Rose Lyons grew up in Chicago’s Morgan Park neighborhood, and started drawing as soon as she could hold a pencil. Her artistic talent was apparent long before she received formal training. Her first commissioned drawings were neighborhood sketches done in her teens.

As a young artist, Rose’s creative vision was much influenced when her class traveled to Italy with their professors from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Subsequent travel took her to Germany and England.

“The great cities of Europe were astounding. I saw them as the living reflection of the centuries of people who built them and lived within them, their dreams and aspirations. I learned that the new world is a continuation of the old, but at the same time our own city’s uniqueness impressed upon me. Coming home I discovered the power of Chicago’s landscape. I kept riding my bicycle through that treasure chest of architecture, feasting my eyes. I saw a different city. Chicago’s essence was charming. The fine and coarse lines and trim all over the brick and stone, the heavy solidity and the light lacework carvings, its nook and cranny alley corners, and main strips lined with storefronts and people going in and out of them doing everything, all became live compositions that took generations to create. The city’s weight is immense. It is many things all at once.

“I try to capture that image. I prefer to work with a lead pencil only, without color. I feel this most basic medium reveals more about a particular subject than any other.”

Rose’s work includes landmarks such as The Berghoff, Orchestra Hall, Fine Arts Building, Wacker Drive and Wrigley Building, Chicago Board of Trade, Wabash and El Tracks, Cook County Courthouse on 26th St, Cook County Hospital, and many other vistas of Chicago. She credits her art teachers Mrs. Maurita Couch and Ms. Elizabeth Ockwell.