The Road to Venus Painting

"A moment never lasts, it is here for us to take. To hold, to let go. To imprint, behind our eyes, to burn, into our souls. To remember, for an instant. To forget, in another. One moment. Here… And then… it’s gone." Such is the immanent conceptualisation expressed in Amanda Rackowe’s work. Her exploration of the transient interchange of human existence at specific moments in time ushers us into an ambiance of semi-surreality, where her images slide between figuration and abstraction. This sometimes inchoate ambiance reflects her concerns with the fragility of instant and space and their transient imbrication. Unconscious crossovers of lives and memories exist in scenes where the viewer is present, but rarely involved. This torpid and involuntary invasion, albeit a physical infringement, becomes fragmented. There is no insight, no new révélation, into the ego or inner consciousness of one or the other. Working in multiple layers of paint, using washes and glazes, the artist builds a richness and depth of colour, purposefully encouraging the spontaneous marks and runs of paint that breathe life into her work, echoing the determined and the haphazard possibilities of life’s (in)exhaustable journey. Her palette is dominated by an underlying primary red, a nod to the earth’s hot core. Her choice of colour moves within tones of blues, turquoises and crimsons to deep ochres and yellows. Whilst her love of colour is obvious, her fascination with light is also evident in all her work, an early influence from her days working as a theatrical and architectural lighting designer. Standing in front of her work one is solicited to examine and question the seemingly banal experiences of life. Amanda Rackowe lives and works in the south west of France where she taught oil painting for 16 years. She divides her time between the Dordogne and her beloved Île d’Oleron off the west coast of France. Her work features regularly in exhibitions throughout France and is widely collected in Europe, the United States and Australia. She has been awarded various prizes and been invited as guest artist at various art fairs and exhibitions. In 2023 she was selected to exhibit in both the prestigious "Salon des Artistes Français" and "Salon Comparaisons" at the Art Capital 2024 art fair, held annually at the Grand Palais in Paris. She is part of the Paris based art group "Figuration Inévitable".