Rachel Morrell is a contemporary landscape artist. Her abstract and semi-abstract work in acrylics, oils, textiles and mixed media are inspired by walking and the view from her Wensleydale studio. Her layered approach evokes the textures, strata and patterns of the dales, moorland, coast and former industry in Yorkshire.
She has a particular interest in the way nature will return and take over derelict and ruined mills, former waterways and drovers roads and loves to plot their former paths across the landscape.
Her work is influenced by the Cubist movement, especially Cezanne and Braque, the mid 20th Century artists John Piper and Wilhelmina Barns-Graham
She has exhibited regularly in North Yorkshire and also has a studio space at Farfield Mill, Sedbergh.
From her studio in Wensleydale she can see the constantly changing light and weather playing over the scars and hill tops and this underlies her work.
Looking down the cliffs on the rock formations below during her walk along the Yorkshire coast Cleveland way has also been an influence, as have her annual trips to the North West Highlands of Scotland
2017-2018 Four month Portfolio Course at Bridge House Arts, Ullapool, NW Highlands.
In 2019 she completed an MA in Creative Practice at Leeds Arts University.
She is a successful exhibitor with the North Yorks Open Studios 2022 and 2023, the Great North Art Show 2022, Inspired by Gallery in Danby and Richmond Station, Saltaire Art Trail 2024, Redcar Contemporary 2024 and Richmond Station 2024.
She will be exhibiting with North Yorkshire Open Studios 7th, 8th, 14th and 15th June 2025.
You can follow her on
Instagram: @rachelmorrellart
email: rachelmorellart@gmail.com
Previous Work
MA Creative Practice Leeds Arts University 2018-2019
Inspired my my time in the NW Highlands on a portfolio course at Bridge House Arts, I felt that I would like to continue with a more disciplined approach to my art and in 2019 I completed a MA in Creative Practice at Leeds Arts University. My work centred on the textile mills in Yorkshire - Temple Works a flax mill in Leeds and Burtersett Old Silk mill in Wensleydale. Both mills are derelict and thier ruins are expressed by the distressed works.
