Biography:
Rachel studied Fashion (BA, Middlesex University).
After her degree, she worked in the creative industries for twenty years. Her work centred on costume, initially for theatre and opera and then on films including the Harry Potter series and Star Wars.
Work included stints in fashion - for example, working on the mechanical structures of Hussein Chalayans acclaimed 2007 transforming dresses.
As a freelancer, she also worked in advertising, special effects and product design. Following this, Rachel took some time out when her children were young.
In 2019, Rachel returned to drawing and painting, enrolling on a local oil painting course and attending a number of classes at the Royal Drawing School.
She completed the two year Advanced Painting course at The Essential School of Painting in 2024, and is currently on the MA in Fine Art at City and Guilds London Art School, graduating in September 2026.
Artist Statement:
Working across drawing, painting, print making, applique, soft sculpture and collage, I explore figuration combined with abstraction.
An interest in metamorphosis, the vulnerability and fragility of our biology, and our spirit animal in the age of the anthropocene, forms the basis of my work.
Themes develop as a response to a Mythical or Historical theme or character, drawing from the Monster, Divine Feminine and Grotesque body.
Characters become part of a “Floating World” of Carnivalesque and Baroque imagery. Like Carnival, painting exists in its own space and time.
Charcoal or thin layers of paint over which I “draw out” with solvent, are used for initial mark making followed by a gestural application of paint to build up shapes and forms. I make appliqué elements to add texture and craft.
Poetry, song lyrics and everyday phraseology feed into the backgrounds and titles of my work.
I like to play with how a painting connects to modern life and what is at the primal core of human evolution.
Contact:
Please get in touch if you have any questions about Rachel's work, including pricing and commissions.
Exhibitions:
Together Through Art Mall Galleries London
February 2026
Marylebone Gallery
July 2025
City & Guilds Art School Interim Show
March 2025
Beep Painting Biennale 2024
Nov-Mar 2025 Elysium gallery
The Essential School of Painting
Group show July 2024
The Essential School of Painting
Group show July 2023
Artists Open House Dulwich
May 2023
Dulwich Art Group Artists Open House
May 2022
Great Bow Wharf Gallery
Langport Somerset
Aug 2021-Dec 2024
Jane Newbery
84 Dulwich Village
Nov 2021-Nov 2022