Rachel Stone’s paintings & drawings are inspired by the wild elegance of nature.
Bio
Born and raised in Sydney, Rachel Stone currently works in the green rolling hills of Bellingen, NSW, Australia.
Stone studied photography at Sydney College of the Arts before switching to a painting major at Southern Cross University, completing her Bachelor of Visual Arts whilst on exchange at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York.
She has held solo exhibitions at Tweed Regional Gallery, Lismore Regional Art Gallery, Northern Rivers Community Gallery, and several private commercial galleries in Byron Shire.
Stone’s paintings, works on paper, and assemblages are held in private collections. Her work has also been commissioned for public art projects.
Artist Statement
Through a super spontaneous drawing process, colours, shapes and symbols unfurl upon the paper in an attempt to represent the realm of the unseen: the invisible energy, or life force, that underpins and interconnects all living beings: plant, insect, animal, and human.
I am curious about the mysterious, intangible energy that drives life through from embryonic stages into embodied physical form.
Time spent living surrounded by forest and practicing zen meditation have kindled in me a perception of energy as a kind of calm buzzing or clear light in the infinite blackness – a spark that is beyond the physical realm yet also the very essence of it. Meditation allows me to occasionally catch a tantalising glimpse at the unknowable magnificence that underlies physical reality.
The drawings are a kind of contemplation on the wondrous existence of cloudscapes, the play of light on water, the quiet splendour of plants, the curiosities of the animal world, and the sounds of frogs, cicadas, raucous birds, swirling creeks and lapping seawater.
With a deep love for colour, sometimes the drawings that emerge from my pencil are reminiscent of 1960s-style psychedelic hallucinatory visions of the cosmos bursting forth with a humming and humorous vitality.
– Rachel Stone