CREATING • ENERGIZING • FLOURISHING
Art
Rachel Rochford’s paintings for the last twenty years have merged the contemporary genres of abstraction, minimalism and figurative art. Manipulating the body and locating faceless silhouettes in their claimed spaces; in front or behind vending stalls, approaching or sitting outside a familiar bar, or just liming at the edge of the road, Rachel’s defining brushstrokes strive to capture the elusive Trinbagonian captivated with identifying and illustrating the visual essence of this being, as she believes it to exist, to be unique and unmistakable. Somewhere between drawing and picking up the brush, a shift comes. The face in the source photograph merges with a face in the mind; a person that is known but cannot easily recall. Yet everyone who sees a painting by Rachel Rochford recalls someone that they know, who claims the essence of the being that was created.
In Rachel Rochford’s Central Range Collection each artwork is a tiny piece of painted paradise inspired by the colourful, exotic, flora, fauna, natural wonders, vistas and people that exist in the tropical landscape of Trinidad and Tobago.