PVD to NM - A Rain Story of a Painting Commission Reveal

This is the brief story of a painting commission. This painting commission is about a couple who had been married a very long time, had lived in Providence, RI, but then lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico for a long time. Then eventually moved back to New England. In moving back to the East Coast, the wife was really missing the beauty of the desert, even while still loving the ocean and city bustle of the south coast. The husband commissioned a painting to incorporate this sense of place and placelessness, nostalgia, memory, and imagination of how to capture the spirit of a place in mind and memory and sensation.

Rachel Brask created a sketch utilizing reference images provided by the client, and generated a rough sketch that incorporated elements from both New Mexico landscape (desert sand, cactus, mountains, bushes, home), and elements from Providence landscape (city skyline, I-195 bridge, view of the bay, an evergreen tree, etc.) and brought them both together into an imaginary landscape, which was then treated to the “rainfall” technique created by Brask. The result was a dripping blend of colors descending from the purples of the mountains into the golds and blues of the bay and desert sands, leaving the cityscape and house barely visible, but still present.

The reveal occured at Rachel Brask’s studio, with the husband and wife both present. The curtain was pulled off of the painting, and some pink champagne was poured and toasted to their anniversary. They loved it, and took it home with them.

“I love it. Oh, it’s beautiful! And I get it.”