Rachel English

Through concentration on the skies—celestial, stormy, and strange—my work embodies a perennial urge to gaze upward and grapple with ideas of existential meaning. A lifelong fascination with the fields of astronomy and physics sustains my painting technique, involving layers of oil color and brushwork to describe cosmic forms on canvas. Hand-painted stars, bolts of lightning, and cloudscapes are rendered with meticulous detail to evoke connections between the physical laws of nature and transcendent themes like morality and suffering, and to extend a mindful appreciation toward a universe that is much greater than ourselves.