As a painter Rebecca draws on her unconscious, myth and story to communicate a deep sense of connectedness and concern for the living world.
Rebecca majored in painting at the Michaelis School of Fine Art and also studied Art Therapy at Goldmiths University in London. She is fascinated by how painting can be a portal into the unconscious, and sees Art and the natural world as powerful spaces for processing and healing.
Rebecca has exhibited her paintings both locally and abroad. Recent group shows include In Suspended Light and Tenfold at 99 Loop Gallery and Coven at Mullers Gallery in Cape Town.
She currently works from her studio in Bree Street, but feels most at home in the Cederberg mountains, surrounded by birds and fynbos.
Statement
Artist Statement
Inspired by my time spent immersed in mountain fynbos, my oil paintings layer encounters with nature with memory and my unconscious. In them the familiar becomes strange.
Responding intuitively, a feeling leads me to a particular colour and guides the gestural marks of my brush. Suspended in glowing washes of diluted oils, figures merge into plants, earth and birds. Sinuous brushstrokes flow and connect everything as they become part of each other.
Oil paint feels viscous and alive, a continuation of my body. It pools and drips as I stir the painting, symbols and stories floating to the surface. Layers hint at hidden depths below. Mirroring the mysteries of nature, the image hovers on the edge of clarity.
Plants and animals have their own strange language, and in this lies their beauty and their power over the human imagination. It is this quality of the unknown that I explore in my paintings