Interviewed by Ellie Moran (she/her)
Embedded with the belief that ‘all drawing is good drawing,’ Rosie Turner’s (she/her) life drawing classes cultivate an atmosphere where creativity thrives over perfection. Beyond the classroom, Rosie’s artistic journey, right now, is one of serendipity, heartbreak, and a continual pursuit of connection. Whether it be through her evocative works, her Love Letter newsletter, or the vibrant creative community she’s nurtured, Rosie’s practice serves as both an invitation and a bridge to shared expression.
As an admirer of Rosie’s work and an eager but, admittedly, diffident creative myself, I’ve always been curious to attend one of her life drawing classes but haven’t yet taken the opportunity. I asked her what a newcomer can expect from an evening in her space:
“You’re going to feel anxious at the start but never fear, I’ll hold your hand and show you the way!”
A life drawing evening with Rosie is all about creating a fun, relaxed, and inspiring vibe. She collaborates with models who are not only super talented but also bring great energy, which makes the whole session flow effortlessly.
“After a while, you will notice your palms have stopped sweating, you’re breathing a little slower, your pencil is moving across the page easily and you’re no longer self-conscious. You don’t even see the nude person in front of you anymore, it’s now about making shapes, movements, and gestures and it feels good!”
Rosie puts careful thought into things like lighting, music, textures, and movement to make the space feel special and welcoming. Using fabrics, flowers, props, and lighting to transport people to another place and give their eyes something delicious to feed on,
“It can depend on the venue, but I try to style a visual vignette that feels magical. I like to create a rich and luscious environment for participants and models to dissolve into”.
She believes that the core tenet of her teaching philosophy is that ‘all drawing is good drawing’ and that the act of drawing itself is an important and powerful tool to pry open our creative selves. Drawing is immediate, accessible, and real. She feels extremely passionate about giving people a license to be brave, to draw without hesitation, and to experience genuine pleasure.
“It’s not about making a good drawing, the act itself is good for you”, she explains.
She brings this sentiment with her to all of her events, whether it’s one of her regular classes or her playful, erotic life drawing sessions. Her upcoming event will be held at High Tide on the 7th of May. She says that it’s all about giving people the freedom to explore self-expression, and she just hypes them up along the way.
Rosie stepped into life drawing facilitation quite serendipitously, but she’s quick to give others credit for the opportunity,
“I had delivered art workshops in regional galleries and artist-run spaces in NSW, but when I moved to Melbourne during the pandemic (what a chump), I was super disoriented and didn’t know how I was going to find my art community. Once restrictions eased, I started meeting some amazing people, including Nour, who owns Unassigned Gallery in Brunswick. She was building this incredible artist-run space from scratch, focused on platforming artists on the periphery”
Nour welcomed Rosie in and suggested she tried hosting a drawing class—and that’s how it all started.
“Honestly, if Nour hadn’t convinced me to give it a go, who knows where I’d be now? And that kind of generosity has stuck with me, and I try to keep that energy in the classes I deliver and how I treat other folks in the community.”
Rosie candidly shares with us that she is deep in her ‘melancholy breakup era’ right now,
“I am a girl who is completely and utterly saturated with sadness right now. But there is LOTS of inspiration to be found in heartbreak. Anyone who’s been dumped will know what I’m talking about.”
She describes the emotional landscape of her heartbreak as a rich and fertile ground in which she has sown the seeds of her own misery, knowing that they will flower into something magnificent. Through her heartbreak sprouts a solo exhibition, ‘Sea of Dreams’, at Onwards Gallery and Studios, opening in August.
Rosie has recently birthed a new outlet for all of her obsessions, passions, and creative endeavours; and if you’re anything like me, you are also extremely fond of a subscription newsletter. Rosie’s Love Letter stemmed from sheer frustration with Instagram,
“I was so incredibly BORED of the endless scroll and how it felt like a Sisyphean hellscape every time I opened the app. I realised my energy would be better spent creating something curated, thoughtful, and just a little quieter. So, the Love Letter newsletter was born!”
“... and heartbroken girlies love a project”
The newsletter has become a space for Rosie to communicate authentically, as if she were chatting with close friends,
“I like to write as if we’re in one of those wonderful big yap conversations—leaping from topic to topic, driven by passion, obsession, and increasingly dramatic hand gestures. It’s super cathartic, not just as an outlet but as a way to connect more meaningfully”
In her Love Letters, Rosie delves into the influences that shape her practice:
“A lot of what I gravitate toward—films, books, art—captures the sensations, tensions, and poetry of girlhood. It’s melancholic, romantic, and filled with duality: beautiful and monstrous, delicate and dangerous. Your body is both a site of pleasure and horror. Everyone is scared of something happening to you but also, you’re the scary thing. And that kind of feminine, gothic energy set the tone for my artistic brain.”
She admits that she’s had to shy away from sharing these “girly” inspirations because society often dismisses them as trivial or silly,
“I don’t care about that anymore. If you don’t understand girlhood, you don’t understand me.”
Being a natural-born host, she loves having people over to her house, cooking for them, and making something special with simple gestures.
“It’s like ritualised friendship”
So, when she started hosting classes for strangers, she was quite surprised to find that she would finish most sessions feeling like she’d been given something in return. She realised that her life drawing events had become an exercise in generosity.
“I try really hard to create a space that feels welcoming for everyone who walks through the door. I get a lot of joy from facilitating and witnessing others grow.”
I asked Rosie what she hopes people take away from a life drawing class, beyond technical skill,
“More than anything I hope people gain TRUST in themselves. So many come in carrying baggage about drawing. They’re haunted by the voices of ghastly, greying, double-chinned teachers who told them they were “not good at art” when they were little. People can come in really f*cking freaked out before they’ve even started. F*ck that! I aim to help undo that damage by creating a space where bravery and self-expression are celebrated over perfectly rendered nipples.”
She wants people to feel the joy of putting pencil to paper without fear, reconnecting with their creative instincts, and realising that art is about the process, not just the outcome. For Rosie, she sees life drawing as a conversation. It’s an interplay between the artist, the paper, the model, and the space that holds them.
Finally, we reflect on her younger self, and a piece of advice she would gift to her:
“Don’t be afraid to look silly. No one is watching you. Transmute that fear into bravery. Amplify your curiosity, it's your greatest asset. Make out with everyone. Don’t over-pluck your f*cking eyebrows.”
If you would like to subscribe to Rosie’s newsletter follow this link: https://www.rosieturnerx.com
For up-to-date information on her upcoming classes, you can find her on Instagram.