Coeur d'Alene Art Auction
July 27, 2025
"Sentinel" 48 x 36 charcoal on panel
Represented By
|
|
Rachel Brownlee
My career in art really started in 2021 at the Mountain Oyster Club show where my work "At the Ready" won Best of Show. Since then I have been busy learning new techniques in drawing and learning how to run a fine art business, but mostly I have been focusing on defining my style and my storytelling technique. It is commonly said that an artist's work reveals what is inside the artist. My work is precise; highly detailed; and exacting, both to create and to look at. In fact, I often feel my work is painful in a way. The detail I create requires such time and effort and mental exertion. Most of my pieces hanging on a wall don't create a feeling of rest like much fine art does; instead, I feel that my work requires a response from it's viewer. The content of my work is the living west as seen through my eyes, so almost all of my pieces feature people I know and my own family ranch. I want my viewers to see that the "historical west" is living and alive today participating in agriculture very nearly as it was 100 years ago. Technically, I have pushed the boundaries of charcoal artwork with my new style of drawing directly onto a gessoed panel and then varnishing it like an oil painting. It allows the viewer to be much closer to the work. It is more intimate. I love my work and I am blessed to be able to stand at my easel every day and depict living legends like my neighbors and the saddles that have worked nearly as long as cowboys have been running cattle in the Nebraska Sandhills.