Artist’s Statement: Rachael McCampbell
I grew up on a farm in East Tennessee and in the Smoky Mountains in Cades Cove (back when farmers leased property in the National Park). It was an ideal upbringing for a dreamer who loves the outdoors and observing its beauty. I was intrigued by the play of light and shadow and the casts of color in the landscapes and creeks around me. My journals reflected that and were filled with sketches of wide open farm-scapes along with details like barn door hinges and thistle blooms.
After graduating from the University of Georgia with a BFA, I lived and worked in Florence, Italy, New York City, London and Los Angeles. I was as a fabric designer, gallery director and commercial illustrator—all the while wishing I could focus on creating fine art. I began to do personal artwork in the late 1990’s exploring figurative art, later moving on to nature-based pieces with horses, birds and landscapes. This led to my first group show and later to solo exhibits in Los Angeles.
Knowing that the genesis of my love of painting was rooted in Tennessee, I returned in 2008 to middle TN where I found a home in the midst of what inspired me most—the countryside. I began to paint plein air and fell in love with the process of observing (in real time) what was in front of me. In my studio, I often create larger works based on those scenes. In my landscape work, I use paint and color to emote the feelings that arise from observing what I see. My desire is that the viewer interprets, on a core level, my original emotions through the way I express with paint.
Experimentation is key to keeping my work fresh and loose. I work primarily in acrylic, oil and cold wax medium. My paintings veer from loose representational, to contemporary impressionism, to nature-based abstraction. By painting with a palette knife and squeegee, I approach the landscape in a playful, fresh way keeping swipes, brush strokes and drips of paint visible to create texture and visual interest. By mixing abstract marks with tighter realism, I feel this combination helps to move the viewer’s eye through the composition and retain their interest. I often add asemic writing to my pieces and go back in to redraw what as originally beneath my work as I like to see the artist’s hand on the final surface.
Creating pieces for large, public installations and health care environments have been very heartfelt projects, as I’m a big believer that art heals. Working recently, for example, with the architectural and design team for a new wing of Ascension St. Thomas in Nashville, was very satisfying. I created (with the help of a fabricator) computerized/motorized kinetic pieces for their lobby and gardens that rotate at different rates of speed and patterns.
I also enjoy teaching and leading workshops in the US and abroad to locales such as Ireland, Italy, England, Spain and places in the US such as Ghost Ranch, the Smokies and other cities where I’m asked to teach. Spreading the joy of making art to others and observing their growth has been a great joy. I also host guest teachers from all over the country in my workshop center in Centerville, TN and cherish helping to create a local art community.
I am a GOLDEN Educator and a brand ambassador for Holbein, Legend Paper, General Pencils and Dynasty Brushes. I also enjoy writing about art and was a columnist for Nashville Arts Magazine and have written and published in many different magazines. Examining the motivations of an artist and their paths as creative makers is a passion of mine that I will continue to explore in my work and writing.
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Rachael McCampbell
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BIO:
Artist Bio: Rachael McCampbell
After earning her BFA from the University of Georgia, Rachael McCampbell worked for the fashion designer Emilio Pucci in Florence Italy. She then moved to NYC and studied at the New School and worked for advertising illustrator Braldt Bralds. She then spent a year in London with Christie’s Auction House studying fine and decorative arts. McCampbell then moved to Los Angeles where she lived and worked in the contemporary art gallery business and as a commercial and fine artist.
McCampbell now resides outside of Nashville, TN and paints full time, holding workshops in her studio in Centerville, TN. She also takes artists on Plein Air workshops to study landscape painting and cold wax medium abstraction in both the US and abroad. Her work is primarily exhibited in galleries and museums and has been featured in solo shows such as at the District Gallery in Knoxville, TN, the Copper Fox in Franklin, TN and the Parthenon Museum in Nashville, TN. Her work most recently was juried in to shows such as:
- the “Best in America” show, 2023, by The National Oil and Acrylics Painters Society at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA,
- the “Breaking Through: The Rise of American Women Artists” exhibition at the Clarksville Museum of Art, TN, 2022, juried by American Women Artists and
- the “Best of America Small Works Exhibit,” Juried by the National Oil and Acrylic Painter’s Society, 2022 at the Beverly McNeil Gallery, Birmingham, AL.
- McCampbell will be featured in a solo exhibition of her landscape work at the Clarksville Museum in 2025.
Creating Public Art for institutions is also an important part of her oeuvre. McCampbell completed a large kinetic (computerized and motorized) installation for Ascension St. Thomas Hospital’s new wing in Midtown, Nashville in 2022. She installed a 21 foot long mural for the new 11th floor of Vanderbilt Children’s hospital, Nashville, TN in 2020 and designed and installed two entire installations comprising of both painting and sculptures, at the East TN Childrens’ Hospital oncology ward, Knoxville, TN, and designed and created a backlit painting for its chapel, 2019-2021.
Sharing the joy of making art has always been an important part of McCampbell’s career. Through her company, Artistic Adventures America and Abroad, she leads artists to paint in countries such as Italy, England, Spain and Ireland. In America she has taken groups to Ghost Ranch and the Smoky Mountains. Other schools and organizations regularly invite her teach at places like Arrowmont Art School, Gatlinburg, TN and The Vienna Arts Society, Vienna, VA, The Art Barn, Cincinnati, Ohio and The Townsend Atelier, Chattanooga, TN.
McCampbell’s work is purchased by collectors both in the US and Abroad and is in the permanent collection of the Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, TN and the Latin Recording Artists Museum, Los Angeles, CA.
Writing has been another long time passion and McCampbell’s articles have been published by Streamline Publishing in InsideArt, Number One, Inc. Magazine, Thrive Global and she was a columnist for Nashville Arts Magazine and Yogi Times Magazine in Los Angeles.
McCampbell was juried in to a month-long residency at Estudio Corazon Artist Residency at Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu, NM, 2022 and was juried into the Fryer/Hunter Art Symposium, Bellows Falls, VT, 2023 and the Artists on Location Plein Air week of painting and exhibit benefiting the Knoxville Museum of Art. She is an environmentalist and often donates has art shows benefiting The Land Trust for Tennessee and the Harpeth Conservancy on which she sits on the advisory board.
