Roger Burnett over forty-five years ago gave up a secure job in engineering design and converted a derelict coal barge into a home and studio for himself and his first wife and one-year-old daughter. He set sail for the French Canal and on the pavements of France, he declared to himself as being an artist and the pages from his sketchbook would be the means of their survival. His roving painting career gathered momentum and in the early 1970’s when he and his family sailed a thirty-foot ketch from England to the Caribbean. The warmth of the tropics gave his work a new vibrancy and thereafter the islands became his adopted home.
Roger and wife make a formidable team as she has modelled for many of his paintings and sculptures and she uses her more than 20 years of experience in modelling for the arts to guide potential models for his work and students who are interested in the arts.
His studio is located in the lush Antrim Valley on the island of Caribbean island of Dominica.