John Reed came to the studio at The Colour Factory, and over a coffee we talked about why I do what I do — my practice, and why painting matters to me.

He took lots of photographs as part of promoting the exhibition at The Arc. John interviewed all of the Colour Factory artists — he’s one of the assistant curators at The Arc, and he helped hang our work for the show.

art curator John Reed and artist Rosie Parmley stand infront of art by artists from The Colour Factory.

Rosie Parmley and John Reed

My work is part of The Everyday at The Arc, Winchester, running alongside the Scottish Colourists exhibition, Radical Perspectives.

Hanging the show

One of the most fascinating parts of the whole experience was the hanging of the work itself. Putting on a show is hard work — when Emily and I hung our more intimate exhibition in Oxford by ourselves, with less to hang, it still took us two days. But at The Arc, our paintings each had their own cushion and had three lovely professional helpers to handle the art. They were brilliant and Emily and I enjoyed the experience so much – hanging will never be the same again. The standard was high! They said they’d never worked with anyone so organised — we’d made a scale paper model of exactly how the paintings should be hung, to exact measurements. Most of it went up on the first day, with five artists’ work hung in a day and a half.

The view from my studio

In the interview, I talked about the view from my studio, looking out onto the old river park building, abandoned for twelve years now. It made me think of Vanessa Bell, who painted the view from her own window. We both had pots on our windowsills too, a lovely parallel between her painting and mine. Both paintings are in the exhibition, so you can see the connection for yourself.

Painting by Vanessa Bell of a view from a window, with a dark jug on the windowsill, a red patterned curtain, and a garden and river visible outside.

Vanessa Bell’s view from her own studio window — echoed in Rosie’s paintings from hers.

I also talked about the Bloomsbury Group, and about my Scottish Colourists artists, the two things are closely linked, and if you haven’t already, it’s worth reading more about that talk here 

You can read the full interview here, and if you’d like to see the Bloomsbury connection in person, and have a go at some of the drawing and painting techniques used by the Bloomsbury artists, Roger Fry, Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell, you would love my four day Summer course that course runs every year around 30 July–3 August. You can sign up for the next one in 2027.