Florelle Rodenberg

Midwest-based painter, Florelle Rodenberg, has been painting since she got her first set of acrylics at age 8. Over the years, her work has shifted from acrylic work to watercolor commissions, and now to a newfound love for oils. Though she is a live painter for weddings and events full time, Florelle is working towards gallery representation so she can leave the wedding industry. She finds her passion and purpose in the world of representational portraits and landscapes in oil, specifically in the realm of Western art, and the relationship between people and the spaces they inhabit and visit. She is also deeply inspired by her sister and strong female friends, and Florelle’s work has recently become more focused on the power and grace of the feminine spirit in all its forms. A world-traveler, Florelle is fascinated by the endless horizon and the possibilities that lie ahead on the open road. It’s not only the colors and idyllic vistas of the West that florelle hopes to capture in her work, but also the inherent wildness, vast opportunity, and hard work ethic that the West represents. Additionally, her time spent traveling across the US, and to places like Costa Rica, the Philippines, Kenya, Italy and Australia has largely impacted her desire to express herself through paint and narrative. In 2018 Florelle Spent a year abroad in Australia where she met Australian artist Jessica Le Clerc, and studied under Jess in painting and drawing. She attributes much of her drive and inspiration to Jess and her time on the Sunshine Coast. She also was deeply impacted by her time at Florence academy of art last spring where she learned how to paint and draw from life. She has been taking courses in classical painting at the Gateway Academy of Classical Art in St. Louis for the past year, and is deeply motivated to incorporate classical painting into her western-inspired work. Some of Florelle’s other painting influences include John Singer Sargent, Jeremy Lipking, and Claude Monet. Florelle’s painting “For Friends and Flowers” received second place in the Missouri Kansas Portrait Painters annual exhibition in 2020, and she has been accepted into several other local St. Louis exhibitions in the past few years. Her time is spent creating custom artwork for collectors, painting murals for local businesses and live painting weddings. She hopes to continue to lean into her true passion, western-inspired portraits, in the coming years.