Artist
Statement
"I Love to Paint with Rainbows..."
Rachel Houseman is not your average Plein Air painter. Using the landscape to inspire she connects to the magic of the feeling in the land and expresses this freely with vivid colors.
" We have the ability to sense things in a heightened and spiritual way, naturally. I feel that I was born with this ability and I believe that everyone can learn how to use this ability. In this way I believe that human beings are inherently psychedelic. ."
Rachel likes to work on-site in the tradition of a Plein Air painter, but she prefers to use radical, non-traditional colors.
"I allow the environment to speak to me and I use the impressions of the location, weather, energy of the land as well as my own inner experience as inspiration. My paintings are impressions of moments in time; they are messages from the land and its mood as well as my own experience within it. I consider the Earth a Sacred place, but no place is more sacred to me than the desert. "
Her unique style came out of a very spontaneous technique that she was using in her more traditional Plein Air watercolor series "Colors of the West" (2004-2005). With encouragement of her mentor, Andrea de Kerpley-Zac she began using acrylic "as if it was watercolor." In her process, Rachel starts a sketch in graphite on the canvas, just as if she would if she were working on paper. With a layering of purely watercolor tone planes of color, that are light and transparent. The artist then starts the under-painting working freely and quickly.
"I feel that there are no 'mistakes' in using this technique only more exciting and often uncharted territory to explore. I think working this way requires courage. It feels exciting when I paint, like I am constantly on the verge of a breakthrough."
To make a "ColorScape"come to life Rachel builds up the surface of the canvas in transparent "water color layers." She then begins to layer in bold, bright colors that either obscure the “watercolor” effect underneath by highlighting, or by contrasting, blending, or building the surface with the bold colors.
"By using bold color over the watercolor-like layers, I can achieve some interesting color effects. I find that working spontaneously. It helps me to work without thoughts more with pure feeling. I find that an intentional state of spontaneity keeps me ahead of the thoughts which makes painting highly enjoyable."
Working this way the painting becomes a meditation for Rachel. As she paints she matches her feelings about the desert landscape that she has traveled to.
"These paintings are very joyful for me. They come from my love of the desert and all of its magic. For me the vibrancy and colors really appear this fantastic, its about how I feel."
Rachel is influenced by boldness of the French “Fauvist” painters from the turn of the 21st century. Les Fauves or “wild beasts” as they were called, were known for using bold colors, sometimes applied directly from the tubes of paint that they used. This was scandalous during their time and they gained renown for their unruly uses of color. The artist is also influenced by the serenity and beauty of the art of Russian Master Nicholas Roerich and by the playful and imaginative "Psychedelic Poster Art" of San Francisco in the late 1960's.
In addition to these artists and eras, Rachel loves investigating the artwork of David Hockney, Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet, and Wassily Kandinsky. Kandinsky was one of the founding fathers of modern abstract painting. Kandinsky puts this process of blending the inner and outer best when he says, "the relationships in art are not necessarily ones of outward form, but are founded on inner sympathy of meaning."
Rachel Houseman's ColorScapes series is on display at several galleries throughout the Southwest including: Jeanette Williams Gallery on Canyon Road in Santa Fe, NM; Metallo Art Gallery in Madrid, NM; Gallery Andrea in Scottsdale, AZ; Beale Street Gallery Kingman, AZ and at various galleries and venues such as Raven Cafe in Prescott, AZ where she began her Southwest art journey back in 2004.
"Queen Valley View" Mesa AZ
"Goddess of the Peppers"
"Shiprock Rainstorm" Chuska Peak, AZ
"Superstition Mnt. Church" Apache Jct., AZ (Elvis& Priscilla's Chapel) 22x24" Acrylic
