ABSTRACTED RAINY MOMENTS SERIES – ARTIST STATEMENT

When you look out through a window on a rainy day — what do you see? When I look through a window during a rain storm, I study how the sheets of rain pouring down the panes causes distortion of the view outside. The rain flow abstracts the lens through which an observer sees the outside world in that moment. Colors blend together, articulated lines and shapes become blurred, and the motion of the continuing rain makes the scene even more dynamic. In these moments, I’m reminded of a poem by Abraham Sutzkever, that these colors, these moments, “…all this illuminated by the rain.”

Through these oil paintings on canvas, I seek to capture a single abstracted moment between a rainy day and its observer; between a moment in reality and its abstract experience. In the process of creating these images, I chose to use oil paint because of its slow drying time, incorporating a hefty mass of stand oil, allowing gravity to continue its work on the paintings long after I’ve stepped away from the easel — pulling the colors and paint with it as it continued its slow descent down the surface of the canvas. Even after the paint has dried, the evidence of these viscous drips have become suspended in motion, frozen in the gradual downward crawl. The viscous texture of this drip beckons the viewer in to experience the texture of this rainy moment, making tactile the tangible.

More work in this series is currently in progress. If you’d like to see new paintings in this series as they are finished, please subscribe to studio email updates. 

Note: Images below are cropped to square thumbnail images. To view any painting in its entirety, click on any square image below.

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[SOLD] ©Rachel Brask, Rainy Moment 09 (Deep Forest Rain). Oil on canvas, 40″x30″

Rainy Sunrise Over Race Point Beach, oil on canvas by Rachel Brask, 24×30 inches

Autumn Rain and Fire, oil on canvas by Rachel Brask, 30x40inches

Autumn Trio, oil on canvas by Rachel Brask, 12x12inches each panel

Truro March Blizzard in Rain, oil on canvas by Rachel Brask, 24x30inches

Beach Dunes in Rain, oil on canvas by Rachel Brask, 12×16 inches

Watching Sunset Over Provincetown in Rain, oil on canvas by Rachel Brask, 12×16

Eastern Sunrise Rain at Cadillac Mountain Summit 1, oil on canvas by Rachel Brask, 12x14inches

Palmett River Marsh in Rain, oil on canvas by Rachel Brask, 20×24 inches

Eastern Sunrise Rain at Cadillac Mountain Summit 2, oil on canvas by Rachel Brask, 12x14inches

Rainy Moment 16 (Aurora Borealis in Rain), oil on canvas by Rachel Brask, 30×40 inches

Rainy Sunset Over Maine Harbor, oil on canvas by Rachel Brask

Rainy Harbor Sea Tour, oil on canvas by Rachel Brask, 18×24 inches

[SOLD] ©Rachel Brask, Rainy Moment 11 (Misty Morning Mountain Rain). Oil on canvas, 40″x30″.

Rainy Day Dune Path, oil on canvas by Rachel Brask, 18×24 inches

Rainy Maine Rocky Shore, oil on canvas by Rachel Brask

Rainy Sunset at Herring Cove, oil on canvas by Rachel Brask, 20×24 inches

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Rainy Moment 22 (Cliff Waterfall in the Rain), oil on canvas by Rachel Brask, 30×40 inches

Rainy Moment 21 (Rainy Rocky Landscape), by Rachel Brask, oil on canvas, 30×40 inches

Where Rain and Stormy Seas Meet Stormy Skies, oil on canvas by Rachel Brask, 24×30

Rainy Moment 18 (Elysian Pond Rainy Reflections), oil on canvas by Rachel Brask, 30×40 inches

Rainy Moment 17 (Rainy Ocean Sunset), oil on canvas by Rachel Brask, 30×40 inches

Rainy Northern Lights II, oil on canvas by Rachel Brask, 12×16 inches

[SOLD] ©Rachel Brask, Rainy Moment 03 (Rain in Early Spring). Oil on canvas, 40″x30″. Frequent and abundant rain and warmer temperatures after the cold winter cause the first signs of subtle, light pastel colors of spring to begin to grow, inspiring this painting.

Rainy Sunset Over Maine Harbor, oil on canvas by Rachel Brask, 24x36inches

Rainy Moment 19 (Rainy Sunset Over Yonder Mountains), oil on canvas by Rachel Brask, 30×40 inches

Deep Forest Rain III, oil on canvas by Rachel Brask, 12×16 inches

Rained Out Beach Day, oil on canvas by Rachel Brask, 36×36 inches total

Eastern Sunrise Rain at Cadillac Mountain Summit 3, oil on canvas by Rachel Brask, 12x24inches

Rainy Blue Ridge Mountains (triptych), oil on canvas by Rachel Brask

Bar Harbor Foggy Rain, oil on canvas by Rachel Brask, 24x36inches

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Sun Rain Transition Study 1, oil on canvas by Rachel Brask, 18×24 inches

Sun Rain Transition Study 2, oil on canvas by Rachel Brask, 18×24 inches

Root Beer Mountain Rain, oil on canvas, by Rachel Brask, 30×40 inches

Rainy Moment 20 (Rainy Autumn Foliaged Mountain Sunset), oil on canvas by Rachel Brask, 30x40inches