BLUE MOON – 15 June 2024 – 18th August 2024
Many of the pictures in this exhibition feature scenes in moonlight, and are predominately blue (Rachael’s favourite colour) hence the title. Rachel has an enduring fascination with the moon and so endeavoured to produce a body of work based on this. Some pictures are imaginative, loosely based on Lakeland scenes or painted from life in the case of the ‘Still Life’ pictures.
Although Rachel has a particular style when painting en plein air using ink and wash, in this exhibition a variety of styles are displayed, some more detailed, along with those employing a looser livelier style to exploit the adaptability and translucent quality of watercolour, her preferred medium. She enjoys painting the frames to match the paintings.
RACHAEL ARNETT (C.R.Arnett)
Rachael comes from a family of artists. Her Great Grandfather, a skilled wood carver, taught classes in this craft in Coniston Institute which was set up by John Ruskin. His son H.R. Wilkinson was a popular local watercolourist thought to be inspired as a young boy by Ruskin. He taught in various schools in the South and was the principal for the Bath School of Art. He painted in and around Coniston on his retirement and is featured in ‘The Story of Coniston’ and ‘The Lake Artists Society’. Her uncle was a silversmith and engraver of international repute.
Rachel trained to teach Art and Design, and after leaving college worked variously for short periods as a Graphic Designer and Illustrator, for Berkshire County Council and Low Bank Ground, Coniston and as a Museum Designer at Brantwood before becoming a freelance artist. She has produced illustrations for local books and brochures, has sold work in many Lakeland galleries and held exhibitions in local venues, her first at Brantwood in 1992 and subsequently at the Theatre in the Forest, Grizedale, the Steamboat Museum and at Brockhole. She was a member of the Cumbria Craft Guild and was featured in ‘Cumbria’ magazine in April 1999. She has been a member of the Ambleside and District Art Society since 1992 and exhibits at the annual group exhibition in the Parish Centre.
Rachel has a wide range of interests in art and design as well as painting, especially fashion and interior design, and needlecrafts and has written craft articles for ‘Christian Woman’ magazine. She also has experience in clay work and has dabbled in many other mediums. Collage has been a more recent love, and she has filled her house with paper screens and covered 3D items. She has suffered from ill health for many years so has not been able to indulge in her creativity as much as she would wish but has found designing her Victorian house very therapeutic.
Rachel paints primarily with watercolour, initially in a fairly detailed style in many subjects, landscapes, flowers, pets etc. but has lately endeavoured to achieve a looser style to make use of the translucent properties of the medium and is still learning!
