Rose Wylie

Her paintings are inspired by the world that surrounds her, anything seen or remembered which remains vividly in her mind. This includes trees, birds, gift flowers, newspaper illustrations, Yellow Pages, TV, computer games and the cheap toy market. She writes on the paintings as much for pattern as meaning.

The first impression when facing Wylie’s paintings is that of naivety. The raw brushstrokes bring a sense of immediacy, spontaneity and anarchy. Friendly cartoon-like figures seem to carry the simplicity and innocence of children’s art and her technique suggests an unmediated creative process devoid of intellectual or conceptual elements. Upon closer inspection the depth of imagery with its different styles and textures makes the experience increasingly complex both materially and stylistically.

Rose Wylie’s paintings are related closely to her drawings. These drawings are made in hard pencil, ink, coloured pencils and biro and are often cut and built up with glued corrections, becoming thick when finished. In the paintings the sticking of edges to the canvases, necessary for the attachment to a stretcher, continues the cut-and-stick process used in the drawings: they both share the same object quality.

In Wylie’s own words she describes her work as being “free from imposed drawing conventions, known solutions and from an accepted artistic look.” The figures superpose each other, giving the impression that they float on different surface levels on the canvas as if they belong to a dream world. Painted with oil sometimes as thin as watercolour, the thickness of the paint varies from one area of the painting to the other, adding depth to the work. Made on large canvases, the paintings are imposing, with their life-size or oversized characters that populate the gallery space.

A visual voyage through Wylie’s maze of narrative possibilities and images arising out of the subconscious can become an experience, leaving one feeling breathless but fresh and ready for more. Rose Wylie lives and works in Kent.

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Rose Wylie
recent and new works