Biography
“Art is really something very difficult. It is difficult to make, and it is sometimes difficult for the viewer to understand….A part of it should always include having to scratch your head…..”
Anselm Kiefer
British artist Rachael Bennett was born in1956 and attended Winchester School of Art and completed her first degree at Liverpool University. She then ran a successful textile design practice in London for many years selling internationally.
She has lived in the coastal port of Teignmouth, Devon for 35 years, which has been a major influence on her work as an expressionistic, mixed media artist interested in liminal spaces within the natural world.
She has lectured on art degree courses, holds a PGCE, and worked in special needs education alongside her creative practice. After deciding to dedicate all her energies into her own practice for many years Rachael has had gallery representation and sold online to collectors worldwide. She is a director of Devon Artists Network as she values collaboration and the encouragement and promotion of the arts as important life skills and philosophy.
Using her experience with a wide range of art making materials Rachael produces evocative, powerful, semi abstract descriptions of the natural world, where the materials used and the story to be told are fully integrated. She is constantly seeking bold answers to questions as her practice evolves and develops, for example she has recently been exploring mark making using stitch.
Rachael has been a member of Contemporary Mark Makers, a group of artists exploring together, for many years and undertaking collaborative projects with other creatives, such as musicians and poets, the most recent being “Unearthing Dartmoor” and “Unearthing the Templer Way” where she is central to organising events, exhibitions and book publications.
Contact Details:
Address: Thomas Luny Cottage, Teign Street, Teignmouth, Devon TQ14 8EG
Phone: 07989866797
Email: rachaelannab@gmail.com
Instagram: @rachaelannab
Website: rachaelbennettpaintings.com
Artist Statement
I am interested in the liminal spaces within landscape created by natural transitions; those uncertain, indeterminate spaces caught between one world and another. My work is descriptive of form, light and place in an atmospheric way.
I want the viewer to experience, for example, that psychological state of mind created at the moment between wakefulness and dreaming, that threshold moment where alchemy happens and limitless contemplation is possible.
I look at landscapes, seascapes and the ever changing weather. The intimate landscape beneath my feet is just as engrossing as the grander view, and the interplay between the two, the near and the far, just as stimulating. With my painting, relationship between materials used and image created is everything to me. One is responsible for the other, it is symbiotic. The resultant conversation is where the true dialogue can happen. This is the entry point, the place where the liminal experience is possible – this is the essence of my work.
Representation
Gallery 5 Salcombe and Dartmouth, Devon/The Bracken Gallery, Chudleigh, Devon./ SouthGate Gallery, Exeter, Devon.
https://www.singulart.com/en/artist/rachael-bennett-3783. /Tyrrell Gallery, Cambridge www.tyrrellartgallery.com/ The Absent Gallery www.theabsentgallery.com