Rachel McDonnell
24 August - 28 September
Opening 7:30pm Friday 23 August
Rachel McDonnell's paintings look at two cultures with very different attitudes to woodlands. From the Finnish reverence for the land and nature to our own, slightly more distant, connection with the world around us.
The exhibition features two bodies of work. The Finnish series began following a trip to Finland in 2019. However due to the pandemic in 2020 Rachel began walking more in local woodlands.
“Every now and then, in the woods, I would come across a patch of tree marker paint on trunks, often on ash trees, clearly destined to be felled as a result of ash dieback. It was something I’d also seen when visiting ancient woodlands that had been, or were going to be, cleared to make way for HS2. I began to ponder the power that we have, as we wield our spray cans. I began to use the tree marker paint on some of the paintings too. It felt very uncomfortable, but if it feels bad to obliterate a nice little painting of the woods, how much worse is it to destroy the real thing? Whilst working on the new paintings of woodlands, I have also continued with the Finnish series, keeping in mind the very different culture Finns have in relation to the environment. When we were staying with our friends in Finland, they told us about how their uncle had built his (now their) summer house. The first thing he did was to build the window. Then, he wandered around looking for the view he wanted, before building the house around it. It seems emblematic of a different outlook, and a closer connection to nature, which results in totally different ways of dealing with environmental issues. I have been musing on the different ways in which we, in this country, and the Finns treat our woods and forests, and whether we can shift our culture, just a little, so that we edge towards thinking of nature first, just as our friend’s uncle did when he was building their cottage.” Rachel McDonnell 2024