Rachel Hannan's latest solo painting show at Braemar Gallery follows on from her successful painting exhibition last June at Virgin Walls Gallery, Blackheath.
Hannan's rhythmic and colourful oil paintings depict the raw unkempt beauty of the wild places that abound in the Mountains and its surrounds. This exhibition features bold, loosely painted energetic landscapes of the bush, the sea and the rural spaces to the west.
There is an immediacy to Hannan's works - the paint is applied quickly and thickly, reliving the energy and exhilaration that she feels when she explores the varying landscapes. She portrays the things that can not be seen - the wind, the cold, the sounds, the movement, the changing sense of time that one feels when immersed in a wild place.
"The landscape is passion, unpredictability, life, birth, sex, death; dangerous and harsh, yet comforting in its realness," she said.
"Being in the landscape is like being in love. I am drawn to its power, glory and terror, in the hope that I can hold it forever, but it won't be captured. It's a wild thing. This is what I try to relive in my paintings; the exhilaration of uncertainty and surprise, the freedom of the unknown."
The exhibition Wild Thing is on at Braemar Gallery, Springwood from May 4-28, Thursday to Sunday 10am-4pm. The opening will be on Saturday, May 6, at 2pm. See www.rachelhannan.com to view some of Hannan's works, past and present.