A new exhibition by Rose hilton is always cause for

pleasurable interest, but in this latest body of work she

has excelled herself in variety and invention. i have written

elsewhere of how artists entering a Late Period Style

encounter new freedoms in their psyches and their art,

and Rose is a marvellous example of this: experimenting

with panache and putting together ideas and themes,

patterns and colours with unflagging exuberance and

aplomb. Certain key and familiar subjects – the nude

in an interior, the harbour scene, the landscape – have

received new and rejuvenating treatment and been

invested with unexpected properties. Although Rose’s

chief subjects remain figures and landscape (still-life

seems to have taken a less prominent role recently),

there is no sense of tired repetition here. instead, like

a highly skilled musician, she improvises new and

memorable variations, and delves deeper than ever into

her chosen territory.

Looking through her new work, the presence of her

late husband Roger hilton is never overt, although the

fundamental lessons he taught her remain a lasting

inspiration behind everything she does. her principal

visible debts are to the big names of european

Modernism: to Matisse and bonnard, braque and

Miró, Calder and Dufy. but her work also finds its place

among the more avant-garde artists of Cornwall in the

20th century, and for the first time i seem to detect a

reference to the open structures of late Patrick heron in

her most recent pictures. i am thinking here of the bright

linear pattern-making on a white ground, evident in

heron’s late garden paintings, which is echoed by Rose

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Rose Hilton: A Talent to Celebrate

4. Conservatory Painting I oil on canvas 76 x 76 cms 297⁄8 x 297⁄8 ins

12. Conservatory Figures IV, 2014 oil on board 25 x 31 cms 10 x 12 ins

13. Conservatory Figures V, 2014 oil on board 25 x 31 cms 10 x 12 ins

45. Newlyn Harbour III, 2014 oil on canvas 51 x 61 cms 20 x 24 ins

Front cover detail:

The Gardener (no. 14.)

ISBN 978-1-908486-72-1 Publication No: CCCLXXX Published by David Messum Fine Art © David Messum Fine ArtAll rights reserved. No part of this publication may be transmitted in any form or by any means,

electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior permission in writing from the publisher.

The Studio, Lords Wood, Marlow, Buckinghamshire. Tel: 01628 486565 www.messums.com

Photography: Steve Russell Printed by Connekt Colour

CCCLXXX

Inside back cover detail:

Summer Repast (no. 36.)