Rosie (Rosalie) Wynkoop
Birth Date: 1954

Artist Gallery
Rosalie (Rosie) Wynkoop is currently a full-time studio artist in Bozeman, Montana. She is married to ceramic artist Josh DeWeese; both are Montana natives and they share a studio at their home. Wynkoop received BA degrees in Art Education and English Literature from Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana and a BFA in Ceramics from Kansas City Art Institute in Kansas City, Missouri. She conducts workshops at Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Helena, Montana, where she and her husband resided for many years while he was the resident director of that famed ceramic worksite. She has specialized in low fire Majolica ceramics for nearly 20 years. Majolica – also spelled Maiolica – is a beautiful ware prepared by bisque firing unglazed earthenware (usually redware) then tin-glazing it overall and decorating over that with pure ceramic colorants; then firing it a second time.  After the first firing, the red ware bisque is dipped into a bath of fast drying opaque-white liquid glaze. When dry, the glazed piece is ready to be hand painted with colored metal oxides. A final firing will make the glaze fuse with the metal oxides to create the bright colors specific to majolica.  This technique originates in the Middle East in the 9th century. By the 13th century majolica ware was imported into Italy through the Isle of Majorca, headquarter of the trade between Spain and Italy. The Italians called it Maiolica, erroneously thinking it was made in Majorca.  Italian Renaissance artist Luca Della Robbia (1400-1482) discovered that he could mix ceramic colorants with the traditional white tin glaze and create a flat field of color previously not seen in Italian ceramics. So both white-field and colored-field tin wares are considered Majolica. Today, in English, the word Majolica is used to refer to these ceramic wares in the stylistic tradition of the Italian Renaissance.  Majolica is characterized by boldness of color, design and elaborate style. Wynkoop is best known for her low fired tin glazed terra cotta (majolica) that she has been producing for many years in both white-field and colored-field traditions.  Her work is often intensely decorated requiring many hours of highly skilled brushwork, incising and other surface altering techniques.