I enjoyed sharing a world of roses in my exhibition The Universal Language of the Rose at Space2b artspace at 144 Chapel Street St Kilda on the 2nd to the 26th October, 2018.

Garden cultivation of roses began around 5000 years ago but in the late 1700s it was the French who were the world leaders in rose breeding.  In modern times roses are bred in many countries and I have painted roses bred in seven different countries for this exhibition including:

Roses Bred in Australia (a dozen Australian roses each bred by a different breeder)

Roses bred in France (clockwise from top right, Gold Bunny, Souvenir d’un Ami, Francis Dubreuil and Auguste Renoir)

Roses bred in Germany (Ice Berg, Friesia, The Thank You Rose and Dark Desire.

Roses bred in the USA (Angel Face, Lavender Pinocchio, Violet’s Pride and Soul Sister)

Roses bred in the UK (three David Austin Roses (Constance Spry, Olivia Rose Austin and Redoute)

Denmark and the Netherlands (two fine exhibition roses, Ingrid Bergman and Tineke)

The oldest rose in the show was Souvenir d’un Ami a French rose from 1844.
The most modern was Violet’s Pride an American rose from 2013 named after the Dowager Countess played by Maggie Smith in the Downton Abbey television series.