Mette Roche

Mette Sofie Roche, originally from North-Norway, but living in Ireland for the past 30+ years, currently in a restored barn in Co. Meath, where she also has her studio. A restored schoolhouse in the North of Norway serves as a second studio during the summer.

She has been a member of the Old Schoolhouse Art Group in Dunboyne since its foundation in 2001. and of the Meath Arts Group since 2007, and has exhibited extensively with them in and around Co. Meath. Since she retired from a full time career as a social worker 2 years ago she has been involved in more formal art education as well as having a full time art practise.

Her paintings and sculptures are in many private collections in Norway, England, Holland and Ireland. A commissioned painting is in a government office in Navan.

Artistic Statement

Her art is inspired by her early years in the North of Norway; with extreme colours, light and seasonal rhythms. She also draws from her ancestral culture of the Sami people, which she has been researching for the past two years through drawing, painting and sculpture.

Her involvement with art has been a journey and process of discovery, continually evolving and changing.

She works in a variety of media ; watercolour, Indian ink, oils and acrylic as well as textile and combined materials, such as her fibre, wax and plaster sculptures. Fibre, such as felted cloth has strong associations with her identity and she is interested in bringing this old traditional craft technique into an artistic and sculptural context.

By using strong colours she tries to convey meaning by association; colour taking on the function of metaphor and underlies the mood of a memory, or represents a cultural symbol.

Being involved in a creative process is as important to her as sleep and her recent participation in art education has increased her confidence and enhanced her creativity.