Rachel Howard, British b.1969- What's Left to Say, 2013; oil...

Rachel Howard, British b.1969- What's Left to Say, 2013; oil on canvas, signed, titled and dated 2013 on the reverse, 121.9x91.4cm (unframed) (ARR) Provenance: Blain Southern, London. Note: Howard is considered to be one of the most influential British Contemporary artists of the 21st Century, producing emotionally charged abstract compositions that explore the way in which paint can be applied to the canvas to imbue reaction from a viewer. Graduating from Goldsmith’s College, London in 1991, Howard would go on to receive The Prince’s Trust Award in 1992, shortlisted in 2004 for the Jerwood Drawing Prize, and eventually gaining a British Council Award in 2008. During her studies at Goldsmith’s, Howard became friends with fellow student Damien Hirst who employed her as his assistant to execute his ‘Spot’ paintings, commenting; “The best person who ever painted spots for me was Rachel.” Early on in her artistic career, Howard would use household gloss paint, often mixed with oil and acrylic, to create unique compositions through the mixture of mediums. Now using predominantly oil paint, Howard applies turps and varnish to the surface to then ‘unpick’ and destruct these layers - as seen in the present paintings. The pigment and clear varnish are applied to the edges of the canvas which then, through gravity, spreads downwards to create subtle vertical paths across the surface. This is most prevalent in ‘What’s Left to Say’, where the ground is built up in various layers of monochromatic vertical lines with hints of pink pigment. ‘Interior (Square)’ focuses more on the disturbance of the repetitive pattern across the canvas, with gestural stokes sporadically appearing to create denser areas of paint, whilst other areas are lighter and fainter in tone, resulting in a large scale composition that creates a sense of three dimensionality.