--- title: Rosalie Matchett description: "Encaustic painter of fragmented structures and perspectives, using layering, colour and textures" url: "https://www.artsume.com/a/rosalie-encaustic" type: artist createdAt: 2026-06-30 updatedAt: 2026-08-26 disciplines: - Painting - Encaustic - Film - Sculpture location: "Salt Spring Island, BC, Canada" website: "https://www.rosaliematchett.com" birthYear: 1959 --- # Rosalie Matchett *Encaustic painter of fragmented structures and perspectives, using layering, colour and textures | Painting, Encaustic, Film, Sculpture | Based in Salt Spring Island, BC, Canada* ## Artist Statement I have worked in a number of disciplines, but essentially I am a painter drawn to abstraction. I think of my compositions being temporal stories of shape and emotion, much like a musical score is a story of sound shapes and emotions. I am attracted to the structural histories of paintings. The meanings associated with the shapes of the substrate that one uses. The early use of perspective at the very beginning of the European Renaissance, the use of narrative in paintings which represent moments in time in different locations. I also use what ever is at hand as inspiration for the shapes and forms that compose my work. Geometric forms, grids, folded paper, bits and pieces from my studio. In the process of making my work I focus on the surface quality of the painting, the building up and scraping back of layers that I can do with this medium; the translucency of the medium which can reveal layers beneath the surface, as well as the interrelationship of colours, shapes and texture; the material presence of the painting as an object and the illusion of representation; the push and pull of perspectival depth through line and shade. All these elements create an emotional response that draws the viewer in to the painting and keeps drawing them in to see more and more. ## Biography Rosalie grew up in Toronto. In 1982 she received her BFA in studio art from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. In 1987 she completed a diploma in film production at the London International Film School with a distinction in script writing. She continued living in England for the next 17 years, working in film while raising her two children. In 2001 she moved back to Canada and begin her visual art practice. Rosalie has lived on Salt Spring Island since 2012. ## Curriculum Vitae ### Education - **1986** - Diploma, in Film technique, The London International Film School, London, (Distinction in script writing) - **1981** - BFA, in Studio Art, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax ### Solo Exhibitions - **2025** - "Salt Spring Reveries," Salt Spring Coffee Cafe & Kitchen Salt Spring Island - **2015** - "Apis Mellifera," Duthie Gallery Salt Spring Island - **2014** - "Whalebones, Blubber and other Relics of First Oil," Duthie Gallery Salt Spring Island - **2010** - "The Beauty of Falling; New Encaustic Work," Collective Works Gallery Victoria - **2009** - "Tossed Ashore on a Spring Tide," Collective Works Gallery Victoria - **2004** - "Private Space/Public Spaces," Ministry of Casual Living Victoria ### Group Exhibitions - **2026** - "Stratum," ArtSpring Galleries Salt Spring Island - **2023** - "Ingrained Patterns & Pathways," Salt Spring Arts Showcase Exhibition Salt Spring Island - **2023** - "The Parallel Show," Salt Spring National Art Prize PAS Exhibit Salt Spring Island - **2022** - "Mahon (Memorial)Hall: The Nature of Memory," Mahon Hall Salt Spring Island - **2021** - "Cave Chanting, A Ronald T. Crawford Retrospective," Mahon Hall Salt Spring Island - **2020** - "Collaborations in time of Covid: Writers and Artists of Salt Spring," ArtSpring Gallery Salt Spring Island (Curated by Margaret Day) - **2018** - "New & Old Works," Kizmit Galeria Cafe Salt Spring Island - **2018** - "Woodlands," Duthie Gallery Salt Spring Island - **2017** - "The Parallel Show," ArtSpring Galleries Salt Spring Island - **2017** - "12th Annual Encaustic Invitational," Conrad Wilde Gallery Tucson - **2016** - "Sooke Fine Arts Show," Seaparc Leisure Complex Sooke - **2016** - "Salt Spring Easter Art Tour Anchor Exhibition," Mahon Hall Salt Spring Island (Curated by Anthony Mathews) - **2015** - "Painting on the Edge," Canadian Federation of Artists Vancouver - **2014** - "Salvaged Artifacts & Stories," Mahon Hall Salt Spring Island - **2014** - "Sooke Fine Arts Show," Seaparc Leisure Complex Sooke - **2013** - "Sooke Fine Arts Show," Seaparc Leisure Complex Sooke - **2013** - "Pipeline; A line of Division," Two Rivers Gallery Prince George - **2011** - "Purely Pastel," Neilson Park Creative Centre Etobicoke - **2011** - "Sooke Fine Arts Show," Seaparc Leisure Complex Sooke - **2011** - "Peddling Art," Collective Works Gallery Victoria - **2010** - "Hot Wax," Coast Collective Gallery at Essencia at Esquimalt Lagoon Colwood - **2010** - "Image as Story: a Visual depiction of the plays in the Sparks Festival," Collective Works Gallery Victoria - **2010** - "Pastel drawings from Tossed Ashore in a Spring Tide," Victoria International Airport Victoria - **2009** - "Sooke Fine Arts Show," Seaparc Leisure Complex Sooke - **2009** - "Small Pieces," Collective Works Gallery Victoria ### Awards & Grants - **2018** - Award of Excellence, Sooke Fine Arts Show - **2015** - 3rd place, Painting on the Edge, Canadian Federation of Artists - **2013** - Best Mixed Media Award, Sooke Fine Arts Show - **2009** - Juror's Choice, Sooke Fine Arts Show ### Collections - private individual, Salt Spring Island - private Individual, Salt Spring Island - Private Individual, Toronto - Private Individual, Vancouver - Private Individual, Victoria - Private Individual, Frankfurt - private indvidual, Salt Spring Island ### Bibliography - **2026** - Amy Jones, "Four unique approaches revealed in layered Stratum works," *The Gulf Island Driftwood* ### Publications - **2021** - "Cave Chanting; A Ronald T. Crawford Retrospective 1989-2021," *Catalogue* ed. Rosalie Matchett pp. 30 ### Professional Experience - **2015 - 2021** - Executive Board member, Salt Spring Arts (Council), Salt Spring Island - **2014 - 2020** - Teacher of Encaustic Workshops, Workshops on the Rocks, Salt Spring Island ### Lectures & Presentations - **2026** - "Rosalie Matchett on new Works," Stratum Art Spring Gallery Salt Spring Island - **2023** - "Patterns & Pathways Artist Talk on new Work," Showcase Series Salt Spring Arts Salt Spring Island - **2018** - "Encaustic demonstration," Sooke Fine Arts Show Sooke Fine Arts Show Sooke - **2014** - "Salvaged; Artifacts & Stories," Salt SPring Arts Showcase Series Salt Spring Arts Salt Spring Island ### Gallery Representation - ArtCraft, Salt Spring Island, (Current) - Collective Works Gallery, Victoria, (Current) - Duthie Gallery, Salt Spring Island, (Current) ### Curatorial Projects - **2021** - "Cave Chanting, A Ronald T. Crawford Retrospective," Mahon Hall Salt Spring Island ### Professional Service - **2022 - Present** - Juror, Salt Spring Arts Program Art on the Wall, Salt Spring Island - **2020 - Present** - Spring Art Show Committee Chair, Salt Spring Arts, Salt Spring Island - **2017 - Present** - Artist in Residence Committee Chair , Salt Spring Arts, Salt Spring Island ## Portfolio ### Unfolding Structure (2026) *Encaustic with oil pigment on birch panel board, framed* Unfolding Structure was in the show Stratum at the Art Spring Gallery on Salt Spring Island in June & July 2026 Folded paper shapes; taking the two dimensional into the three dimensions. The sense of unfolding, an action a becoming. The event of painting, the emergence of form and structure, the whimsy of performance, the quiet of the studio. Memory is fragmented. The cognizance of what we see with our eyes is also fragmented into a multiplicity of points of view, combined with the hue and shapes of our own feelings and memories. Painting is an action, a doing, a process. These works are points in the the act and the life of a continuation of painting. --- ### The Bellows (Fictions Betwix & Between) (2026) *Encaustic with oil pigment on birch panel board, framed* The Bellows is part of an on going series called Betwix & Between The work was in the show Stratum at the Art Spring Gallery on Salt Spring Island in June & July 2026 The bright and jarring colours are strangely lyrical and childlike. The suggestion of perspectival depth is impossible to read, pushing in and out, creating a sense of both euphoria and unease; a potential opening into something else and an entrapment into possible chaos. Through the push and pull of shape, colour, composition and texture, these new paintings evoke impossible spaces; mazes without entrances or exits; abstract structures with the emotional charge of the memory and feeling of things observed. --- ### The Child( Fictions Betwix & Between) (2026) *Encaustic with oil pigment on birch panel board, framed* The Child is part of an ongoing series called Betwix & Between. The work was in the show Stratum at the Art Spring Gallery on Salt Spring Island in June & July 2026 The bright and jarring colours are strangely lyrical and childlike. The suggestion of perspectival depth is impossible to read, pushing in and out, creating a sense of both euphoria and unease; a potential opening into something else and an entrapment into possible chaos. Through the push and pull of shape, colour, composition and texture, these new paintings evoke impossible spaces; mazes without entrances or exits; abstract structures with the emotional charge of the memory and feeling of things observed. --- ### The Castle (Fictions Betwix & Between) (2025) *Encaustic with oil pigment on birch panel board, framed* The Castle is part of the series called Betwix & Between. The work was in the show Stratum at the Art Spring Gallery on Salt Spring Island in June & July 2026 The bright and jarring colours are strangely lyrical and childlike. The suggestion of perspectival depth is impossible to read, pushing in and out, creating a sense of both euphoria and unease; a potential opening into something else and an entrapment into possible chaos. Through the push and pull of shape, colour, composition and texture, these new paintings evoke impossible spaces; mazes without entrances or exits; abstract structures with the emotional charge of the memory and feeling of things observed. --- ### The Maze ( Fictions Betwix & Between) (2025) *Encaustic with oil pigment on birch panel board, framed* The Maze is part of the on going series of encaustic work called Betwix & Between The bright and jarring colours are strangely lyrical and childlike. The suggestion of perspectival depth is impossible to read, pushing in and out, creating a sense of both euphoria and unease; a potential opening into something else and an entrapment into possible chaos. Through the push and pull of shape, colour, composition and texture, these new paintings evoke impossible spaces; mazes without entrances or exits; abstract structures with the emotional charge of the memory and feeling of things observed. --- ### Juicy Beige Forms (2025) *Encaustic with oil pigment on birch panel board, framed diptych25* “That its barrenness becomes a thousand things” Line from “The Rock” by Wallace Stevens Stevens has influenced how I think about art. The use of pattern in this painting is akin to Steven’s metaphor of the rock as the ground from which we build meaning in our lives. This work is the last of a series of paintings which started as a way to explore composition. The works all started with an overall grid/ circle pattern that works as a ground on which I build the painting. It is also a foil against which I can push at the limits of the pattern to try to move beyond it and create new compositions. --- ### Blue River (2022) *Encaustic with oil pigment on birch panel board, framed* Blue River is part of my Patterns & Pathways Series. It was inspired by the poem a poem called Blue Point by Shirley Graham. The poem is published in The Book of Blue by Black Moss Press. The painting was created as a collaboration with Shirley for the show Collaborations in the Time of Covid; Writers and Artists of Salt Spring, curated by Margaret Day. --- ### The Blue Point (2022) *Encaustic with oil pigment on birch panel board, framed* The Blue Point was inspired by the poem of the same name by Shirley Graham. The poem is published in The Book of Blue by Black Moss Press. The painting was created as a collaboration with Shirley for the show Collaborations in the Time of Covid; Writers and Artists of Salt Spring, curated by Margaret Day. The painting was featured on the poster for the show. --- ### The Paltry Nude (2021) *Encaustic with oil pigment on birch panel board, framed* The title is from Wallace Steven's poem The Paltry Nude Starts on a Spring Voyage. It is about the beginning of things first formed and not yet realized --- ### Falling Into (2024) *Encaustic with oil pigment on birch panel board, framed* Falling Into is the first painting which started my series Betwixt & Between. I was taken away by the lines of blue carrying the eye across, down and up through the sold geometrical shapes. It felt a portal to another world and moved me towards this series. --- ### Billowing Outwards (2023) *Encaustic with oil pigment on birch panel board, framed* This small collage like abstract study was the forerunner for the painting Unfolding Structure. In painting this image I felt like a juggler trying to make all the pieces fit together until finally they did --- ### Overlay (2024) *Encaustic with oil pigment on birch panel board* Overlay is the last painting I did for the series Patterns & Pathways. It was sold in the 2023 Salt Spring National Art Prize Parallel Show. --- ### Shelzee (2023) *Encaustic with oil pigment on birch panel board* Shelzee is part of the series Patterns & Pathways. It was in the Salt Spring Arts Showcase Exhibition of the same name --- ### One Thousand Things (2023) *Encaustic with oil pigment on birch panel board* One Thousand Things was part of the Salt Spring Arts Showcase Patterns & Pathways in 2023. It was also sold the Salt Spring Arts Summer show ArtCraft in 2024 --- ### Emerging Form (2022) *Encaustic with oil pigment on birch panel board* Emerging Form was part of the series Patterns & Pathways and was in the showcase exhibition of that name in 2023. It was sold privatly by the artist --- ### Things Fall Apart (2018) *Encaustic with oil pigment on birch panel board* Things Fall Apart was in the Sooke Fine Arts Show. It was a transition piece for me from representational paintings to abstraction. It was sold privately by the artist --- ### Race to Extinction in the Golden Age of Whaling (2014) *Encaustic with oil pigment on birch panel board* Race to Extinction; the Golden Age of Whaling was part of a series called Salvaged Artifacts & Stories. In 2014 it was part of the Salt Spring Arts Showcase exhibition of the same name. It also won third prize in the Canadian Federation of Artists Vancouver show On the Edge in the same year. It was sold later to a private individual --- ### The Whalebones Of Svalbard (2013) *Encaustic with oil pigment on birch panel board, triptych, framed* This was the anchor piece for my show at the Duthie Gallery called Whalebones, Blubber and other Relics of First Oil. In this work I was attempting to create the feeling of what extinction means. The three panels each represent an element of the story of the whales. On the left is a hazy image of remenants of whalebones scattered on the beaches and in the shallow water, across the bottom is an imagining of blubber and blood as the whales were processed and on the right the white noise of forgetfulness and extinction. This work was sold through the Duthie Gallery In the early 17th century when European explorers first came across Bowhead whales around Svalbard they were so thick in the bays that the ships could hardly maneuver around them. Now the eastern pod of the Bowhead whale; also known as the Right Whale, because it was the right whale to kill, is near extinction. Estimates say there may be as few as ten left. They are no longer seen anywhere near the islands of Svalbard. There is nothing unusual in this history. In fact the history of the slaughter of whales is much like the history of most western industry. It is a history of exploitation of the natural world until resources are either replaced or extinguished. Nevertheless when reading about the industry I was struck by an image of remnants of ancient whalebones that still litter the beaches of the islands where the processing of whales took place over three hundred years ago. I think one of the reasons the image was so strong for me is that it reminded me of the logs, from our logging industry, that litter our BC beaches. It triggered questions like how to depict extinction? How to visualize what isn’t there anymore? What about things from the past that seem no longer relevant but still linger like ghosts in the corners of our imaginations? These questions were the starting off point for this exhibition. ## Links - **Website:** https://www.rosaliematchett.com - **instagram:** https://instagram.com/rosaliematchett