About
Rachel Jeffery is a British Abstract Landscape Painter based in Cornwall, UK. Her work is determined by a versatile art research and painting practice. With an abstract approach to landscape and seascape painting, she seeks to convey the sense of a place and challenge the viewer to see the environment in new ways.
Working mostly with acrylic, Rachel’s abstract nature paintings are directly connected to the studies in her development book, a collection of observations in a variety of media.
These observations act as visual aids or starting points when beginning a new piece, with paint then added in layers and in a variety of media and processes, until Rachel achieves a harmony and balance that delivers a pleasing aesthetic by balancing textures, rhythms and colours.
Rather than being directly representational, Rachel strives to engage the viewer through conveying a sense of a place, its elements and its energy, be that the wind, the movement, the light, the textures, or atmosphere of a place. It’s an invitation to appreciate the different facets of surface and form in relation to the landscape, and challenges the viewer to see and understand her subjects in a new, authentic way.
Rachel Jeffery graduated from the prestigious Falmouth School of Art and Design with a Bachelors degree in Fine Art in 1998. Due to the success of her degree show, she was introduced to Louise, owner of the Lemon Street Gallery in Truro, Cornwall where she held her first solo exhibition with great success.
Soon after graduating, her son was diagnosed with autism, which determined her primary focus for the next decades. During these times, her art practice became a form of self care, a vessel for making sense of the world and re-evaluating chaos into order. It helped her to deal with and embrace change, and to accept the unpredictable. With the improvement of her son's situation, time opened up for her to take upon a professional career as an artist, resulting quickly in many successful exhibitions and sales.
Ever since, she has been working on finding new ways to express herself, progressing further towards abstraction. Inspired by the earths elements Rachel’s work is focussed on colour, texture, pattern and the process of experimenting with a variety of media. She often works on more than one painting at a time, saying “This process deters me from fussing over one. I allow the layers to dry and then work on them again and again until I’m satisfied.” Rachel is personally drawn to paintings that she doesn’t understand: “As as soon as I see something that I can, I will want to move on in search for something more.”
Her involvement in the family business, Trevena Cross Garden Centre near Porthleven, gives her free reign to vent her creativity. She frequently travels, sourcing goods to sell in their shop and displaying original art and installations for their visitors. Based in her art studio, located in grounds of the nursery and near to the Cornish coastline, Rachel finds plenty of inspiration for her art on her doorstep, and visitors, by appointment, can visit her studio and view original paintings and art prints.
Rachel has exhibited widely in solo shows and galleries in and around London and Paris. She is an associate member of the St. Ives group of artists, and her works and commissions can be found in private collections in Europe and the United States.
