Rosetta Jallow

I was born in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland in 1953. I was given some oil paints by an uncle when I was 14, started painting local scenes on bits of hardboard and was surprised when people started buying them. In 1971 I painted psychadellic murals in local boutiques. I went to Australia in 1974 and lived in Brisbane, where I sold paintings from the sun room of our colonial house, in Roma Street Forum and at Carina Gallery. My work was mainly aboriginal portraits and Australian landscapes. I came back to UK in 1978 and exhibited locally. I sold artwork and copper relief pictures. In 1983 I painted a mural in a local restaurant and designed a fried chicken take-away box for them. I went through a phase of painting pet portraits in the late 1980’s, painting some Crufts Champion Boxers. I moved to England in 1999 and I spent 7 years in Manchester where I became a bear artist, selling a range called Tir n’a Nog Bears and writing for Teddy Bear Club International as Rosetta Moore. I also did a series of cartoons for Teddy Bear Times, amongst other things. I returned to Northern Ireland in 2006 and currently exhibit my artwork in libraries. These exhibitions include Faces of Africa, a series of portraits of Africans which are sold to raise funds to help Operation Bobbi Bear who work with sexually abused and raped children in south Africa, ABAANA who are a Northern Ireland Christian charity working in Uganda, and Church of Christ and Living Children’s Academy school in The Gambia, West Africa. I started using encaustic wax in June 2009, have ran encaustic wax workshops and sell encaustic wax pictures and cards. I am always willing to consider private commissions. I travel a lot and move between homes in UK and Gambia.