Baylis' intention is to engage her audience, making connections. She has been representing everyday experiences since the start of her career, using paint as her most immediate outlet for creative expression. Her intention is to glorify the everyday’, and to celebrate the beauty of subjects we see but may pass by without remark.
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"Baylis provides an experience for the viewer to engage
with and be curious about, finding their own signifiers
within the work, unearthing their own context. She is
throwing out the breadcrumbs; it’s up to the viewer to
decide how to use them."
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Current projects include:
PAINTING
FILMS: developing a series of short films for schools about 1. objectification, and 2. relationships;
experimental filmwork and editing for the Dentists' waiting room series, using sound and vision as a form of meditation/distraction.
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Her film and performance subjects reflect social issues, combining social responsibility with her love of making art. The viewer can make personal associations, finding their own context within the piece. The juxtaposition between one’s local community and the global community can seem fragmented, yet we are connected. Everything is relational. Film and performance are important mediums for her as they provide immediacy. Film feels similar to the act of painting – instead of using paint, she uses film to achieve new compositions and images, and moving time.
Rachel Baylis, MA (Fine Art), is a painter and film producer, based in London, UK.
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PAINTING: in the studio Baylis' focus is on colour and dimensional structure, letting the paint and inks do the talking - public are welcome to visit by appointment.
"En plein air, cyan blue, lemon yellow, magenta and white are my basic requirements to capture passing inspiration - when I sketch, I sketch in paint, not pencil; back in the studio I have the freedom to use more colours and materials to play with form and colour; I work with acrylic, gouache and water colour paint, sometimes introducing thick impasto brushmarks when working on canvas, while images on paper appear less textural but more layered. I revel in clashing colours to excite the eye, yet later introduce unity by balancing colours around the surface. While I dislike rules, I enjoy using formal principles, such as the Golden Ratio, and colour theory, in my painting."
examples of exhibitions/commissions
Morisot Gallery, Chichester
Chichester University, Bishop Otter and Bognor campuses
Bognor Pop Up
Haven Artists' group shows 2014 - 2020
Ealing Open Arts Centre
Teddington Artists Group
Ealing open studios
Titchfield Haven
Harbour Lights, Southampton
Frivoli Gallery, Chiswick
Nuffield Theatre, Southampton
Ashcroft Arts Centre, Fareham
Hampshire Open Studios
Summer and Autumn Art Fairs, London
Kensington Hotel Pool mural
Battersea Art Fair ("Affordable Art")
Illustrators and Artists Art Fair
headline artist, Hatfield House
London Open Studios
Watermans Arts Centre, Brentford
The Phoenix Art Gallery
The Chiswick Cinema
Manadon House, Plymouth
Rolling programme with property developers:
Lambert Smith Hampton
Art Trails: West London, Hampshire,
West Sussex, Coastal, Dorset
examples of residencies
Ealing Open Arts
The Bridge Arts Project, London
Watermans, London
The Great Art Expedition, London
Ashcroft Arts Centre, Fareham
The Maltings Arts Centre, Farnham
The New Theatre Royal, Portsmouth
and many local community centres and
schools all over Britain.
Baylis formed the Feel Flows Theatre Group in 2019 to present "Promise" at various venues. The next Feel Flows Performance will be at Speakers' corner, Hyde Park, London (details to follow). She previously ran The Performance Group at Reading University, and the Great Art Expedition in London.
