Meet the Artist // Francesca Rosati

Can you give us an introduction about yourself and your practice?

My name is Francesca Rosati and I am from Seattle, Washington (in the US). I have a long history with Europe, my family is Italian, so I have spent many years in Italy which is where my understanding of painting initially began. Currently, I am living in Vienna − where I have been focusing on my painting practice. Before then, I was in Seattle where I was working as a full time Visual Arts Educator, teaching teens and adolescents Art and Design.

I’ve always been inspired by landscape and color and objects. Observation is a huge part of my practice. Maintaining a routine of sketching “en plein-air” depictions is invaluable to me. When I am unable to depict my subjects in real-time − I use photography and memory to compose my vision. I will often create a quick collage, to which I use as the base reference for my paintings. This process allows me to break down my understanding of the composition and translate the key components that matter most to me.

For the past several years, my paintings have found themselves coming off the stretcher bars and taking into a new form of a tapetsy, or what I like to call a “soft scape.” I have been incorporating found fabric and canvas and stitching them together to create my upcycled base. This process has allowed my paintings to turn sculptural. I like its tactile nature because it invites the viewer to break the boundary between themself and the artwork − to which it allows the observer to potentially touch and interact with the work.

So do you mix your paintings and textile as some sort of collage?

Yeah definitely. I’ve always been drawn to collage and experimenting with fabric and paint to create these effects of fresh compositions that they might not necessarily belong together otherwise. Canvas is meant to be painted on. It’s fine and smooth, especially when working with oil paint but putting that one another kind of fabric like burlap or felt brings in a whole other effect because the surface relieves itself in a whole over way. Combining paint and textile is “collage” because the paint reacts differently to the surfaces it’s painted on, once the paint seeps into it, it creates a whole new effect to the composition.

Can you give us an example of an artwork you made recently that demonstrates this sort of experimentation?

Yes. Recently I finished this “soft-scape” and what I did was I started off with breaking up this composition working from back to front. I wanted to challenge myself and so I used a variety of different fabrics and mediums. I played around with how paint changes depending on the surface it’s painted on, while using oil and acrylic (separately of course). I tried something new, where I created little textile replicas of everyday objects. There is a small blue matchbox, on the top left corner of the work. Adding this 3D element gave a playful touch to the work and allowed the composition to come out and towards the audience.

Take a look at this work below, it’s titled “EURO DREAMS”:

You mentioned that you’re into landscape. Can you tell us a bit more about the Berlin landscape and how do you feel about it?

It is funny because I’m here in the darkest time of the year in January. I have been to Berlin in the spring and I’ve seen how wonderful it is with all of the foliage and everything in bloom. It is drastically different other times of year and right now it has a spookier sort of dark energy. What an exciting challenge to create a captivating landscape in the dead of winter! Why do all the landscapes have to be beautiful and romantic and depicted at a specific time of day? Of course I’m drawn to the season of summer and spring, but that’s not the reality of what we live in now. I think in the Winter, our attention shifts away from the outside and towards the people, they are what makes Berlin bustling the city that it is. I’ve been interested in incorporating the people I see on the UBahn and bus into the landscape somehow. The contrast of the elderly lady’s warm smile against the gray overcast sky that surrounds us, is the feeling I want to capture in my Winter Berlin landscapes.

You also participated in GlogauAIR’s online program. How is it different from being here on site with other artists?

The online program was great. I had the privilege of working with Justin Ross who’s one of the online curators. And he was helpful for me because we were in conversation weekly and he had helpful and insightful feedback to give me. The onsite residency has been so different because I’m physically here, in the space! I’m waking up in my studio, constantly reminded that I’m here for a project. My purpose for these next three months is to focus on my work, ask myself what I want out of my work, and learn how to develop it. If I were to give anyone advice doing the online program I’d say really make sure you are carving out time to focus on the program. It’s built so you can do multiple things while you’re in the online program – have your full-time job and have another life – but I think it’s valuable to just stay present in that. I do wish I had protected my time more. In Berlin, I feel like I am coming into this space knowing what I want to do. After being involved with GlogauAIR already for three months, I understand how the program is run and I feel like I can get a head start with my ideas. Also it’s been great to have fellow residents with me, that was something I wished I had done when I was in the online program, to reach out to my fellow residents because unfortunately I wasn’t really interacting with them too much and for me having a dialogue with the other people is really important.

Who are some of your favourite artists or artists who have influenced your work?

I am constantly thinking of many painters but these are some that are always on my mind: Charles Birchfield, Charlotte Salmon, Neo Rauch, and Dawn Clements.
Charles Birchfield was a landscape painter but he makes these really unusual paintings of nature. You feel like you’re on another planet when you’re looking at his work. His trees look like they are exploding shooting stars and his skies look like they’re blooming. The viewer must remind themself that he is looking at a landscape that’s on this earth. I’m inspired by Birchfield because I like thinking of landscapes in an imaginative and magical way.

Charlotte Salomon made hundreds of gouache paintings of her dreams, memories, and realities of her daily life. Her life was tragically cut short when she was just 26, at Auschwitz concentration camp in 1943. Her paintings are rich in color and have cinematic compositions to them. When I look at her work, I feel as if I am watching an array of dream sequences. Her vibrant paintings give me a sense of lightness and childlike-play – perhaps that is what gave her solace in the devastating reality she was living in.
Neo Rauch makes huge and dynamic paintings. I would call them landscape scenes but there are typically multiple figures involved and a story being told. To me his work is very impressive because of the way he’s focusing on these very specific subjects and combining them in these unpredictable ways. He’s making a collage, but he’s doing it with paint. They also have a vintage essence to them – perhaps this is because of his color palette and the characters he chooses to incorporate.
One more artist, Dawn Clements, is the master of observation. She makes these fine detailed drawings on these huge pieces of paper and uses watercolor and graphite. When she draws a crumpled piece of paper, she makes sure to capture every fold, shadow, and highlight. She will capture these arrangements in her kitchen or in her living room, that very much honors the mundane and intimateness in her home. I have always been drawn to her work because I’m interested in those little mundane objects in our lives that we might not pay attention to otherwise.