ROSA ROBERTS

Born in 1984, Rosa Roberts grew up in Norfolk on a fruit farm, and moved to London with her family in her teenage years, later studying Fine Art at Central St Martin's. She ran a business which designed and ran drawing workshops in London Museums for 8 years until deciding to go full-time as a painter in 2020.

“My paintings usually start from observational sketching I also combine workingfrom memory and observation. The large works tend to be the result manyiterations of the initial sketches until I have settled on a final composition,colour way and materials and distilled the power of the composition as much asI can.My Flower works developed in 2024 after I painted a striped vase one eveningduring teaching a workshop. That single vase unleashed an understanding ofhow I could approach the subject of flowers which I had been previously unsureof how to deal with. Bold gestural marks are almost always present in my workbut have been a steady feature of my vase and flower works. Pattern andlayering are also important in these works as so much of my output. I’m alwaystrying to capture the vibrance and beauty of 'alive things'.Winter was a subject I struggled with for years until last Winter when I walked 3times a week around my local park to try and ward of the Winter blues. Winteris not a season of vibrance and energy but of stillness, rest and withdrawal.Those quiet qualities are quite the opposite from the life energy I usually like todescribe but I became excited by the challenge of working with the power instillness. The resulting collection was quite different from a lot of my work buthas the same love of nature and the world around me at its heart.”