She aims to explore and capture the mood, emotion, colours of the place filtered through the sands of lapsed time.
Rosanne Barr studied at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee, graduating with First Class Honours in 2003. She paints modern semi-abstracted studies of Scotland, particularly focusing on the landscapes of Orkney where her parents reside and the Atlantic seaboard of North-West Scotland. Through her distinctive style, Rosanne explores and captures the mood, emotion, and colors of places filtered through the sands of lapsed time. A gifted technician, she rejects literal representation for a more memory and mood-based perspective, employing striking colors cleverly contrasted against a tonal base.
Rosanne's Artistic Journey
Born in 1981 in Gartocharn on the southern shores of Loch Lomond, Rosanne's artistic talent was recognized early when she became Gold Medallist at Glasgow's Kelvingrove Art Galleries youth exhibition while still in her teens. Following her graduation, she exhibited in London at the British Design Centre and at The Mall Galleries where she was awarded a Licentiate of Distinction by the Society of Designer Craftsmen. Her first major solo show "Lands of Home and Venture" at The Green Gallery in 2008 was a sell-out, earning critical acclaim for her "bold brushed landscapes, deftly mixing realism, impressionism, and a dash of the Colourists."
Distinctive Style and Influences
Rosanne's work is characterized by heightened colors of sunrise, sunset, and amid storm along with simplified shape and blending lines that form the basis of her distinctive abstract style. Her pieces are imaginary but firmly rooted in direct experience from her childhood growing up in the North West of Scotland and Orkney. These "Lands of Escape," as she calls them, feature real landscapes of hill-top, ocean, and immense, free sky—places she continues to visit with her young family. The memory she has of these landscapes and the impression they leave on her are the concepts at the heart of her artistic approach.
Recognition and Barr's Exhibition History
In 2009, Rosanne was shortlisted for the Barclays TSB Jolomo Award, and her work has been selected for the Annual Exhibitions of the Royal Glasgow Institute of The Fine Arts and Paisley Art Institute. Her international recognition includes being selected as the Resident International Artist at the Great Gulf Arts Festival 2012 in Florida, where she gave lectures and demonstrations to schools and university students. In 2017, she was invited to Sardinia for an artist residency, painting 'plein air' with leading artists from across Europe. Today, Rosanne exhibits widely across the UK with paintings in private collections around the world. Now a busy full-time artist, she lives in Milngavie where her garden studio lies close to Allander Water, the gateway to the West Highland Way and the Scottish Highlands.