About
Naomi Rowe
Acrylic Artist
Having been raised in a family with a great passion for art and music, it seemed inevitable that I would turn to painting as a place of safety, calm and expression. Through my acrylic paintings, I love to explore reflections, water, light and shadow.
I studied Art at A level and then when I decided to become a teacher I chose Art as my specialist subject when studying for my teaching degree. This gave me the opportunity to explore a range of media including photography, glasswork, clay, textiles and of course paint. I studied the human form and created a colourful abstract diptych piece that explored the body in movement. Birmingham City University bought this pair of large canvases after our final degree art show.
In my mid 20s I started attending weekly evening art classes run by Varvara Neiman where my confidence started to improve in my knowledge of colour and understand more about tone and value. This was around the same time that I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis and I was starting to try out different medications to alleviate the constant pain, swelling and fatigue that had taken over my life. My weekly sessions painting really gave me a time and place to forget about the chronic pain and the big physical changes that were happening to me. To me, painting has always felt like a form of meditation: my focus purely on the next brush stroke or the fine balance of adding a touch of paint to transform one colour to another. Often people ask me what I listen to while I paint. I would love to have some trendy answer but actually I mostly paint in silence as the world just blurs around me and my art is the one and only thing in my focus.
When I turned 30, I went through possibly the hardest year of my life for very personal reasons, and it was at that time that I re-focused on my art by painting much more regularly. I started experimenting by painting in a more contemporary style: bold colour blocking with clear defined edges rather than soft blending. I took on my first commission which was a representation of Fleetwood Mac's album art for the album 'Penguins'. The client was so pleased that they commissioned two further paintings.
I then received a commission for a painting from the Abbey Hotel in Bath which gave me a glimpse into the world of professional commissions and art buyers.
Recently, I have immersed myself in finding my 'personal style' and reverted back to a more classic style painting landscapes, still life and dabbling in portraiture but always focusing on the glow of light.
If you are interested in commissioning a painting or purchasing any of my artworks from my portfolio please visit my etsy shop or contact me via email naomi.rowe@hotmail.com