The Quarry, New Zealand

Resin on canvas · 112 x 77 x 6.5cm · framed

This painting began in Rachel's sketchbooks. Travelling through New Zealand's South Island, she filled page after page with notes and drawings: the shapes of the land, the colours of exposed rock, the way the light fell across a quarry face. Back in the studio, leafing through those pages, she found the idea for this piece.

It reads like a cross-section of the earth itself. Bands of colour stack one above another like layers of rock laid down over thousands of years. A pale mint sky is brushed with fresh green, a dark ridge cuts across the middle edged in terracotta and lilac, and below, the quarry opens up in plum, charcoal, ochre, sulphur yellow and a sudden flash of turquoise.

Working in resin meant every layer had to be planned in advance. Once mixed, resin gives Rachel just four minutes before it sets as hard as rock, so those sketchbook pages became her map: which colour goes where, and how each pour will flow into the next. The result looks wild and effortless, with a glassy depth that makes the colours glow as if lit from within.

At over a metre wide, it's a real statement piece, perfect above a sofa, a sideboard or a fireplace, or anywhere that deserves a landscape with a story.

Prints are also available as a canvas print or a fine art paper print.