Rosa Barandiaran

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Rosa Maria (Barandiaran) Ukena (February 6, 1942 - May 11, 1999) was a San Francisco artist known for reviving the impressionist movement and was one of the founding members of the San Francisco Impressionist League. She was born in El Guachapan, El Salvador in 1942 from Spanish and Basque ancestry.

In her early childhood, her twin sister died at the age of 4 from complications related to being a Type I (Juvenile) Diabetes. She had apparently fell into her diabetic coma after having been frightened by a cat. The loss of her twin sister would have a profound effect on her artistic life.

In the 1960s, she moved to her aunt's house in the Mission/Potrero Hill District in San Francisco where she met and later married Robert Ukena, who had just enlisted in the army. In the last 1960s, she began her early art work under the instruction of a Japanese artist in Tokyo. Her early works delved into clearer forms of impressionism. From 1968-1980, her paintings were limited to works she made for friends and relatives.

When she returned to San Francisco after having lived in Europe, she joined the San Francisco Impressionists League and her style changed to more closely mirror the French Impressionist style. In the mid 1980s, one of paintings, "Summer Harvest" won an honorable mention in a contest and was exhibited in Washington DC.

By 1993, after many exhibits throughout the United States, a significant portion of her collection was placed in Simic Art Galleries in San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf, Carmel, and La Jolla, California. During this period, she sold over 50 works of art.

On May 11, 1999, after complications relating to her own Juvenile Diabetes that didn't emerge until later in life in 1983, Rosa Ukena died in San Francisco at UCSF Hospital.

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