Noella Roos

Who is Noella Roos?

Noëlla Roos is a Dutch painter.

Try to place the drawings and paintings of Noëlla Roos in a contemporary context, and you will be disappointed. The studious, energetic drawings of dancing figures and the exotic, theatrically flavoured paintings seem to be unrelated to our daily surroundings. Although Noëlla’s search for universal emotions is in principle timeless, even the contemporary, baseball cap wearing boy evokes a nostalgic feeling and seems rather to have stepped out of the 19th century.

Born into a family of artists, her talent was nourished and stimulated from early childhood. In this artistic environment Noella was given every chance to fully develop her visual qualities. As a result her paintings and drawings betray a classical and technical basis that is seldom seen in the current generation of artists. At the Dutch art academies, after all, personal development is strongly placed before mastery of technique. Noëlla Roos chose her own path, averse to the ongoing ‘trend’. She looks for inspiration in the rich tradition of artists such as Rembrandt, Michelangelo and Käthe Kollwitz.

The oeuvre of Noëlla Roos can be divided into paintings and drawings. Certainly in her earlier work the subjects determine the choice of technique. The dancing figures are drawn in transitory and agile strokes. The movement becomes visible in an abundance of searching, wispy lines. In contrast, the portraits painted in tonal colours emanate a thoughtful and still feeling. A face with an introverted look emerges ghostlike from an undefined background, out of the raw material. In her later work these two worlds fuse. Line and paint will more and more become as one.