Rachel Lahn
abstract, mixed media fine art
I love to paint. Long uninterrupted days in my studio make me feel happy and productive. You might call it a type of healthy addiction. If too much time passes without a brush in my hand I begin to experience a sense of disconnection with myself and the world.
I did my first oil painting when I was eleven years old. I was too excited by the feel of the oils to go slowly with a brush. I picked up a pallette knife and began layering on paint. It was exhilarating! I was hooked!
Years of study followed. Saturday and summer classes at the Philadelphia Museum College of Art. En Plein Air summer at the University of Rhode Island, six glorious weeks at Haystack Mt. School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine, college, and graduate school gave me a BFA and an MAT from Rhode Island School of Design.
While in graduate school at RISD I began making abstract paintings. It happened quite accidentally. I was working on a landscape in my studio on Narragansett Bay. I realized at some point in the painting process that I had stopped looking out at the Bay. I was painting from my painting, not the outdoors. The strokes of the painting were telling me what to do next. It was a thrilling moment that I’ll never forget.
Many years and it seems many lifetimes later my art continues. I live and work in beautiful Mendocino County, California. My studio is on a mountain ridge in the Redwoods with breath taking views. Looking out of my windows, walking in my garden, or gazing up at the redwood trees gives me constant inspiration. The ever-changing light, color, sunbeams, and myriad shapes that surround me are my constant source of images.
I am now doing what I call Dimensional Constructions. I use canvas on canvas with mixed media and found beach and forest objects to create abstract sculpture/paintings. I make them in many sizes, from 4"x 6" to 5'x6'. Some are evocative of landscapes, others come from wordless feelings.
