Profile on Rana J. Rodger

When the boats come in by Rana J.Rodger

My work has varied and changed considerably over the last years.

I started my career specialising in architectural portraiture back in the 1970 s. ( jennirodger.co.uk ) This then led to greeting card designs and illustrations for posters and children’s books and many commissions in the commercial field.

However I still feel that my best paintings were the first ones that I did aged three and four.

My mother has kept all these paintings and I sometimes look at them and connect to the magic that I felt at that time...the smell of the fat wax crayon as it slid across the page… the wonderful surprise when pink met blue... or blue met green… the excitement I felt as the paper began to fill with circles and lines and dots.....

In the late 80 s I decided to concentrate solely on my own personal artistic journey. There was a whole year when I spent practically everyday experimenting with texture, colour and hue. There were days when I felt that I was just making a load of mess and not getting anywhere....but where is there to get to anyway?

I discovered a wonderful blue pigment in France called "Blue mineral" and spent an entire year just playing with "blue."

I couldn’t stop...."blue" took me on a voyage. I never imagined that there could be so many facets to "blue " (see Blue Gallery www.ranapix.co.uk )

I was deeply moved by a trip to Australia and when I returned I started to make my own paints from natural pigments and began to experiment with different media...rolling inks onto paper and working with gesso and oil pastel.

I had refound the delight and satisfaction that I had found as a small child, and as a result my paintings started to take me on a voyage of discovery.

My studio is a roundhouse built of limestone and wood high up on a plateau of SW France.

I choose to live close to nature, for it is from here that I gain the inspiration for my inner work.
My paintings are inspired from the earth...the source...the mother of all things.

I listen to the silence within...to my dreams and intuitions and paint from my heart.

Major inspirations for my paintings have been from travels in Australia, dry arid landscapes such as The Painted Desert in Arizona, New Mexico and Southern Spain, N Africa and the traditional art of all these regions.

I’m now starting to pass on the gifts and knowledge that I have gathered over these years to children and to adults wishing to connect with their own artist within.