Rachel Francis

Rachel is a contemporary mixed media artist and interior designer. Her studio looks out over the Bristol Channel towards Wales and the Somerset coastline.
 
She initially studied Interior Design and gained an Honours Degree working for many years in this field. This has undoubtedly shaped the way she processes and formulates ideas for her paintings, particularly composition and the use of colour.
 
Rachel’s paintings are about her relationship with the landscape around her. An emotional response to its drama, beauty and rhythms. Evoking long held memories of the place she calls home, paths and fields she has walked many times. Constant immersion in these familiar spaces will trigger an idea: a place to begin her work.
 
She especially enjoys creating textures in her 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 finer and finer drawn lines to pull the shapes together and hold the feeling of the landscape within.