S. Claire Rolf OP

Sister Claire Rolf OP is the prioress of Queen of Peace Monastery in SquamishBC, Canada. She was formerly the prioress of the monastery the Holy Preaching of Prouilhe in France, which St. Dominic founded in 1206. In 2007 she returned to her homeland to help in the foundation of Queen of Peace Monastery in the Archdiocese of Vancouver. Formed to be a Dominican contemplative, she has no formal art training. Nevertheless simple pencil sketches, ink drawings and water colour paintings are scattered through her prayer journals. Contemplation, which is seeing and pondering with love, attempts to perceive and receive mystery. Pushed into a zone beyond words artistic expression became a finite response flowing from the infinite, from desire. Influenced by Canadian Impressionists as well as Romanesque sculpture and the more modern art of Matisse and Arcabas, she has done sculpture in clay and wood, acrylic painting and ink drawings which are in monasteries and private collections in Europe and in Canada. For more about the monastery, see www.dominicannunsbc.ca/Queen_of_Peace/Queen_of_Peace__.html.