For 85-year-old Sandringham local Rina Rosi, art has become central to her identity and a lifelong devotion.

Born and raised in Assisi, Rina discovered her creative flair as a young child, designing and sketching pictures in her spare time.

As the years passed and Rina blossomed into a young lady, her love for art refused to dwindle.

The lively Umbrian was educated as a pattern designer and, once married, also developed skills in ceramics through her then husband Giuseppe Rosi.

After starting a family and raising her son, Rina began training in papyrus restoration, working with a material prepared in ancient Egypt and used throughout the ancient Mediterranean for writing and painting.

In 1959, Rina and Giuseppe decided to venture to Australia with their young son.

The plan was to stay for a few years and make some money before returning to Assisi to continue life as they had left it.

“We came to Australia by ship and when we arrived at Melbourne there was no one to welcome us,” Rina recalls.

The young family was sent to Bonegilla, a camp in north-eastern Victoria which was used to receive and train migrants during the post-war immigration boom.

Following three months of “detainment” in the controversial camp, the family was released and Rina and Giuseppe found work in a ceramics studio in Melbourne.

In 1971, they bought a house in which they established their own studio, and in which Rina lives and works to this day.

“We continued to make ceramics, but not artistically; we did it to live,” Rina explains.

When Giuseppe left her a few years later, Rina continued to work and create, perhaps more than ever before.

“With pain I worked, because working kept me alive,” she recalls.

And the fruit of her commitment didn’t go unnoticed.

Rina’s ceramics and paintings have been exhibited in many of Australia’s leading galleries, while her works have come to adorn myriad homes across the nation.

Much of her work is inspired by her Australian surroundings, along with memories of her hometown of Assisi, which she has revisited a handful of times since settling in Melbourne.

Also a talented wordsmith, Rina has been a member of the Accademia Letteraria Italo-Australiana Scrittori since 1993, and recently received two prizes from Italy through the Unione Italiana Associazioni Culturali for her acclaimed poems and stories.

At 85 years of age, Rina continues to fill her home studio with new works of art, from paintings to pottery and poems, and is still gaining exposure more than four decades after her artistic career took off here in Australia.

In fact, Rina’s most recent paintings will be displayed at Blue Dog Gallery in Beaumaris just over a month away, from March 17 to 31.

Gallery director, Julia Clements has been liaising with Rina for her upcoming exhibition, and has come to know the woman behind the masterpieces.

“I have become quite fond of Rina and have enjoyed many visits to her home which in itself is one big studio,” Julia says.

“Every room you enter contains unexpected treasures, and under every bed there are folios full of her sketches.”

Rina’s dynamic personality and natural artistic talent has the tendency to captivate everybody who crosses her path, and Julia has been no exception to this rule.

“All in all, Rina Rosi is one of the most interesting people I have had the pleasure of meeting,” she affirms.

Rina vows to keep on working as long as she lives, and is hoping to create another grandiose sculpture portraying a mother with her child, inspired by Michelangelo’s ‘Pietà’.

Speaking with Rina, it is clear that her art is her life, and her passion for creating shines through in every word that falls from her lips.

“When I paint I feel music in my hands,” Rina says.

And what a sweet melody it is.