Metaphysical painting including the work of Giorgio DeChirico and Giorgio Morandi had a major affect on Rose's painting from an early age. In the early 1980s Rose visited an exhibition of Morandi's paintings at the San Francisco MOMA. He subsequently wrote a review for 'Concrete Magazine' funded by the College of Environmental Design, Berkeley.
Rose has worked often as a still life painter, and has equally incorporated the metaphysical approach into his other paintings. While teaching at the university of California, Berkeley he gave a seminal lecture on the relationship between the metaphysical school of painters and the architect Aldo Rossi.