imagine...: Season 34, Episode 3

34 - 3: Rose Wylie: This Rose is Blooming

Very few people would have recognised the name Rose Wylie until this remarkable artist was in her mid 70s. Youthful, playful and unpredictable at the age of 83, this is an artist in her prime.

Her unlikely subjects are drawn from the world around her - from footballers like Wayne Rooney, the gory brilliance of Quentin Tarantino films, memories of her childhood in the London Blitz, to the stuff of everyday life - gas hobs and even her own pet cats. In Rose Wylie's universe past and present collide in vivid explosions of colour and form.

Her exuberant large scale canvases are being exhibited, and sold, all over the world. Alan Yentob meets Rose Wylie and delves into her curious and colourful world to discover how her memories and experiences have helped mould the artist that she is today, and how she transforms the stuff of everyday experience into new and hitherto unseen painterly visions.