Lady Rosse is a self-taught artist inspired by the landscape of the Irish midlands around her home at Birr Castle, Co Offaly …
‘The Woods From Tullynisk,’ by Lady Alison Rosse
Who or what inspired your love of art?
As a child I lived in a beautiful area of North Yorkshire. I was a romantic child; I loved nature and wanted to somehow capture its beauty which I sometimes found almost overwhelming. I went to a small school in a remote area of Teesdale, where the woods on the other side of the valley were very beautiful. I started trying to draw them when I was eight or nine.
There was petrol rationing after the war so I was a weekly boarder and had to ride my pony across the fields, through the woods from my home, sketching sometimes on the way. (The pony stayed in a field at the school). Later, the moorland landscapes around my Devonshire grandparents’ home with the strange tors’ [rock formations] on the hill tops, was another inspiration. It wasn’t a complete surprise that I enjoyed painting. In my family, both my uncle and my great-grandfather were very good watercolourists.
‘Hay,’ by Lady Alison Rosse
I believe you are self-taught …
I studied art at school, and thought of going to art school, but my parents, thinking practically, said I’d never make any money so they sent me to do a secretarial course. This turned out to be a good idea – it was in Oxford, and I met my future husband there!
After I married I had more time for painting. He worked for the UN Development Programme and we spent the first years of married life in places like West Africa, Iran and Algeria. This was wonderful for my painting. I had discovered oils and the wonderful landscapes and deserts of Iran, especially, took over my painting life. I also increased my drawing skills working as a draftsman on archaeological digs there, drawing pottery and objects, which needed extreme accuracy. Wherever I went I joined classes or groups who painted. In Bangladesh there was an interesting school of watercolourists with whom I worked. This medium suited the lush forests and watery landscapes of that country. Back in Ireland I wondered if I should eventually go to art school, but I was advised against this by the late Derek Hill, that great artist from Donegal. He said: “No, too late, go painting with other good painters and learn their tricks.” I have been trying to do this ever since!
‘River,’ by Lady Alison Rosse
Where and how do you work?
My best paintings are definitely my plein air ones. I have a very good travelling pochard box – actually three, in different sizes, and I cut boards to fit them – with my best colours that work for me over the years. If the weather is bad I paint in the car. We came back to Ireland, to Birr Castle on the death of my father-in-law, the Earl of Rosse.
I have my studio here and now try to fit painting around our busy life. But I don’t always have time. I can never work directly from photographs; I have to sketch something and the better and more detailed the sketch the better the painting will be afterwards. Now with mobile phones it is too easy just to take a photo and I am tempted, but I really need to have looked and sketched and made it mine in my head. I also paint interiors and have worked on a series of Irish libraries and in many of the country’s Georgian houses, including my own. I definitely need a photo too when I work on them. Then I go back to my studio.
‘O’Brian’s Hill,’ by Jacinta Guinan
What do you enjoy most about what you do?
I enjoy that magic feeling you get sometimes when out painting en plein air and you take a break … then look back at your work and think wow, it looks wonderful. It doesn’t always happen but when it does I really do enjoy that.
‘Ballyfin Herbaceous Garden,’ by Lady Alison Rosse
Tell us about the exhibition you are taking part in at the Copper Tree Gallery?
The exhibition is in the Copper Tree Gallery in the historic Science Galleries at Birr Castle. I am exhibiting with other artists: Jacinta Guinan who lives in Mayo, and sculptor Mark Rode. Jacinta paints small landscapes rather similar to mine, though hers are of the dramatic mountain landscapes around Mayo and Sligo. Our paintings fit well together and we have called the exhibition, From the Midlands to Mayo. Mark’s work is in an entirely different medium and provides an interesting contrast.
Need to Know: “From the Midlands to Mayo” runs from Monday August 19 until October 13, with free admission. While you are there, visit the Gardens, Science Centre, or take a castle tour. For more information visit www.birrcastle.com or www.visitoffaly.ie for places to stay nearby and other attractions in the area.
