Hope is the Thing (2023) Painting by Dawn Rodger

Painting makes me happy. I become lost in a world of colour and texture. The frustrations and compromises of everyday life melt away. Hopefully people also experience that same sense of calmness and stillness by having a piece of my art on their wall. My artworks are in private collections in the UK, the US and around the world.

I was born and brought up in the United Kingdom, apart from a brief few years in Australia. I think the contrast between these two countries has informed my fascination with colour and light. Several years ago, I fell ill suddenly with encephalitis (an inflammation in the brain). I went from being a normal busy working mum to lying in intensive care unable to breathe for myself and with hardly any coordination. Since then, I have relearned how to breathe, talk, eat, write etc. The need to create has to continued to be the balm that soothes my frustrations as well as a way of improving my dexterity. My family and I now call North Devon home. Its big skies and coastal waters provide much inspiration.

Oil paint is the medium I love most. I find the smell of linseed oil has a calming effect. As the paint dries slowly, there is more time to manipulate it and so more scope to play with textures. I often use metal leaf and numerous layers of oil paint glazes to bounce light through the picture plane to create depth and luminosity. These are techniques that make the paintings interesting close up as well as from a distance; however it doesn’t always come across in photographs.

My artworks are signed on the front and a catalogued certificate of authenticity attached to the back. They are carefully packaged and sent fully insured and tracked.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to message me.

• Nationality: UNITED KINGDOM
• Date of birth : 1974
• Artistic domains:
• Groups: Contemporary British Artists