At the start of this year I set myself a few challenges such as "read 25 books in 2025" and "paint 25 paintings in 2025". The other challenge I set myself was to write 25 blog posts in 2025 and you are now reading my 25th! This has been a difficult challenge for me. I …
Continue reading 25 blog posts in 2025 plus some life drawings
Rachel Crawshaw : The Farne Islands at sunset In this painting I used a photograph from a recent trip to Northumberland and the Farne Islands as inspiration. We went on a sunset cruise around the Farne Islands to see the local wildlife particularly seals, puffins, arctic terns, shags, gannets and other sea-birds. We managed to …
Recently I have been drawn to the symbolism surrounding Vessels and have been experimenting with the motif of various types of vessels in my sketchbook and art journals. I have been playing with mono printing techniques, negative space painting, making my own stamps and stencils and with collage in my sketchbook to further explore and …
My botanical themed art work- Rachel Crawshaw Recently at TAC (Thursday art club) the artists made a group still life display with the theme of "Botanicals". I love it when we do these collaborative displays as you get a real mix of interesting and unusual items and everyone approaches the theme differently. For this theme …
I often find that the summer months from June through to the beginning of September become a slower period in my creative process. I stop creating as much finished and polished art works and tend to focus my time and energy on refilling my cup. One of my favourite ways of doing this is reconnecting …
Continue reading Slow summer- refilling my cup by reconnecting with nature
Collage—the art of assembling different materials like paper, photographs, fabric, and found objects into a composition—is a powerful medium for self-expression. Its layered nature mirrors the complexity of identity, memory, and emotion. By combining disparate elements, collage allows artists to tell stories, evoke feelings, and explore inner landscapes in ways that are intuitive, symbolic, and …
Continue reading 100 days of Collage: Days 59 & 60 “Exploring Culture and Identity”
During 2023 and 2024, I became interested in the Cubist movement and spent a lot of time incorporating Cubist elements into my paintings. I experimented with a structured geometric style, fractured surfaces, hard edges, and geometric shapes. Pendleton Church by Rachel Crawshaw 2024 This year, I have taken a tentative step away from Cubism and …
Continue reading Post-impressionism- exploring the style of the post impressionist artist Cezanne
Creating a Cubist-Inspired Acrylic Painting: From Reference Photos to Finished Piece There’s something deeply rewarding about exploring new styles and techniques. In the past few years I have embarked on a journey to create Cubist-inspired art works. I'm enjoying exploring cubism through landscape, figure painting and still life. I’m excited to share the process of …
Welcome to 2025! I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas! Are you well rested ready for a new year filled with creativity and collage!? I'm on week 8 of the 100 days of collage skill share course. It is run by Froyle Davies and you can find out more HERE. This takes us up …
Continue reading Exploring Geometric and Organic Shapes in Collage
Hello and welcome back to the 100 days of collage challenge! I am undertaking the 100 Days of collage course on Skillshare run by Froyle Davies. You can join the course here! In this week's class, we explored using text in our work to give our collages narrative. Day 43: Crafting Dynamic Storytelling In this …
Continue reading Exploring Narrative Techniques in Collage Art
Mushroom Moon Designs 