After being kept busy for some three decades with a successful career in interior design, Lisa Rose says a new chapter in her life opened up six years ago that has allowed her to discover a fresh and exciting path for her creativity.
Despite continually working with color and spatial design in her design business, she had not previously used those skills for other artistic pursuits.
“I had no idea my entire life that I could paint,” says Rose.
That was, until six years ago, when she took her fundamental sense of creativity and the skills acquired through her work and converted them onto canvas.
Rose was raised in Queens, New York, and studied interior design at Cornell University and later at the New York School of Interior Design.
In New York, she worked for a couple of well-known designers, including Joseph Braswell, with whom she worked on the 100-foot yacht and private jet of a Saudi Arabian princess, and Jay Spectre.
While with Spectre, she took on a side job with an entire budget of $8,000, as opposed to his accounts, which usually started with a budget of at least $100,000. There were bad and good ramifications for that action. While she was fired for doing the project on her own, the finished job ended up on the pages of Cosmopolitan Magazine. A second completed design was published in Interior Design Magazine and Rose never looked back.
Rose discovered Vero Beach when a Florida client asked her to design her house, and she now divides her time between here and Sag Harbor, a village on Long Island in New York.
After joining the Vero Beach Art Club, she went on one of their Art Trail Fine Arts & Crafts Studio Tours and visited the studio of pastel artist Dawn Miller.
Falling “in love, in love, in love,” with the pastel medium, she decided, “that’s just for me.”
And after learning that Miller offered introductory art classes in pastels, Rose and a friend took a class and she thought, “I think I can actually do this.”
Today, the paintings Rose produces appear as if they were created by an artist with years more experience. Her pastel paintings skim the line between traditional and contemporary, with, as she says, “a dash of abstraction,” capturing sunsets, big sky and everyday vistas with an ethereal feel.
Rose has continued her artistic schooling, going to Miller’s classes and taking numerous other workshops to hone her craft.
“I know the importance of feedback and continuing education,” says Rose.
She adds that she and the other students bring in whatever they are working on, whether oils, acrylic or pastels, to get Miller’s critique and assistance as they move along with their individual projects.
“Every Thursday, I go out with the Treasure Coast Plein Air Painter Group started by Kathryn Larson. I start at the top of the pastel painting and work down, so the dust from the pastel doesn’t get on the lower part of the painting. We have about 10 people, and we go all over.”
The group goes to various locations, often a private venue, where the painters pick a scene and start painting, bringing home any unfinished work to be completed in their respective studios. Rose also has a good eye when it comes to choosing frames to complement the works.
The group was included as part of the inaugural Waldo’s Secret Art Walk at Waldo’s Secret Garden last year. The location, formerly the homestead of Vero pioneer Waldo E. Sexton and site of the Tripson Dairy, today is a wedding and event venue run by Charlotte Tripson, Sexton’s great-granddaughter.
The show was produced as an inaugural event by Isola Arts, founded by Rose’s plein air friend, Kathryn Larson. Though they thought maybe a few hundred might turn out, organizers instead estimated that it drew more than 2,500 people to view the works of 30 artists in a variety of mediums. Needless to say, the show is already booked for this February.
“It was a great opportunity to sell your work” says Rose.
Rose’s paintings reflect her appreciation for the colors of nature, which she displays in all their lavish beauty. When not working plein air, Rose will often photograph scenes to recreate and enhance back in her studio.
“I do a lot of ‘mooshing’ with my hands, blending,” says Rose, of the technique she uses with pastels, adding that the ability to do so is what she particularly likes about the medium.
She explains that she initially tried painting in oils, but adds, “The medium just didn’t work for me. I have no patience with oils.”
Art is now a full-time endeavor for Rose, whether here or in Sag Harbor, and she exhibits frequently in both states.
Rose is an active member of the Pastel Society of America, National League of Pen Women, Vero Beach Art Club, Artists Alliance of the East End (Long Island), the Wednesday Group, and the Treasure Coast Plein Air Group.
Photos by Joshua Kodis
