Roos Leddy (1974, Nijmegen, NL)
The paintings of Roos Leddy are created on wood and inspired by light and nature. Rather than simply using wood as a surface, she works in dialogue with the material, embracing its unique character and texture.
Vivid colours, an intense interplay between light and darkness, and a distinctive eye for detail define her work. Her works invite a closer look and move viewers, leaving a lasting impression.
Roos Leddy grew up in the beautiful fortified town of Heusden in the Netherlands, in a family where art was simply part of life. Her father was an actor, her mother an artist. Growing up in this environment shaped her natural curiosity and her way of looking at the world.
After secondary school, she spent four years travelling through India, Japan, the Philippines and Thailand. The experience opened her to different cultures, landscapes and ways of seeing. It became an important foundation for the artist she would later become.
Returning to the Netherlands, she studied at the Academy of Art in ’s-Hertogenbosch, specializing in ceramics. During her studies, she met her future husband in Austria. Together they spent six months in Valencia, where Roos studied ceramics at the University of Valencia as part of an exchange programme. In the evenings, she attended classes in anatomical and portrait sculpture, while during the day they both took glazing and pottery wheel classes at the Escuela de Cerámica de Manises.
After graduating, they founded the studio Roos&Chris Sculptures (ww.roos-chris.com) where they worked side by side, creating sculptures. Roos also began teaching at art centres and later at the Design Academy Eindhoven. Alongside her artistic practice, she and her husband built a family, welcoming two sons in 2009 and 2011.
The desire for change and adventure eventually led them to Italy in 2021, where they lived in the mountains of Abruzzo. Later, they found a new home in Styria, Austria.
Surrounded by forests, lakes and open space, she found something equally important: time. Time to slow down, observe and return to her own creative process.
Walking with her dog through the landscape, she became increasingly aware of light, colour and the changing forms of nature. She began drawing and painting directly onto wood, allowing the grain, texture and shape of each piece to become part of the work rather than something to conceal.
From this dialogue between wood and light, a series of illuminated candles emerged. Later came a series of birds, glowing from within — each one carrying its own light at the heart.
Her work is rooted in an ongoing exploration of light and nature, shaped by a life of movement, travel, making and looking.
Light. Wood. Nature.
These are the elements that guide her work today.
