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Banana Peel III,  2008
  oil on canvas; 20"x 24"

Spilled Sugar Pot,  2005
  oil on canvas; 16"x 20"

"My meticulous depictions of mostly solitary animals ask the viewer to consider the plight of nature in the face of man's encroachment.  I use a minimalist approach as a reaction to the bombardment of useless and meaningless images and noise generated by the media.

I hope to bring some kind of order and calm to reflect on what is really important and meaningful in life.  For me, realism and simplicity have a direct link to truth and honesty.

My work often addresses very serious contemporary concerns but I also want to convey hope, humor, and optimism.

My aim is not to harass the viewer, nor do I want to state the obvious threat to the animal's habitat destruction too blatantly.  I prefer to make my point subtly and quietly in the hope that the lack of aggression that is normally linked to that subject will give pause for a deeper kind of reflection on the problem.

The emptiness in most of my backgrounds is a reflection on the increasingly isolated and selfish life that modern society has created and portrays loneliness as a human condition as well as our "disconnect" with nature.
I sign my work 'Rouaud' in memory of my grandmother."

Rouaud was born in Strasbourg, France in 1972.  At the age of sixteen she immigrated with her family to South Africa.  She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in printmaking in 1993 from Port Elizabeth Technikon in South Africa.