Bio

Rachel Stone is a visual artist working in Northern NSW, Australia. Studying at Sydney College of the Arts, Southern Cross University, and Pratt Institute, New York, she completed her Bachelor of Visual Arts in 1999.

Rachel has held solo exhibitions at Tweed Regional Gallery, Lismore Regional Art Gallery, Northern Rivers Gallery, and several commercial galleries. Her paintings, works on paper, and assemblages are held in private collections. Her work has also been commissioned for public art projects.

Current work includes coloured pencil drawings on watercolour paper in which abstract shapes intermingle with iridescent insects, stones, raindrops, velvety moth wings, crescent moons and other symbols from the natural world, reflecting Rachel’s love of nature and deep concern about the environment.

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.