Artist Profile — Marion Rose

Welcome to the first in a series of profiles of artists and craftspeople whose work can help you beautify and put your own personal style stamp on your home. Today we meet artist Marion Rose. Enjoy.

Most people would paint a bear in blacks and browns. Not Marion Rose. Her animals and landscapes sing with juicy, unconventional color.

Marion relates a story of driving down the road with a friend and commenting on the sunset. “Look at the green in the sky,” Marion said. “What green?” replied her friend. Then the friend looked closer and said “Oh NOW I see the green.”

“I love it when my friends get all excited and tell me that they actually did see the violet in the bison the next time they saw one in real life, or the wonderful variety of blues and teals that I use in my bears. I have always seen those colors in nature. People are too programmed into what something should look like. You just have to…see what really is there….to stop, look and see the color.”

Marion paints every day, either in the light-filled studio in her home in the Fraser Valley in British Columbia, Canada, or on location during her travels. Her home is surrounded by mountains, sky and abundant wildlife. “An amazingly diverse selection of habitats to explore is close at hand,” says Marion.

“I really connect with animals, which have always made up the main body of my work. My subjects tell me how to express their essence through color and design. Nature is so full of patterns and textures that it brings me to my knees.”

Marion works mostly in acrylics and some oils to create her bold, expressionist paintings. The works incorporate passionate, textured strokes and her trademark daring use of color. In the studio, she works on three to six paintings at once. “I’m just crazy in the studio. I am so impatient I can’t even wait for the acrylics to dry. I had six on the go yesterday.”

A long-time commercial art business owner who tackled projects as diverse as…window art and graphic design, to designing and creating parade floats, Marion longed to paint more often than in her spare time. In 2000 her husband was selling car parts on eBay and he suggested she try to sell a few paintings online. She thought he was crazy, but she tried it anyway. Years later, Marion has embraced technology as a means to sell her art and has been extremely successful doing so.

She advises other artists to listen to savvy artists who successfully use the Internet to make a living. You have to be willing to invest a little, like $29 a month for a good site to market your art, but that is so much more valuable than the traditional model of participating in art shows.

What other advice does Marion have for artists? “Go to your room, paint, learn, explore and leave your ego in the mirror.”

You can see and purchase Marion’s work through her:

• Website: www.MarionRose.com
• Daily Painters Gallery Page
• Reproductions exclusively at Fine Art America
• Blog
• NEW Travel photo-journal

What do you think of Marion’s use of color? What bold artwork is hanging at your place?