RACHEL J FRANCIS

I am a contemporary mixed media artist living and working in the beautiful Victorian coastal town of Clevedon. Initially studying Interior Design and graduating with an Honours Degree, I worked successfully for many years in this field before returning to a full time creative practice.

My studio and garden look out over the Bristol channel towards Wales and the Somerset coastline. 

My work is about my relationship with the landscape around me. An emotional response to its drama, beauty and rhythms. Evoking long-held memories of the place I call home, paths and fields I have walked many times. Constant immersion in these familiar spaces will trigger an idea; a place to begin my work.

The places where the land, sea and sky interconnect and the tension and energy these natural intersections hold is a constant fascination to me. All these visual encounters create an ongoing library of gathered images in my head, which together with photographs and sketchbook notes are used to develop my ideas.

I use these images/memories and they take shape and gain energy, intuitively finding a way to reveal themselves through my creative process and result in semi-abstract paintings ultimately fulfilling my need to respond emotionally to nature.

I especially enjoy creating textures in my work through the building up of layers of acrylic paints and inks, together with collage and various other media such as pencil, charcoal and pastel. 

Each mark is made in response to the one before, a process of simplifying and abstracting, using increasingly finely drawn lines to pull the shapes together and hold the feeling of the landscape within.

The layers give a depth and history to the work, which is curated and distilled down to communicate the feeling and essence of a place.