At Day’s End: Landscape and Meaning Through Others’ Eyes

Paintings by Rachel Loeffler

January 21 - April 30, 2011

016: Palais de Jeffree
Acrylic, Canvas
October 2010
24” x 30”
Reprinted by permission of Rachel Loeffler. All rights reserved.

About the Exhibit

Five minutes a day, 150 minutes a month, 30 hours a year.... In September 2008, Rachel picked up a paintbrush. She had dabbled in painting in her early years, and always meant to return to it. Juggling a full schedule, it had been difficult to set aside large chunks of time to paint. She began by promising herself to set aside at least five minutes a day to paint. Looking for a sense of purpose and a source of inspiration she decided to paint for friends and family. She collected photographs from their most cherished landscapes and placed them beside her canvas.

At day’s end, Rachel stops by her “studio”, the 3’ x 1’ radiator in the corner of her bedroom. She puts a single dab of paint on her pallete and pulls that color through the piece. These first strokes establish a structure for the composition. Subsequent sessions layer up color by color depth, light, and texture. Every morning, Rachel’s gaze falls on the painting in the corner of the room--a warm reminder of what is waiting for her at the end of the day. Over the past two years, she has completed twenty paintings with this simple practice of “five minutes a day.”

About the Artist

Rachel Loeffler was born in Tennessee, and currently lives in Watertown, Massachusetts. She received her Masters of Landscape Architecture from Harvard's Graduate School of Design, and holds a Bachelors of Arts, Major in Architecture from Washington University in St. Louis. Rachel practices Landscape Architecture with the Cambridge firm, Hargreaves Associates, and teaches architecture at the Boston Architectural College.

If you like what you see hanging in the gallery and would like Rachel to paint one of your favorite landscapes, please contact her, she would be happy to paint something for you. A portion of the sales from this exhibit will be donated to the University Lutheran Homeless Shelter.