Huka Falls

Resin and mixed media on canvas · 108 x 77cm · framed

This is where it all began. It was the first of Rachel's many paintings inspired by the thundering waterfalls she saw on her travels in New Zealand, and the first she made after months of experimenting with resin, a demanding, specialist medium that she has since made her own.

There are experiences that stay in the body long after you've left the place, and Huka Falls on New Zealand's North Island is one of them. Fifteen thousand litres of water thunder through a narrow gorge every second, before dropping into the most extraordinarily vivid turquoise lake below. Standing at the edge of it, you don't just see it. You feel it move through you.

Resin was the natural choice of medium, as it flows, pools and finds its own path with the same unstoppable logic as water. Its glassy sheen captures the light and transparency of the falls in a way no other medium could.

The result is a painting of extraordinary energy and luminosity. White and grey resin cascades from a flame of gold at the heart of the falls, plunging into the most vivid aquamarine pool below. Tiny fern fronds cling to the rock face. White droplets scatter like spray caught in sunlight. Every viewing reveals something new.

Like all of Rachel's resin work, it is completely unique. The precise combination of flow, texture and colour that created it could never be repeated. Portrait format, framed and ready to hang.