Lessons From Rose Wylie

Rose Wylie at the Royal Academy, London

The Picture Comes First

Runs until 19th April 2026

1. Scale is Everything

Rose Wylie’s works are huge! Almost all of the paintings in this show are comprised of two or more canvases butted up together. The scale shifts her naive mark-making from the whimsical to the epic.

2. Be Generous With Your Materials

I’d love to see Rose’s invoice for her oil paints! She uses oil paint like butter, slathering it over the canvas in thick, juicy marks. In some areas the paint is at least quarter of an inch thick.

3. Let Others Figure Out the Presentation!

You may have seen the image of Rose Wylie painting in her messy studio with the canvas pinned up on the wall. It’s clear from the works in this exhibition that she paints right up to the edge of the canvas, leaving no margin to stretch around bars. This means almost all of the works had to be glued onto another piece of stretched canvas - that’s a tricky job! Don’t let your worries about how to present the work change how you naturally create.

4. Don’t Be Afraid of Mistakes

I always love spotting ‘mistakes’ made by famous artists and the ways they rectify them. On one canvas it was clear Rose had messed up the face of a figure and had to glue another face on top. It works.

5. Don’t Shy Away From Humour or Whimsy

There’s a lot of humour in Rose Wylie’s work. The large scale and heavy paint application prevent her quirky characters from looking too illustrative.

6. Add Extra Pieces If The Size Isn’t Correct

Several of Rose Wylie’s works had extra canvas strips glued below the main picture. Some strips looked like scraps from the studio floor, heavily splattered with paint. I suspect this served to make all the works a similar size so they presented better in a group show.

7. Make Small Compositional Tests

Some of my favourite works in the exhibition are the smaller, paper-based works that Rose created to test compositions. I especially love how she collages bits of paper together.

8. Show Your Hand

Don’t neaten your edges, don’t adjust your marks, don’t alter the beauty of your hand. The works below were created by Rose Wylie moving the paint around on the canvas with her hand, not a brush. They’re messy, wonky, highly textured - beautiful.

9. Be Consistent With Your Style

Ok, this is contentious, but it’s evident from Rose Wylie’s success that having a large, consistent body of work is key to being picked up by a gallery. We all know that. (Well, all of us artists know that.) Many of us push against it. Rose’s works are consistent in technique, scale, and materials.

10. Do You!

Rose Wylie’s work is instantly recognisable. Is yours? Don’t be afraid to make art that looks totally odd next to someone else’s. Keep going!

Much love from London,

J x