Bio

Rachael (b.1987) is from and is based in North Tyneside. She makes abstract, geometric work in a set colour palette across a range of mediums. She is interested in patterns both physical and material but also in human behaviour. Lately, her work has largely considered motherhood and this important human transition.

She has had a different route into art having studied law at Northumbria University (2006-2010) and practised as a Barrister (2011-2014). In 2014, she took a sabbatical from the Bar and did the following:

• co-founded two businesses (A Woven Plane and Buy The Kilo);

• worked as a Special Advisor to Karl Turner MP (then Solicitor General) at Westminster;

• worked as an Orders Manager at antique shop, HOWE London;

• documented over 1000 porch tiles through _tilecatcher;

• and volunteered with the Black Health Initiative (legal advice re FGM), Koestler Arts (art worker) and Smartworks (interview coach).

During this time, she began exploring her own creativity and started making red and blue works in 2015. She gradually started to figure out her practice around 2021, taking the step in 2023 to focus on it.

Statement

Seeing Lygia Pape’s Book of Night and Day in 2015 created a surge of feeling and emotion within me: a making-of-sense moment. It opened the door to understanding myself.

I am drawn to red and blue and with those colours, through lines and forms, create a visual language to communicate with. I see patterns everywhere from nature to architecture: the horizontal lines in the bark of silver birch trees to tiled buildings. This combination of sensitivities is the backbone of how I make work. I enjoy variations and versions of similar things and frequently build this into my work. I find some ideas are better expressed through one medium or material over another.

There is an element of advocacy in my practice where some of my work speaks to a broader issue. With my early pull to law having been justice and to help people, I hope to still do that through my art. Having worked in law, politics and business, art is my home and the place that I want to respond from and create from.

I am self-taught with aspects of my learning being self-guided, as and when it has arisen. An example would be learning how to create the hard-edge finish in my paintings from geometric artist Theresa Poulton.

Study

Collective Studio, The Newbridge Project 2024/2025

Bachelorette of Art (2023 to present)

Helix Artists’ Agency Programme 2023

First Class Law LLB Hons (BVC Exempting) Northumbria University 2006-2010

For more information, please complete the contact form below or email me on rachaeldeebrienart@gmail.com