Daily Inspiration: Meet Rosie Fitzgerrel

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rosie Fitzgerrel.

Hi Rosie, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I was always interested in art, but never felt like I was “good” enough at it. Perfectionism plagued me which led to some mental health struggles. I abandoned artistic pursuits and eventually dropped out of college, where I was studying graphic design.

I started working as a graphic designer, got married, and eventually started growing my family. My husband and I recognized that our daughter was neurodivergent and at a young age, I would attend therapy sessions with her. This process unknowingly unlocked a lot of tools I myself needed to navigate my own brain and opened up the possibility of drawing and painting again, but this time without the perfectionism.

I picked up a brush about three years ago, not knowing what I was doing. I started out just following prompt lists and realized I was having fun being bad at something, so I just kept barreling my way forward and started learning as much as I could to improve. My friends and family gave me lots of encouragement, which certainly provided momentum to keep failing and exploring. As I gained more confidence, I branched out and started painting scenes from hikes I had taken with my kids. Chattanooga is a really beautiful area with lots of easy access to nature, and I started to take an interest in how humans inhabit or intrude on these natural spaces.

Last year was the first time I painted on canvas and discovered a medium I really enjoy. Flashe is a vinyl emulsion based paint and is almost between a gouache and acrylic paint. Not many folks have heard of it, but it has lots of lovely qualities that align with my work. Now armed with a medium I love as well as more practice and knowledge, I’m able to execute on the vision in my head of these scenes I photograph. I shoot references on travels and nearby hikes, focusing on instances of humans or man-made objects interacting or interrupting the surrounding landscape. It’s a subject that seemingly has no end, and I’m excited to continue asking questions through my work and mediating on the beauty of nature.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Getting back into art making was not a smooth road, just because of my own struggles with perfectionism. I was stuck comparing myself to others. For a long time, I was tying my value as a person with what I could produce, and when I couldn’t produce the level of work I desired, my own sense of self-worth plummeted.

I’ve since untangled that mess, and I’m happy to fail because it means I have more to learn and can keep growing. Encountering a challenge is exciting and drives me forward. Now, my biggest hurdle is just understanding the art world and the slow growth and relationship building that is required for most artists to begin reaching their audience.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I paint landscapes that focus on the tension between the natural world and humanity. We are of nature, from nature, but most of us have to bring in all of these man-made items into it in order to safe or comfortable. It’s this interesting dynamic that I’m excited to keep exploring.

I work with a type of paint called Flashe, which is made by a company in France called LeFranc Bourgeois. It was founded in the 1700s, but this particular paint was invented in the 1950s. It was primarily used for theater backdrops and then began being used in advertisement illustration. It adheres to a lot of different surfaces due to its flexibility, but I like it because of the matte finish, smooth texture, and vibrant color.

I’m proud of all of my work, but most proud of a group show I organized in 2024 in Chattanooga called Boldly Taking Up Space, which was part of the Taking Up Space initiative. It featured female artists across the southeast, a group that is massively underrepresented in the art world. The goal of the exhibition was to bring attention to this disparity stemming from our patriarchal structures and to solidify the importance and value of our work as female artists.

Do you any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
While I can’t remember making much visual art as a child, I do remember making lots of plays with my sister and neighbors. My mom had bought these dresses from a thrift store that we would use as costumes. To us, they looked just like gowns from the 1800s, but they were really just prom dresses from the 1980s. I had one of those rocking horses on springs, and so my sister and I would imagine we were living in a gold rush town in 1885 and riding around on our horse. I have no idea what the plot was of any of those plays we created, but I do remember how fun it was to take those seemingly unrelated items and pull them together to make something.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://rosiefitzgerrel.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rosiefitzgerrel/