Rachael Wren
Memories of Color and Light 

Painter Rachael Wren’s art practice is fueled by countless decisions. The results are complex paintings that dance with unwavering focus on structure and color. In conversation, Wren shared with me insights on the influence of getting permission to ignore trends, kick-starting a new body of work, and memories of color and light.


Michele Jaslow: One thing people should know about you is the complex interconnection between your life experiences and your work.

 

Rachael Wren: Although my work is abstract, it grows out of experiences I’ve had in real places with people I care about. Memories of the color, light, and emotional tenor of  those times drive the paintings. It feels essential to me to have a deep connection with things outside of the studio that I can bring into the work.

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During my show, The Long Way Home, at Rick Wester Fine Art, I had the amazing experience of many people telling me that they felt a lot of emotion in the paintings. That meant so much to me because that was what I put into them. Themes of love, loss, and lifecycles were in my mind as I painted, along with memories of important people and places in my life. For me, the magic of painting lies in its transmission of feeling from one human to another, and it was so gratifying to know that viewers experienced that with my work.

Michele: Your work is multi-layered and must require an impressive amount of focus and commitment to vision. How do you approach creating a new body of work?

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Rachael: I typically work in loose series — I always have a bunch of paintings going on in the studio at once. They often end up being variations on a theme or idea. Something will happen in one painting that I want to explore in a slightly different way in the next. As the body of work develops, I think about how to make these differences significant, so that the group feels unified as a whole, but each painting is clearly distinct from the others.

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The finished work looks orderly, but it does not usually feel that way when I’m making it. There is a lot of not-knowing, of feeling my way through the process and responding to what I’m seeing, rather than planning it all out from the beginning.

Michele: You cite among your influences the painters Agnes Martin, Jake Bertot, and Andrew Forge, all formidable figures in art history.

Agnes Martin’s (1912–2004) grid paintings of muted colors and hand-drawn lines explore themes of inner peace, spirituality, and transcendence, evoking a sense of meditative calm and quiet contemplation. Jake Berthot’s (1939–2014) nature-inspired, expressive paintings were influenced by his surrounding landscape, combining abstraction with recognizable forms. In exploring themes of time, memory, and spirituality, Berthot blended abstraction with emotional depth. Andrew Forge (1923–2002)  made paintings that are often described as meditative and atmospheric, featuring layers of delicate colored dots that create shimmering, abstract surfaces, dealing with themes of perception, light, and space.

You carry these influences into the present day with your work. Can you say more about the connections between them and your work?

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Rachael: Agnes Martin, Jake Bertot, and Andrew Forge have been three of my most important touchstones for many years. They each developed a personal language of abstraction that also maintained a connection to the natural world. I see their work as combining strength of structure with tenderness of emotion. When I stand in front of their paintings, I experience a physical sensation where my body quiets down and I breathe deeper. These elements all have resonance for me and are qualities I strive for in my own work.

Michele: Agnes Martin, when asked about inspiration in a 1997 interview says "I have a vacant mind in order to do exactly what the inspiration calls for and I don’t start to paint until after I have the inspiration. And after I have it I make up my mind that I'm not going to interfere."  Every artist has their own creative process. What is that process like for you?

Rachael: The impulse to make a new painting often begins with colors I’ve observed in nature. I want to see how I can transform them on the canvas into something that feels like my memory of that time or place. More broadly, one body of work usually grows out of the previous one in an organic way. A question or change will arise out of my working process and become the key point of investigation in a new group of paintings. This might involve using a different kind of mark, thinking about color progression in a new way, or shifting my understanding of structure. When a new element arises in the work, I often have a flurry of ideas for variations to explore with it. I do a lot of quick sketches to help me figure out what might work best in larger paintings. Because I work within certain systems or parameters I’ve set up for myself, a change to one element can reverberate throughout the process, moving the paintings to a new place.

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Rachael Wren on focusing over time. Video by Daniel Paterna.

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Michele: How do you approach issues like creative blocks?

Rachael: For me, working consistently helps to keep things flowing. I’d rather have fewer hours in the studio every day than one or two long days of painting followed by days away. When I get stuck on one painting, I usually put it aside and turn to work on another. If none of them let me in, I try drawing or making color studies. And if all else fails, I’ll go for a long walk or drive and spend time looking at the world around me.

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Michele: Which do you think matters more to success: ambition, or talent?

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Rachael: I think it is persistence that matters most, which maybe is a byproduct of ambition. 

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Michele: What processes do you look forward to experimenting with?

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Rachael: Over the past few years, I’ve had the opportunity to make two large-scale projects outside of the studio, a mural, and an installation piece. The mural was 60 feet long, painted on the outdoor dining structure of a restaurant in Tribeca. The installation involved a 6 x 6 ft wall painting with a grid of 576 strings in a gradation of 12 colors extending out 6 feet in front of it. I look forward to experimenting with more projects such as these, where I contend with new environments and stretch the core ideas of my work in new ways.

Michele: Rewind to your formative years. You painted “Treescape” from observation at Ravenna Park in Seattle, when you were a graduate student at the University of Washington. You were interested in how to move backwards into the deep space of a painting and in finding ways of using brushstrokes to integrate form and space. It was at this time you had a pivotal conversation with a professor about following trends.

Rachael: Yes, it’s interesting to look back at this older work, like seeing a younger version of myself. In many ways, the concerns I had then are the same things I’m thinking about and working with now, just with more years of experience and understanding. I do remember wondering about the relevance of painting landscapes at that time if it seemed too old-fashioned. In response to that question, one of my professors said that trying to predict trends and chase after them is like following a marching band. But if you listen to your authentic instincts and pursue them, you are out in front, leading the band. That has stayed with me.

Michele: What brings you the most joy in your studio? 

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Rachael: The feeling I have when I walk in each day — feeling like I’m at home, like I’m exactly where I should be.
 

Rachael Wren’s work can be seen during Upstate Art Weekend, July 17-20, 2025 at Barn on Berme, a site-specific art event in Kerhonkson, NY.