Rachel finished school in 2003 and went on to do an AVCE Art & Design course at the Lichfield School of Art in Staffordshire. After completing that course with a BC grade she then went on to study for a degree in Fine Art: Contemporary Media at the University of Wales, Newport.
As well as studying, she has also completed a number of commissions. Rachel will graduate this year and aims to continue to practice as an artist.
Rachel says about her work;
“Within my current practice I am exploring traditional methods in drawing and painting, mainly with an emphasis on figurative work in a realist manner. I am particularly inspired by, Paul Klee, John Virtue, Jan Vermeer, Édouard Manet and Edgar Degas”.
“Although John Virtue’s work does not feature people, I admire the scale of his paintings and the texture they have, along with them being mainly black and white. I tend to work in black and white or basic colours quite often and also very loosely, which I think relates to his work. I really like the looseness of Degas’ work and as I am currently depicting figures who are returning the gaze to the viewer, there are many pieces by Manet that inspire this aspect of my work”.
“My interest in Vermeer is stimulated not only because he is technically, an extraordinary painter, but also because he was a seventeenth century genre painter which is where my current interest lies. Genre painting depicts aspects of everyday life by portraying ordinary people engaged in their common activities at work or recreation, in a generally realistic manner”.
“My recent imagery investigates everyday tasks that have a relationship with those depicted by genre painters such as Vermeer. Recreated in a contemporary setting, the viewer is placed in the role of the observer, addressing the works through a process of observation and intrusion into the lives of people we do not know, having resonance with the soap opera genre of today. Recently, experimenting with duplicate images the subtle difference of the figures returning the gaze has been introduced. The people depicted are usually unknown to the viewer and the subject of the image is not always clear, which creates ambiguity. These scenes in the past have often been set in a household and were simply decorative or designed to entertain and amuse”.
Exhibitions
2008 Riverfront Newport.
2008 Graduate Show Caerleon Campus.
2008 Free Range Show Brick Lane London.
