When I first saw Romers’ work it wasn’t just because I thought it was beautiful and his portrait paintings so life like, that drew me in; but it was also seeing his paintings of a place I know well and really love, that made me want to photograph him. He was born in South-East London, but I met him in his studio in Céret (in the Pyrenées-Orientales department in the of South of France), a place that he’s made his home with his wife and daughter since 2018.
But his artistic journey started many years before that. ‘I’ve always loved drawing since I was very young. My brother has autism and learning difficulties, and drawing was always something that calmed him and he could focus on, so we spent lots of time drawing together with my mother as we were growing up, and since then it became cemented in my identity, and I knew it would be a big part of my life.’

But later, when he started looking to study art, he found the UK Fine Art degree courses were very conceptually based, so decided to look further afield, and in the end found an art school in Florence that taught in a more traditional hand on way, that he was looking for. So at just 19 years old he moved to Italy to study art, which ‘was really intimidating at the time, moving to another country’ as he wasn’t that adventurous back then. But once he took the plunge and moved, he said it was amazing, and Florence was a small, safe and beautiful city to study and live in, and he was so grateful for the opportunity. So with the traveling bug and the confidence which that experience gave him, Romer decided to move and settle somewhere that really held a place in his heart, thanks to his parents.

‘It’s a place I knew well and I have fond memories of when I was growing up, as my parents always brought us here for family holidays. Then as I got older, I was really drawn by Cérets’ strong 20th century art history, with great painters like Picasso and Soutine having lived here and Matisse too(in nearby Coullioure).’

And finally how did Romer find settling as an English expat in a small semi-rural village in Southern France with a population of just under 8,000?

‘Well……. I think because I was seen as a rather eccentric character - a young English person, a bit dishevelled looking, painting in the street’‘ he said with a smile ‘I got to know people quite quickly, as they would always be interested in what I was doing and come and talk to me as I was painting, so for me, it was easy and a really welcoming place and now I’m really integrated and it definitely feels like home.’

Romer sells his work internationally and is available for portrait commissions, however he only works only from life.