CONTEMPORARY PAINTER - Fiona Rae

Fiona Rae RA in her studio with her painting ‘Life is full of pleasant gifts and surprises, you know,' 2007


According to the Royal Academy of Arts, Rae’s paintings contrast flat areas of color with sign-making. This includes elements of text and pixilation. Throughout the 1990s her work became more structured and began to concentrate on particular motifs.

According to Rae, in an interview in The Observer from September 20th 2009:

What I love about painting is that it embodies a series of thought and feeling processes. It’s all there on the canvas as a record. I can put something on the canvas, consider it, adjust it, remove it, replace it, add to it, conceal it, reveal it, destroy it and repair it. I can be in a good mood, a bad mood, a cheerful mood or a destructive mood – it’s all useful.

I tend to improvise what I do on the canvas. I have a vague roadmap in mind, but usually have to abandon it pretty sharpish. I use canvas on wooden stretchers, prepared with a couple of coats of acrylic primer. I then paint the canvas a flat colour in acrylic paint. Acrylic is a good base for oil colours. It provides an even, unabsorbent surface, whereas oils absorb other oils at different rates and you can end up with a dry, patchy or cracked surface.


We go in search of our Dream…. 2007 Oil and acrylic on canvas, h: 84 x w: 69 in
Swamp, 1998 Acrylic and oil on canvas, 96.1 x 84.1 in.