Rachel Rickert: Rock and Sun

“Men come and go, cities rise and fall, whole civilizations appear and disappear—the earth remains, slightly modified. The earth remains, and the heartbreaking beauty where there are no hearts to break...I sometimes choose to think, no doubt perversely, that man is a dream, thought an illusion, and only rock is real. Rock and sun.” ― Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness

Lowell Ryan Projects is pleased to present Rock and Sun, an exhibition featuring recent plein-air paintings by artist Rachel Rickert. Inspired by the permanence of rock and the ephemeral nature of human existence, Rickert expands the narratives of her practice by utilizing handmade paints, which she meticulously crafts from rocks and sediments collected directly from the landscapes she depicts. The paintings in Rock and Sun embody her evolving exploration of her subject matter by intensifying the connection between the artwork and its origin. This is Rickert’s second solo exhibition with the gallery.

The works in this series are painted on-site in various locations throughout the Southwest region of the United States. Rickert’s approach begins with an intuitive observation of these environments. She instinctively gathers stones, appreciating their weight, texture, and natural hues, and imagining the unique colors they might yield. The rocks and sediments are then arduously ground by hand back at her studio, transforming them into pigments, before she returns to the site to capture a vision of the landscape that initially inspired her. The rugged, earthy tones of Santa Fe’s mesas, the serene, sweeping plains of Eagle Valley in Nevada, and the sprawling, sunlit vistas of California’s Mojave Desert become infused with their own unique, untamed beauty in the hand of Rickert’s painterly gestures.

With the utilization of her own handmade pigments, a blurring between the painted image and the physicality of the terrain emerges. This process allows the illusion of representation to dissolve, transforming the artist into a conduit between nature and its depiction. Each painting, small in scale, becomes a memory—a provocation of emotion and awe—standing as a testament to the magnificence and fragility of the natural world.