Jude the Obscure, 2023

These rose paintings started as a dream of a garden filled with roses years ago. And slowly from small bare root bands planted by torchlight and with lots of careful doting, my roses have grown. Jude is a very special rose, his plump cherub like blooms, ripe with the promise of sweet summer wine and honey. I try to paint roses like I have never seen a rose painting before, an individual, as opposed to a symbol, every petal like a fresh revelation. Painting directly from life is a challenge, as cut flowers are very much still alive, moving, transpiring and slowly wilting; however it is important to me to capture what I see with my own eyes, the atmosphere of the moment, unmediated by any machine.

Jessica is a painter and gardener. Her art and horticulture are both fed by a searching curiosity and a love of colour. Her practice is an exploration of traditional oil painting techniques, and the symbolism and romance of flowers.

Growing flowers in her garden in the Blue Mountains, and painting them from careful observation, ‘from life’ (without the use of photographs) her daily painting has become part of a ritual of living close to nature.

She is a past scholarship student of the Julian Ashton Art School and paints in her home studio in Blackheath, Australia.