At the core of my work — as both artist and teacher — is the relationship between realism and abstraction. Abstraction is not treated as decoration or style, but as a structural and essential part of the painting process: the point where risk enters, material intelligence takes over, and a painting begins to breathe.

The school was created for artists who wanted to learn directly from a practicing artist — to understand the method, the decisions, and the real problem-solving that happens in the studio, beyond academic doctrine or fixed formulas.

Why this is not a traditional art school

I don’t offer a single “correct” way to paint.

Rosso Art School exists to help artists develop the ability to stay in dialogue with their work — especially when things stop making sense. That’s where real growth happens.

Students are not encouraged to copy my style. They are guided to:

• understand what they’re doing and why
  
• recognise problems in their work and what isn't working
  
• learn how to adjust, resolve, and move forward with intention
  
• build confidence through decision-making, not rules
  
• develop a personal language that can evolve over time
  
  

This approach reflects how artists actually work, rather than how art is often taught.

How learning works here

Learning at Rosso Art School is structured around three essential aspects of painting in constant dialogue — not sequential stages, but elements that inform one another throughout the process.

Realism provides the foundation.
Students develop clarity in drawing, structure, proportion, anatomy, and skin tones, learning to translate observation convincingly into paint.

Abstraction opens space for experimentation.
Students work intuitively with marks, layers, texture, and mixed media — not as decoration, but to build freedom and responsiveness within the painting.

Integration is where these two meet.
Rather than separating figure and ground, realism and abstraction inform each other so the work feels cohesive, intentional, and alive.

The focus is on learning how to see, decide, and respond — enabling confident work within uncertainty.

Who this school is for

This school is for artists who love portraiture but want more than technical accuracy. It’s for artists who:

• are drawn to abstraction, mark-making, and material experimentation 
  
• are curious about merging realism and abstraction into a single, cohesive language
  
• want to move beyond perfect copies and into paintings that feel alive, intentional, and unresolved in the right way  

This school is for artists who want structure — but not rigidity.

Who want guidance — without being boxed into formulas.

I’ve worked with complete beginners and highly accomplished artists.
What matters is not your level, but your willingness to experiment, question, and stay engaged inside uncertainty.

About Me, briefly

I've been painting professionally for over 15 years, working from my studio in Lodnon/Oxford, UK.

After training in classical methods at the London Atelier of Representational Art (LARA) in 2014, I spent years experimenting to find a balance between the rigourous classical atelier method with a more intuitive and expressive approach to painting.

My paintings have been exhibited internationally, including at the MEAM Museum in Barcelona and Mall Galleries in London, and are now part of the Soho House Collection .

I’ve been featured in Colossal, My Modern Met, Magzoid, and on the cover of The Artist Magazine (UK), as well as in Artists&Illustrator, PratiqueDesArt, and the International Artist Magazine.
I’ve also appeared twice on Sky Portrait Artist of the Year (2019 & 2020); was finalist in the Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize and ModPortrait, and won Jackson’s Painting Prize and the Women in Art Prize.