September….ummm, no…. October 2025

Good Enough!

I really meant to get a September newsletter out. I even started the draft. I blinked and now it’s October, and I didn’t get it done.

So here I am, sitting in a coffee shop in Dallas, TX, in-between shows (welcome to all my new readers I met at Cottonwood this past weekend!), writing the September (October) newsletter to send to you. It’s not what I intended, but it’s good enough! My dad used to say “If you do your best, angels can’t do better.” Let that sink in and don’t be too hard on yourself.

I’ve been looking back over the paintings and collectors from shows this summer and feeling so warm and fuzzy. I love sending my paintings off to their forever homes. It’s more than an exchange of art and money. It’s more than the fact that one of my paintings now occupies part of your home, which is wonderful and rewarding all by itself.

It goes deeper. My heart and soul are in my work, which is probably not a surprising thing for an artist to say, but also, buying original art is all about love: it’s so personal and subjective. So, in a very real way, you own a piece of my heart and I own a piece of yours.

Warmly,

Rachel (feeling connected)

p.s. Anyone remember my New Year’s intention of getting twelve newsletters sent this year? I’m at eight. I think. lol. Well. It’s GOOD ENOUGH.

p.p.s. I am still fan-girling on Australian poet Erin Hanson. I’ve totally fallen in the deep end. Many of my recent titles have some from or been inspired by her work. Scroll down to read another of her poems and find her on IG: https://www.instagram.com/thepoeticunderground

In the Studio:

You know one of my favorite things is to riff on a theme… here are a couple recent pieces from this reflections series:

And then a few pieces up close and personal. I love to leave the sky out completely and still make it feel expansive, with room to breathe:

A little bit of the same idea, here, although it’s easy with reflections, as they are always up close and personal, so it lends to the quiet, solitary feeling:

And finally, going in the other direction entirely, it’s all about the sky and the wide-open:

Collector Corner

SHOW SCHEDULE

OCTOBER

5-6: Cottonwood Art Festival, Riverbend Park, Richardson, TX. All the info here. Booth 271.

10-12: Bayou City Art Festival, Memorial Park, Houston, TX. The last time I did these two shows was in 2018! Details here. Booth 921-922.

Please patronize these galleries:
Art on Oak, & Stave & Stone Winery in Hood River; PAM's Rental Sales Gallery in Portland. Check them out! 

Every Heart A Hurricane

Every heart’s a hurricane,
Each soul a starlit sea,
Every mind’s a meteor
Unbound by gravity.
And everybody’s wishing
They could learn to tame their tides,
When nothing more than nature
Is what’s echoing inside.

Every life’s a lighting bolt,
Yet everyone’s told no;
Bite back all your thunder
And don’t let the wild things show.
Every heart’s a hurricane,
Everyone’s a world within,
Every life too short for loathing
Any storms beneath your skin.

-Erin Hanson

ABOUT MY NEWSLETTER

New pieces, works in progress, notifications of art shows and other happenings, insights into my artistic process and always, some philosophical ramblings thrown in for free. Unlike myself, my art has no façade, no pretense, no anxiety, no insecurity. My work is always, and completely, reverent, sincere, earnest, transparent. It represents me at my best.