ABOUT RACHEL
I live in York and work from my beautiful attic studio in Fulford which looks out across the rooftops of York towards the Minster. My background is in textiles. My first job was for a wedding dress designer, I have managed a fairtrade crafts shop and ran my own business designing and importing amazing, fairtrade, handmade wrapping papers from a Tibetan refugee project. I then worked for many years at Brunswick Organic Nursery in Bishopthorpe leading a crafts group, teaching and enabling skilled workers with learning difficulties to make quality crafts such as wool rugs woven on a hand loom and hand dyed and printed textiles. I set up my own art studio in 2023, the longed for space I needed to create my own art and a perfect place to lead workshops from.
I love to be outside, to go walking, climb a mountain, find shells on a beach, grow flowers from seed, watch the buds open in the spring and crunch through the copper leaves in autumn. It is in the little details that I find the most joy and wonder.
My linoprints are a grateful response to the wonder and detail found in nature. I usually work directly from the natural object such as a leaf, but also use colour plates in vintage books and photos to sketch my design. After carving into traditional Lino made from wood flour and linseed oil I handprint using vegetable oil based inks onto recycled or handmade papers and natural fabrics.
My monoprints with oils are a joyful combination of print and paint. I enjoy starting a piece with a simple monoprint; drawing on the reverse side of paper laid over a sheet of thinly inked glass. The resulting lines have a character and spontaneity that comes through in the finished work. Over these lines I roll layers of oil paints using hand cut templates made from tracing paper. My large floral pieces started when my youngest daughter was doing a placement at a local flower field and was bringing home and arranging beautiful bunches of Yorkshire grown flowers. I had to capture them!