ARTIST’S STATEMENT
My work is first and foremost intimate and reflective, a personal response to my subject matter.
My chosen method of working is figurative, weaving underlying abstract forms into reality and, in the process, hopefully creating a sense of presence – a vibration. The study of the human body, an ongoing fascination throughout my life, returns time and again as does the art of still life which is often more about human relationships than the objects it represents. Woven into this process is the acceptance of faults and imperfections as it is only through a holistic view of reality that the truth and the real self are revealed.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Having completed Foundation Studies at Belfast College of Art in 1970, Rosie graduated in 1973 from Manchester Polytechnic, Faculty of Art and Design with a BA (Hons) in Fashion and Textile Design. From 1973-74 she studied Fashion Illustration at St Martin’s School of Art, London. She then worked as a designer and illustrator in the fashion industry in London until leaving Britain in 1981 for Germany where she lived for 18 years painting and running art classes. Since her return to Belfast, Rosie has been painting and exhibiting her paintings throughout the province, She also runs her own art groups, workshops and sketching holidays.
SOCIETY MEMBERSHIPS
Arts Society of Ulster
Pastel Society of Ireland
AWARDS
Gallery 1608 Award for Portraiture Pastel Society of Ireland 2018
Arts Society of Ulster award for Still Life 2018
Milliken Award for Seascape 2015
Willis Award for Still Life Arts Society of Ulster 2014
Award for landscape Pastel Society of Ireland 2014
Sam Mateer Award Pastel Society of Ireland 2013
Bigger and Strachan Award for Portrait and Figure-Drawing ASU 2013
Bigger and Strachan Award for Portrait and Figure-Drawing ASU 2012
Milliken Award for Seascape 2011
Milliken Award for Seascape, 2010
Bigger and Strachan Award for Portraiture ASU 2010
Selectors’ Choice, Pastel Society of Ireland 20th Annual Exhibition 2009.
Perpetual Trophy for most outstanding work exhibited Arts Society of Ulster 2009
Selectors’ Choice, Pastel Society of Ireland Annual Exhibition 2008
Bigger and Strachan Award for Portraiture and Figure Drawing, ASU 2006
Exhibitions
2019 Pastel Society of Ireland Custom House Quay, Dublin
2018 Arts Society of Ulster Annual Exhibition
2017/18 Mall Galleries “Buy Art” Gallery
2017 Royal Society of Portrait Painters, Mall Galleries, London
2017 Faultlines and Fractures, a dual exhibition Flowerfield Arts Centre, Portstewart
2016 Faultlines and Fractures, a dual exhibition Island Arts Centre, Lisburn, Co Down
2015 Pastel Society of Ireland Annual Exhibition
2014 Arts Society of Ulster, Annual Exhibition
Pastel Society of Ireland, Titanic Building, Belfast.
2013 Royal Ulster Academy, Ulster Museum, Belfast
Pastel Society of Ireland, Flowerfield Arts Centre, Portstewart.
Arts Society of Ulster Annual Exhibition, Belfast
2012 Solo exhibition Graffan Gallery WWT Castle Espie Comber Co. Down;
2011 Royal Hibernian Academy 181st Annual Exhibition, Dublin
Royal Ulster Academy 130th Annual Exhibition
Bradbury Gallery. Fountain St, Belfast, Pastel Society of Ireland Members’ Exhibitiion
Pastel Society of Ireland, St Patrick’s Arts Centre, Downpatrick.
Pastel Society of Ireland Newry and Mourne Arts Centre
Royal Ulster Academy War on Want group exhibition, Ormeau Baths Gallery
2010 Pastel Society of Ireland 21st Annual Exhibiton, Waterfront Hall Belfast
Arts Society of Ulster Annual Exhibition,
2009 Royal Ulster Academy 128th Annual Exhibition
Pastel Society of Ireland 20th Annual Exhibition, Island Arts Centre, Lisburn.
ASU Annual Exhibition
ASU Members’ Exhibition Island Arts Centre, Lisburn
The Kennedy Gallery, Dublin. Pastel Society of Ireland Members’ Exhibition
2008 Royal Ulster Academy 127th Annual Exhibition, Titanic Drawing Offices, Belfast.
Pastel Society of Ireland Annual Exhibition, Flowerfields Arts Centre, Portstewart
Arts Society of Ulster Annual Exhibition,
2007 “6 Women” Group Exhibition Yard Gallery, Holywood Co Down
Milltown House Gallery Lisburn Winter Group Exhibition
Arts Society of Ulster Annual Exhibition.
2006 Arts Society of Ulster, Switch Gallery, Belfast and Hillsborough Castle
2005 Arts Society of Ulster Annual Exhibition
2004 Arts Society of Ulster Annual Exhibition, Ross’s Auction House, Belfast
2003 Group exhibition of Irish Art at Belfast Harlequins
Pastel Society of Ireland, Armagh,.
2002 Pastel Society of Ireland, Downpatrick,
2001 Royal Ulster Academy 120th Annual Exhibition, Ulster Museum, Belfast
2000 Pastel Society of Ireland Maritime Museum, Donegal
1999 Royal Ulster Academy 118th Annual Exhibition
Solo exhibition, Altes Rathaus, Bad Nauheim, Germany
1997 Solo Exhibition, Haus Devrient, Bad Homburg, Germany
Group Exhibition, Galerie BBK, Frankfurt, Kreuzweise
Group Exhibition, Horizonte, Friedberg, Germany
Group Exhibition, Frankfurter Rundschau 5th Wetterau Culture Week, Karben, Germany
Publications
International Artist Magazine, Oct/Nov 2014 issue, “Dark to Light” article on demonstration of pastel techniques
Visual Creativity by Mark McGough Published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform 2012
Creative Fashion Drawing by Noel Chapman and Judith Cheek Published by Arcturus 2012
