A painting by Rachel Lancaster of a close up of a wrist wearing a gold bracelet

Days Will Hold

detail of a colourful painting of a burst balloon and streamers

Burst

Detail shot of a painting of a pair of white training shoes from above

A painting of a pair of white training shoes from above

Onlooker

a painting of a white sheet in an interior at night 

Night Starts to Move

Crop of a pink painting by Rachel Lancaster of a compact mirror and other objects coming out of a bag on a table

A pink monochromatic painting by Rachel Lancaster of a makeup bag on a table with various items spilling out inlcuding a mirror, keys and fabric

All That's Left Behind

a painting of a woman taking off a jumper with folder arms in front of her face

The Thin Place

 A painting of a ponytail tied with a bright red bow

Vapour Trail II

A painting of curly hair in high contrast lighting

Into The Night

A painting of a shoulder and neck with a thin plait of hair over a pink jumper 

Where You Begin

Rachel Lancaster is presenting a solo exhibition as part of the Beep Painting Biennial 2022 - Winners exhibition

For Rachel Lancaster, painting slows down the act of looking; it invites the gaze to linger upon the otherwise overlooked. With a focus on the intersections of painting with cinema, photography and music, Lancaster edits and translates photographic ‘stills’ into oil paintings, drawing on found moving imagery, her own photographs, and drawings rendered directly from her imagination.

Although her style is contemporary, Lancaster is indebted to the painterly tradition of still life, and in particular vanitas works – symbolic still life’s that communicate earthly transience and the inevitability of death. She depicts detailed fragments divorced from greater narratives, rendering those fragments both descriptive and abstract, ambiguous and open-ended – the close-up texture of fabric, for example, or an unlabelled parcel, uncannily illuminated, playfully enigmatic. She reveals the uncanny beauty and quiet spectacle that lies beyond the action.

The paintings are made by applying successive thin glazes of translucent oil paint, allowing many layers of colour and texture to accrue over time. Slipping between definition and abstraction, her surfaces contain an array of optical effects. Often, anticipated details give way to looser, minimal rendering that is revealed as a painterly abstraction upon closer inspection. The artist carefully considers subtle decisions about cropping the source material, and through an open ended, intuitive process, evokes a narrative that is full of mystery and intrigue. Careful attention to multiple scales – life size, close up, zoom, at a distance – establish distinct modes of viewing, placing the viewer in different vantage points, on the floor, at eye level, looking down upon the subject. The eerie scenes are as if they are within their own temporality, either stuck in the past or in a limbo state. Reflections, colours and action point beyond the canvas, suggestive of what else is happening outside the image, lurking out of sight.  Lancasters work references the dreamlike sense of otherness found, in particular, in cinema, reimagining this upon the canvas.

A detail of a pink monochromatic painting by Rachel Lancaster of a makeup bag on a table with various items spilling out inlcuding a mirror, keys and fabric

Installation images of Rachel Lancaster's exhibition at Elysium Gallery, Swansea

United Kingdom

Swansea

Elysium Gallery

Rachel Lancaster's solo exhibition showcases her unique approach to painting, merging elements of cinema, photography, and music. Her detailed yet abstract works explore overlooked moments with an uncanny beauty, employing translucent oil layers to create rich textures and optical effects.

Beep Painting Biennial 2022 - Winners exhibition

Related Artists

Rachel Lancaster

London

Newcastle