​

About the artist
Rosemary Burn is a British figurative painter based in the UK. Her works have been exhibited in Italy, Germany, the United States, and the United Kingdom and are held in several notable collections. She approaches her artistic process with a sense of quietude, concerning herself with the objective examination of the present, telling stories of day to day life. In the bathwater and raindrop pieces, as well as others, there is a merging between the representational, abstraction and gestural freedom of expression. Her compositions are created using oil paints on synthetic board and canvas.

Rosemary studied sculpture at Chelsea School of Art, London, gaining an MA in fine art. She also studied the piano at Trinity College of Music, London, achieving a performer’s diploma in the piano.

Rosemary’s works have been included in prestigious exhibitions such as the RA Summer Exhibition 2023, ING Discerning Eye 2023. Royal Institute of Oil Painters exhibition, 2018, 2019, 2020, Royal Society of Marine Artists 2022, Figurative Art Now, Mall Galleries London, and Wells Art Contemporary 2022. She was shortlisted in 2023 for the Artgemini Prize. Rosemary has also shown at several international art fairs in Florence, New York and Paris and collaborated with three contemporary playwrights with a solo exhibition in London



Artist Statement
When I look at the history of art I see a tapestry woven with human life - its conflicts, wonder, boredom, moments of silence, thoughts... corners from the minds of the artists who created the artworks. I am aware of this within my creative process, and I see much of my painting as a meditation, a pondering on the seemingly everyday or mundane.

Along with portraits and landscapes, I am more often than not drawn to painting still life. Although it is perhaps just painting ‘stuff’, I love its humility, and its implied human content - what is perhaps hovering beyond its parameters; a human element notable by its absence.
There is a certain poetry to be found in a dripping bath tap and the light carried in the ripples, a fly on the wall, the fleeting expression on a face, a nameless place. It seems to me that these happenings underpin our existence; big events, highs and lows, come and go but the insignificant and fleeting remain and repeat, like a constant hum in the background.

The nature of each brushstroke, and the texture of the paint also play an important part in the translation of the seen, into a blurring between the representational and the semi abstract, the patterns which often escape our notice.

I work every day searching for an alchemy between paint, subject and moment. When I studied at Chelsea School of Art I was making sculpture, but the intention behind the work was similar. Works from those times include a bicycle abandoned on its side with its back wheel perpetually turning, so the scene of an accident was kept alive for an infinite length of time, a remote controlled leg of lamb, a huge flying saucepan which had come to rest skewered by the sword of a swordfish held upright by a fisherman (both plaster casts).

Although my life is a busy one with many commitments - I am also a classical pianist, (and I teach the piano and violin), not being creative in some way every day has never been possible for me. I love every minute!