Rachael Addis is a contemporary painter who creates visually beautiful works full of captivating detail. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Arts (London) Rachael is now based at Rogue Artists Studios in Manchester and has recently created an 8-metre-long mural for Europe’s largest music venue Co-Op live.

Artist Statement

Materiality sits at the heart of my practice, shaping process and mark-making. My paintings are built through layered applications of acrylic, spray paint, and drawn

interventions made using found tools, paint pens, and everyday objects rather than traditional brushes. These materials leave visible traces of pressure, repetition, and movement, recording the physical act of making as much as the image itself.

My process is both meditative and compulsive. Through sustained, repetitive gestures, painting becomes an immersive dialogue between hand, material, and surface, pushing me physically and mentally while allowing each work to evolve slowly. Each piece gradually emerges after prolonged, focussed, engagement rather than from predetermined outcomes.

Having spent my formative years between the Lake District and Asia, I continue to draw inspiration from the landscapes, cultures, and sensory experiences of both places.Botanical forms, shifting environments, and memories of place permeate the work, informing a visual language that moves between abstraction and landscape. These processes began as a healing act following the loss of my sister who was a landscape architect. I started painting in her garden to work through my loss, in her environment -a contemplative place to pause for thought and connected to her and our nomadic upbringing.

My focus on making visually beautiful work with underlying backstories has continued in recent landscape work that has emerged through listening to harrowing stories of refugees fleeing through beautiful terrains to escape the traumas of their home countries.

Whether working en plein air or in the studio, my practice remains deeply connected to observation, movement, and the rhythms of the natural world. Time, memory, and place pulse quietly beneath the painted surface, creating atmospheric works that balance instinct with intention and invite contemplation, connection, and presence.

"The layers of an artwork are an ecology of memory” HéliaMarçal

Rachael has a studio at Rogue Artists Studios in Manchester, if you’d like to visit her studio or arrange a video call to see available work further do get in touch to make an appointment.

rr.addis@gmail.com