Tamsin Roskear
Luminous photoreal Cornish surf and wave light
Tamsin Roskear grew up at Gwithian, in the water before she was in the studio, and trained at Falmouth before a decade shooting surf photography taught her how light actually moves through a wave. She paints in oil and acrylic from her own dawn footage at Fistral, Porthmeor and Sennen, chasing the half-second a barrel holds its glass.
Tamsin Roskear paints the inside of Cornish water — the turquoise glasswater of an empty wave standing over a reef, light driving through the lip, spray held mid-air. Her work is crisp and luminous, almost photographic, built on careful tonal transitions and the deep aquamarine-to-jade gradients of Atlantic swell. The mood is euphoric, sunlit and weightless.
Inspirations
- surf photography
- Clive Head
- Patrick Heron's colour
Signature features
- empty glassy translucent wave faces with light through the lip
- deep aquamarine-to-jade water gradients
- held spray and backlit foam
- crisp luminous high-dynamic-range detail
32 works in the collection.