Rosanna Thorn-Lees from Gloucestershire graduated from Plymouth University in 2014 with a First Class BA Hons degree in Fine Art. She was awarded the Sustainability Fine Art Prize 2014 by the Institute for Sustainability Solutions Research (now the Sustainable Earth Institute) for her piece ‘Whitsand Bay Portrait’. We wanted to catch up with her and see how she is doing now.
As an artist Rosanna wasn’t interested in chemically mass produced paints; the colours seemed garish and not sustainable. She wanted to paint landscapes and decided to use the earth, seawater and linseed oil to create her own paints. She became fascinated with her own strong primal association with the earth and she believes the concept of bio-centrism is something that is fading in contemporary Western culture. Rosanna’s work questioned the relationship between the culture of humankind and nature and why they are so frequently considered as two separate cultures. By re-defining a personal relationship with nature and transporting it into a human environment she created a crossover between two separate systems, actively bridging the gap that has formed between nature and humankind. From there her work became more focused on the physicality of the materials themselves. She felt it was important for her to complete the natural cycle by returning the earth back to the site in which it was retrieved, through letting the waves claim it back as pigment and sand, therefore establishing a mutual respect for the environment. This process can be seen in Rosanna’s piece; ‘Submersion- returning earth’ 2014.
While at University Rosanna gained knowledge and inspiration from the Geology department staff. She was offered advice about where to locate rocks with rich pigments and was offered maps and a more scientific approach to working which she found fascinating. She also learned how to identify the properties of various rocks using a colour chart. Rosanna was given the opportunity to use a machine to grind the rocks into pigment however she chose not to use this; instead preferring to grind the rocks by hand as this process formed part of ‘the work’ and was a more sustainable approach. Her practice became as much about the ritual and performative elements as the finished product. She remains interested in this field of art and constantly reviews the work of her two biggest influences; Richard Long and herman de vries, for their direct approach to the relationship between earth and the artist.
Following her graduation Rosanna found a scheme called ‘Create Glos’ based in Gloucestershire, who encourage employment in the arts of people aged between 17 – 24 through internships and apprentices. She is currently trying to help raise awareness of the scheme. She also completed a short online course to further develop her skills using the creative Adobe suite such as Photoshop, as a tool for self-promotion and design in the contemporary art world. She worked on an internship with the art charity Art Couture Painswick (ACP) and is now working for them as a Gallery Assistant Manager. The charity are known for running a biennial ‘wearable art’ festival and engaging people of all ages in the arts. Below is a link to their website.
At ACP Rosanna is responsible the daily running of the gallery and acting as line manager to the new apprentices and interns, curating displays, marketing, social media, PR, events co-ordination and managing the retail section which hosts work by local and non-local artists. She is currently helping to coordinate this year’s festival while curating an exhibition for interns and apprentices to help promote themselves as emerging artists. She also forms part of the logistics team of interns and apprentices helping to out on a conference to increase awareness of internship/apprentice schemes in the working world. Rosanna is currently taking a break from her personal art practice, she plans to continue with her earth works again in the future but it is very time consuming and physically demanding so she wants to focus on her work with ACP for the time being.
http://rosannathornlees.weebly.com
Blog by Jena Richeldis Parkin from an interview with Rosanna Thorn-Lees 2016.
Jena Richeldis Parkin
BA (Hons) Fine Art Student, Plymouth University
Student Artist in Residence, Sustainable Earth Institute