The Road to Venus Painting

Amanda Rackowe is an British-born artist, based in the Dordogne, France.. Born in 1964 in Oxfordshire, Amanda demonstrated a strong enthusiasm for drawing and painting as a child, winning several school and college art competitions, in which her unusual choice of subject matter often caused controversy between judges and the public alike. She pursued a career in theatre lighting and later in architectural lighting design. Throughout these years she continued to paint. Drawing inspiration from her career her take on her work is to ‘paint with light’; a concept that has become one of the influential factors in her painting. At a young age, Amanda had fallen upon the painting ‘Christina’s World’ by American artist, Andrew Wyeth - an early discovery that brought about an appreciation for sparse and open landscapes. The combination of these influential elements can be found in her work; appearing in her portrayal of the french landscapes she discovers on her travels and near her home, inspired by the light and expansive skies of particularly the Dordogne and Auvergne regions and the île d'Oléron. A nearby grain silo became a reoccurring element and subject of many of her paintings for over a decade, which enabled her to explore the effects of the changing light and seasons on the landscapes and skies surrounding it. In many of her stark landscapes, she poses reminders of a human presence; perhaps a lone figure, or a vehicle with illuminated headlamps standing in direct contrast to the natural light. The echoes of Man are never far away in her work; distant horizons punctuated by material elements, such as electricity pylons and wind generators, silos and telegraph poles. The diminishing perspective of the roads in the artist's works interpret a sense of constant continuation… often carrying a slight disquiet, reflecting our uncertainty as to where a road may lead us; a comment on our lives, an unfinished story with no defined ending. The roads of the Aquitaine landscape subsequently led to other places; into the city of Bordeaux, where the brutalist architecture, modernist bridges and Corbusier influenced buildings gave her the aspiration to find a new way to depict the scenes before her, many of which are often unconsidered in the blinkered vision of daily life. Here, the theme of isolation concurs within the crowded life of the city, hinted at amongst the concrete structures and hidden lives.