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About
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Rachel Stanley (b. 1996, Epsom, UK) is a painter based at the edge of the Scottish Highlands. Her practice is concerned with the ‘in-between-ness’ of the contemporary landscape. She explores the threshold between abstraction and figuration, tracing the sensory impressions of a place rather than seeking fixed depictions. The paintings act as similes: a river as a vein, a plateau as a resting body, peatlands as a patchwork quilt. They blend internal and external worlds into new ‘bodyscapes’, suggesting a universality between forms. The works are shifting sites, sitting in a comfortable grey area where multiple truths coexist and questions can be asked without a need for resolve. Here, fleeting natural rhythms are captured with equal weight as the steady compaction of geological time. This approach is furthered by her use of varying perspectives, employing positions such as a bird’s‑eye view or medical cross‑section to examine viewpoints that cut across, through, over, and in‑between.
The painting process begins with a reference observed directly – a hillside, a snowfield, a peat hag, a moment where land meets water – though over time, this material shifts into something more fragmented and dreamlike. Like the landscape, the paintings are formed through a slow sedimentation of gestures, where stained pigment on calico, the drag of wax through oil, or the grain of a wood panel surface becomes a part of the imagery itself. As a result, the works are layered and swirling, oscillating between opacity and translucence, conveying the landscape as something not just seen, but felt.
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All content © Rachel Stanley 2026