my new kitchen. I don’t order dessert, I am very much into savoury dishes. The champignon salad at Le Voltaire with lemon is divine. I also love trying new things.

When I am in London, I experiment with different types of cuisine. KILN is a favorite: fiery Thai street food prepared over a fire. I love spices, and very hot food. I enjoy the pain which leaves you with the remains of an intense flavour. Most Thai food is delicious due to the raw herbs, but I also adore Indian, Sri Lankan, Spanish, Japanese... There is a German dish, a huge thing on the bone served with sauerkraut that I am so passionate about. I like to dive in. I should make an exhibition about food.

I had an infamous show [involving food] in 2019. Entitled Heartland,it was at the National Museum of Art in Sofia (where I was born) and the dinner made headlines. We ate in a historical space after the exhibition where hot food wasn't permitted, so I covered plaster cast bodies in vegetables and thinly sliced prosciutto and mortadella. Food can be triggering. Apparently you should never play with food. But art isn’t playing, it's dancing. And we should always be dancing; in our minds and our bodies.

At the day's end, there are dreams, my biggest adventure. I love sleeping, and sometimes I am annoyed when I wake up. I don’t only dream in Paris though, I could be anywhere. I have loved being and working in London over the last five years. It wasn’t planned, it was destiny. I never thought I’d be there.