Rachel's paintings are concerned with the way the past intrudes upon the present. Symbols, signs, animal tracks, and claw marks mix with telegraph poles, gates, and fenceposts as we search for ways to remember who we once were by seeking out the wild face of our surroundings. Her Evocative abstract landscapes respond to the environment by exploring dynamic colours and experimental mark making.
Seeking out quiet liminal spaces, Rachel records her surroundings, including field lines, hedgerows, and patterns of perspective. She begins working with one these sketches in mind, along with a primed wooden panel and some charcoal, using intuitive marks to focus more on the sense of a place rather than the reality, which is often very muddy! There is a dance between application and reduction until a destination is arrived at, allowing historical layers of paint to peak out from beneath the surface.
Rachel graduated in 2001 from Hull school of Art and Design with a degree in Fine Art and have been working in a variety of media for nearly twenty years. In 2019 she was the recipient of the JSFineArt award for 2D media at the annual open exhibition at the Heseltine Gallery in Middleton Cheney and in 2021 was awarded the Oxfordshire Artweeks Mary Moser prize. Alongside exhibiting her work, Rachel runs classes and workshops to help others find their creative path in life.