Collection: Rose Mara

I consider myself an intuitive abstract artist who engages emotionally with music to paint words, memories and thoughts onto canvas or paper. Listening to music is critical for me to be connected with the painting’s surface.

Rose's emotions and memories are evident in her collections. In, The Nepean Series, she portrays 80's and 90's nostalgia. Rose explains, As a teenager, I spent time growing up in Victoria’s bays and peninsulas and vividly remembering vibrant colours of the landscape. By revisiting these places, I can tell their stories and often this resonates with my viewers who relate to familiar memories of childhood Australian summers. 
 
Since moving to Canberra, Rose’s current collection continues her connection to place. I can’t believe that here I am, in suburbia and only a stone’s throw away to nature. I’m surrounded by bush, nature/pool reserves and the foothills of the Brindabellas. I didn’t expect when faced with the pandemic, that nature would be my saving grace and ground me both personally and also as an artist to be even more connected to a familiar and safe space.
 
Rose Mara’s art is almost always unintentional. From the moment I pick up my paint brush and dip it into the first colour, usually a vibrant pink!, the direction of my art is led by that first intuitive moment.
 
Born and raised in Melbourne, Australia, Rose Mara is an emerging, self-taught abstract artist who moved to Canberra in 2010. Since arriving in the nation’s capital she has established her studio at the door step of nature which Canberra is known for. From nature reserves to mountain ranges, Rose is surrounded by natural beauty. Since 2014, she has been selling her bright and colourful abstract art through her design/arts business Sel Noir Designs. In October 2020, she was invited by Channel Nine’s television renovation competition reality show The Block, to create two artworks Frida and For Florence for this popular series.