Cristina Szeifert / Via Instagram

A Romanian influencer, model, and artist is responding to critics who are accusing her of being a "fake" painter and staging photos that claim to show her painting.



Specifically, they are wondering why the paint palette in the Instagrams never changes from post to post.



Cristina Szeifert describes herself as a "psychologist, artist, entrepreneur [and] health and life coach" on Instagram. She told BuzzFeed News there is nothing deceptive about the photos she shares to her more than 33,000 followers. She maintains she's created "almost every painting" posted to her account. However, she claims she poses with her finished work afterward for Instagram photos when she looks spiffed up, because her "image is very important."

"I have on my phone videos from almost every painting I did," said Szeifert, responding directly to critics. "I am a model, artist, psychologist, and a public person so my image is very important — of course I don’t picture myself with dirty clothes."

The self-described multitalented artist believes the people doubting her are jealous.



"Painting for me is a passion and I don’t do it for money. I [post] pictures because I enjoy it," said Szeifert. "I can see that some people are jealous finding little things on my pictures that [they] are criticizing ... This situation is ridiculous."

On a Reddit thread posted on Monday and rising quickly in popularity, people are accusing her of being a "fake" painter, and poking holes in her technique. "A real artist wouldn't use that palette," one user wrote.

"She's holding the palette the wrong way around," another added. "Who wears nice clothes when painting?" one person noted.



Others are taking general issue with how unrealistically she's representing the process and craft of painting to her many followers.

Szeifert told BuzzFeed News the unchanging palette she's holding in her many Instagrams is a "symbol of art," and not always representative of how she's creating her art.

"I paint with different things; sometimes I use the palette and sometimes I don't. The pictures are done after the painting is complete and I was using the palette in my hand as a symbol of art."

Szeifert added that she often pours her paint, or will use watercolors. She simply prefers posing for photos with a wooden paint palette when she feels presentable enough, and with "a nice outfit and makeup" on.



She provided BuzzFeed News with a series of Boomerang clips purporting to show her in action applying paint to her works. She then provided images of her workstation of paints and messes. "You can imagine why I don’t post it like this," she said.

Cristina Szeifert

She's also asking people to leave her, and her manicured Instagrams, alone.



"I have a diploma as [an] international artist. I graduated from art school in Timisoara, Romania. After that, I [attended] university for psychology. I don’t do painting as a main job as I have several businesses and painting is and will remain forever my passion," she said. "I don’t understand exactly why it became such a huge subject [of] a girl that's following her dreams and showing others that."