Roo Abrook
“I’m hugely inspired by vintage and antique portraits, usually Victorian family photographs that have been often disregarded.”
Roo Abrook is a British artist who creates unique, contemporary mixed media collages that combine her own original drawings with mainly portraits of women and children.
Within her work, Roo investigates and poses self-reflecting questions about the subject matter of beauty, youth, and time.
Her prints include hand-cut antique and vintage papers from old books including 19th-century dictionaries. Art by Roo Abrook is on display in several locations, including the Highland Road area of Southsea.
Contemporary mixed media collage
“I favour objects that have history that would have once had meaning but nowadays appear throwaway with little value,” Roo says.
“I look at vintage photographs of actresses and performers, often from Edwardian postcards that I collect. The sitter will no longer be with us, and this is extremely significant as I want to bring those individuals and characters back to life within my work.”
Far from morbid or downbeat, her works are both colourful and contemporary, making us think more deeply about time and beauty.
Roo Abrook develops original graphite studies often of Edwardian photographic postcards with lens-generated imagery of flora and fauna, using a combination of traditional and more experimental printing and mark making techniques.
“I’m a huge admirer of fauna and flora,” she says, “the way nature is constantly changing, dying back and rejuvenating. I’m especially interested in decoration, pattern and themes of adornment.”
Roo admits to “constantly focusing on objects of beauty that are short-lived” and is “fascinated by how we are seduced by decoration and how those tastes have changed throughout time”.
Screen prints
Roo Abrook combines found collaged papers and screen prints with acrylic paints, spray paints, pencils, pens, spray guns, varnishes and finishes, as well as her own original drawings for her eye-catching art.
But the paintings depicting women and children aren’t the only antique components of pieces by Roo Abrook. She also uses vintage pages taken from books within her work.
“They are unwanted with little value that I feel still have beauty,” she says. “I combine these with contemporary materials such as screen prints, digital prints, photocopies (that’s retro now) and neon spray paints to play with timelines.
“I am continually developing these timelines by investigating beauty, time, youth and ageing."
Feminine fragility and superficial youth
Roo’s work uses femininity from the past that is consciously re-contextualised. Her paintings aim to provoke thoughts about today's media culture that is obsessed with superficial youth.
Her use of pattern, vintage papers as decoration and adornment, such as spray paint, are introduced into works by Roo Abrook that examine beautification in its many forms.
They are striking and thought-provoking, whether they are viewed in locations like Highland Road or in a private collection.
Roo Abrook knows the composition of her modern portraits portray an overall feeling of natural strength and beauty mixed with the fragility of the brief and ever-changing life that all women share.
Contact us
You can browse more of Roo Abrook’s unique art here, as well as browse works by our other artists.
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