From Fair Blossoms to Art Fairs!

Rachel, you have had a varied career history, can you tell me about your journey from a big city job to full time artist and what was the impetus for this change?

On reflection it was an obvious step but at the time leaving a career I had loved and an incredibly supportive company felt like a massive leap of faith. As a school child looking back on my reports the only subjects I was an A* student in was art but I didn’t come from a family where art would be seen to be a natural choice. Working in the corporate world both overseas and in the UK was fabulous, I loved what I did but as young children arrived and we made the move to the countryside I needed something different, I genuinely felt I was swimming upstream. Having lost my own father in my 20’s in tragic circumstances I threw myself into work as a coping mechanism, it worked for a long time but my day of reckoning arrived and I turned to art to help heal and reconnect with the creativity I had loved as a child.

I am so delighted you have returned to art. Your work evokes memory and experience. What subjects inspire you?

Landscape and flora are my key inspirations. I have periods of solitude in nature and take back what I have absorbed to the studio. I am fascinated by how we connect to people who have either been or will stand in the very landscape we now inhabit, the same with gardens which to me are a connection to the people who have lovingly planted them. We are lucky to have a garden that has been invested in by previous owners and with designs that were originally done by Gertrude Jekyll-every time I paint what I see in the florals it is a nod to the people who have lived here before. Hence some of my painting titles like ‘Floral Love Letters’. I am also known for my large skyscapes…I love painting them, I spend my life looking at the sky and have a little message on my studio desk that says ‘Look up for hope’.

I love that you are so connected to your surroundings. Hope is an important word for me this year as is Joy. What is the hardest part of creating a painting or indeed a commission?

I think its the relentless desire to get it right, to know when it’s finished and to capture something of the spirit of intent from the client when they commissioned the painting. Some paintings you can wrestle with for months, some appear from nowhere and make themselves present almost in one complete sitting. No two are the same.

What’s the best thing about being an artist?

For me it’s realising a childhood dream. Relationships have been at the core of my working life from get go. Either as a client relationship specialist, a relational dynamic coach or now as a painter. I want to connect to people through paint, I want what I paint to add something positive to their lives and their home.

I know you have offered me great wisdom and insight and have helped me get to the core; sometimes this is clouded by everyday life.You did your first fair at The Other Art Fair last weekend! Congratulations! Can you tell us more about this event? 

It was my first art fair and really delighted to be doing it in London with Saatchi Art and the Other Art Fair team. It’s a great opportunity to be absorbed with other artists and get feedback on your work. I created a body of work especially for it called 'Kyoto Blossom’. Unable to travel the first sign of Spring in blossom this year was such a sign of hope. The paintings are paired back and minimal-a bit like my life became in lockdown. A piece of poetry was sent to me by a talented poet friend and it sums up the body of work:

Li-Young Lee called 'From Blossoms’

"There are days we live

as if death were nowhere

in the background; from joy

to joy to joy, from wing to wing,

from blossom to blossom to

impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom."

How do you seek out opportunities for yourself as an artist?

Keep talking, always be curious. Be happy to make mistakes. Art education has taught me a lot and helped me build up a network of peers that are on the same journey-from West Dean College and my art foundation, to Chichester University for my MA to Newlyn Art School Mentoring programme. I think also be flexible in how you approach getting your work out there…there is no one size fits all. Self-representation or gallery representation, each has it’s place.

What advice would you give an emerging artist?

Nothing happens overnight, be prepared for that. Build up resilience and a network and turn up at the easel, if even it’s the last thing you feel like doing.

Thank you Rachel, as always sage words and simple advice too really.

-- 

"[Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.]" - Pablo Picasso

"[To educate as the practice of freedom is a way of teaching that anyone can learn.]" - (bell hooks 1994: 13)

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