ABOUT
Rosie Leech is an Oxford based illustrator, designer and mender of jumpers.
Her illustration work is often focused in small everyday objects or encounters, exploring these ideas with a range of traditional mediums, including gouache, ink and printmaking. Her work is colourful and intricate, she frequently works on a very small scale with particular focus on the details of each piece.
Rosie also works as a repair specialist. She has been sewing since the age of six and took up darning several years ago, when her favourite yellow jumper went into holes.
She now darns as a freelancer, mostly working with visible repairs using traditional woven darns for holes, Swiss darning for worn areas and boro and sashiko for cotton clothing.
Her work as a narrative illustrator means that she is extremely interested in the stories behind garments, mending as much as she can with fabrics and threads she has collected or inherited and which have histories of their own.
She is the repair specialist for London based company egg.
EDUCATION
2016 - 2019 - Edinburgh College of Art, Illustration BA(Hons),
2015 - 16 - Falmouth UAL Foundation Diploma in Art & Design
PUBLICATIONS
2022 - I Miss You illustrations, front cover and typesetting, published by Cicada Books, Art Director Ziggy Hanaor
Further Information HERE
2022 - 10th Anniversary illustration for Oxford Yarn Store
2021 - Featured article in Creative Boom: Ten Fresh Illustrators Specialising in Editorial to Inspire
Article HERE
2020 - Featured article in Pressing Matters magazine Issue 13
Studio and process photoshoot HERE
2020 - Editorial illustration for Counterpoint magazine Issue 19
2019 - Editorial illustration for Salt & Wonder journal Issue 03
EXHIBITIONS & AWARDS
2024 - The Artist’s Studio - contribution to model studio exhibition at Magdalen Road Studios, Oxford
2024 - Art Weeks exhibition, Oxford
2022 - Visible Mending exhibition, Old Fire Station, Oxford
2021 - Shortlisted Artist, Editorial, World Illustration Awards, Association of Illustrators
Entry can be seen HERE
2020 - Shortlisted Artist, Alternative Publishing, World Illustration Awards, Association of Illustrators
Entry can be seen HERE
2019 - Helen A. Rose Bequest Award
2019 - From a Glass Tower, ECA Evolution House, Edinburgh
2019 - Bookmarks Zine and Book Fair, Fire Station, Edinburgh
2019 - Halfway There Mid-Year Show, Fire Station, Edinburgh
2017 - Winning Design, French Film Festival, Edinburgh