About the Artist

Frankfurt-based Rosanna Burford has been painting her daydreams of mystical places since early childhood. Born in London, England to a family of keen gardeners her favourite childhood memories are in gardens, regularly visiting Isabella Plantation in Richmond Park, rolling down slopes in Kew Gardens, her grandparents’ orchard in the English countryside and sitting between hedges in her maternal grandparents’ garden in Germany.

Rosanna’s mother collects interior design magazines and the artist remembers sitting on the floor daydreaming about the beautiful places and gardens in them. 

Despite having always taken painting classes, growing up to be a professional painter didn’t seem an option. Rosanna studied Chemistry and worked within the pharmaceutical industry travelling the world in search of beautiful places and gardens to daydream and inspire paintings. Faced with increasingly little headspace for creating, she courageously made the leap to working as an artist in 2019 and now keeps a full-time studio practice in Frankfurt, Germany.

Rosanna’s work activates the viewer’s imagination and is an invitation to reflect on their own version of paradise. When we dare to imagine our dreams, we give ourselves a chance to move towards them.

Artist Statement

My work is a celebration of the garden as a mystical sanctuary. Childhood memories, as well as impressions of botanical gardens and greenhouses that I have visited all over the world, offer a visual vocabulary that is intuitively called upon during the painting process. 

Whilst the garden serves as a motif, my work originates from deeper intentions. I usually start the process with an inner desire, a talismanic thought that is translated into a place on the canvas. I am on a constant quest for surprises: that perfect brushstroke, a luxurious glaze over thick paint, an accidental drop of oil, that lucky mistake.

What is your “Dreamland” ?

My dreamland is a place made up of childhood memories, more recent memories of travel and talismanic thoughts, inner desires I have for the future. In my painting process, these feelings and thoughts are translated into a place on the canvas. Using the garden as a motif, my work is an invitation to imagine one’s own version of paradise, an imagined place where memories and daydreams meet.

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