Born in 1920, Paula Marie Rosenstengel is the only child of Edward Rosenstengel (1887-1962) and Eveleen Gertrude née Smith. Her father, familiarly known as Ed Rostenstegel, was a highly regarded maker of art furniture in Brisbane who established premises in New Farm, Brisbane in 1922 and remained in production until 1958.
Rosenstegel attended All Hallows, a Catholic Girls School in Brisbane. Here she was encouraged by both her art teacher and her tutor, William Bustard , a local artist who visited the school’s art class once a month. Her father supported her artistic ambition, but her mother wished to see her settled in a more practical career. Upon graduating from high school, Rosenstegel helped her father in his business by designing commissioned furniture pieces. These scale drawings, some in colour, are held in the John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.
In 1939 she met a fellow Brisbane artist, Doreen Harris. Together they explored the landscape of the Tweed Valley, an area in which Rosenstegel had holidayed as a child. It remained a source of inspiration for her and she exhibited paintings at the annual exhibitions of the Royal Queensland Art Society from 1940 to 1943 (Doreen Harris exhibited more extensively and was also included in the exhibitions of the Half Dozen Group of Artists). It does not appear that she exhibited elsewhere.
In 1947 her father paid for Rosenstegel to go to England, where she cycled through the countryside with her sketchbook. She lived for three years in a guest house in Capel-y-ffin, where she met the resident chaplain, Dr Patrick Flood. Dr Flood had been associated with the group of craftsmen known as the Ditchling Community. He had also been private chaplain to the family of Eric Gill, a member of this community and whose autobiography Rosenstegel had read the year before she arrived in England. Her daily conversations with Dr Flood, combined with her roaming of the Welsh country, stimulated Rosenstegel and enabled her to develop her painting style. During this period she also made two sojourns to Europe, where she was especially interested in the Byzantine mosaics.
She returned to Brisbane where she continued her experimentation. She befriended Margaret Cilento in the 1950s and exchanged ideas on artistic matters with her as well as acquainting her with Dr Flood’s philosophy. When her father fell ill in 1955, Rosenstegel entered the family business once more, putting aside her art until 1958 when the business closed. When her father died in 1962 Rosenstegel abandoned painting and taught herself weaving with the help of Nellie Lambert and Elisabeth Nagel of Sturt Workshops (Mittagong). In 1989 she was diagnosed as having a brain tumor. After her surgery she experimented with oil painting and pastels.
Research Curator, Queensland Heritage, Queensland Art Gallery
