About the Artist

Bio

Rosanna Gaddoni (b. 1972) is an Italian artist currently based in the Netherlands.

After a corporate career, she pursued art courses at the Tekenschool of Rijksmuseum and the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, as well as private ateliers. She completed a two-year course in Leiden of Sumi-e, the Japanese ink brush technique, and exposed her ink paintings at The National Art Center in Tokyo Japan in 2019 and 2021.

Gaddoni's art has been internationally exhibited and awarded.

She won the 33PA Publishing Award and the Honorable Mention Award in the Drawing Category in the 17th Art Renewal Center Salon, an Honorable Mention Award in the Animal Category in the 18th Arc Salon and was a Finalist with two artworks in the Drawing and Animals categories in the 16th edition.

In the Almenara Art Prize, Gaddoni received the Best Wildlife and Animal Award in 2025 and the Sheng Xinyu Art Award in 2024 following the Honorable Mention in the 2023 edition of the international prize. She exhibited at the Circulo de la Amistad in Cordoba Spain in 2023, 2024, and 2025.

In the PleinAir Salon International Art Competition, from 2022 to today, she earned 3rd place overall, won twelve Category Awards in four different categories (Best Drawing, Best Animals and Birds, Best Still Life, Best Vehicle), and received thirteen Honorable Mentions.

The Portrait Society of America recognized her achievements with two times 2nd, 6th, and 7th place placements and six finalist awards from 2021 to 2025, including in the Animals as Subject and Portrait Outside the Box categories.

She exhibited in London with the Royal Society of Portrait Painters (2024), at the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition (2022), and as a Finalist in the Wildlife Artist of the Year (2023).

With The Society of Animal Artists Gaddoni exhibited at the Sioux City Public Museum for the 64th Annual Exhibition 'Art and the Animal' and at the Art Museum of Idaho Eastern for the 65th Annual Exhibition (September 2025 - January 2026).

She has been a Finalist in the prestigious Beautiful Bizarre Art contest, and has been selected for the contest exhibition in San Francisco Modern Eden Gallery. She received the "Award of Distinction" in The Allied Artists of America Associate online Competition and she was awarded Honorable Mention in the Stroke of Genius 17 and Best of Show - Pets Artist Network Competitions.

Her work has also been recognized in the BoldBrush International Painting Contest with a 2nd placement and three finalists’ awards and has been published in art catalogs and magazines like The Best of Drawing, Fine Art Connoisseur, Beautiful Bizarre Art Magazine, Plein Air Magazine, 'Masterpieces' (the Guide Artists), and Artists and Illustrators.

Gaddoni is a Signature Member of the Society of Animal Artists, Elected member of the Allied Artists of America, International member of the Portrait Society of America and member of the Meesters van het Realisme.

Collections:

Gaddoni's work has been selected to be part of the Polaris Collection of the Lunar Codex project. The Lunar Codex is an archive of contemporary art, books, music, poetry, and film, launched via NASA's Artemis partners to the Moon.

Her 14 Semi-Finalist pieces in the 17th Art Renewal Center Salon and 'At Dusk' featured in the Issue 43 of Beautiful Bizarre Mag are scheduled for the Lunar Codex's seventh-time capsule Polaris, which is due to launch in 2026, targeting the Nobile Crater, in the vicinity of the Lunar South Pole.

Gaddoni’s work is in private collections worldwide. In 2021 and 2022, the Copelouzos Family invited her to be part of the permanent collection of the CFA Museum in Greece.

Art Statement:

I grew up on a small farm in northern Italy, surrounded by fields that changed color with the natural cycle of the seasons. I spent my summer days on the riverbanks behind my house, among wildflowers and the animals of the farm. In that small corner of the Earth, there was nothing, yet I had everything I needed to feel blissful. I was surrounded by Life in every form.

In my work, I still seek that presence of Life in the silent dance of light and shadow, and the thrill of that perception never ceases to amaze me. I aim to represent the experience of Life through what I call poetic realism, striving to capture the world with honesty by combining a strong emphasis on drawing and tonal values with my emotional involvement.

I work primarily with charcoal and graphite on paper, finding these media particularly fascinating for conveying the vibration and movement of Life in a representational style. Their restrained, monochromatic quality focuses attention on line, tone, texture, and form without relying on color, suggesting a sense of purity.

A subtle thread connects all my artworks: they are fragments of a larger expression of devotion and respect for every form of Life, and of the immense privilege of living the human journey in this remote corner of the universe we share.