Mon, 31/01/2022 - 14:06
Rachel Payne is a mural artist who also paints and upcycles furniture and sells fine art prints and cards as The Random Renovator.
She recently moved into studio 2.2 at Banks Mill to run her new business and give her a base to concentrate on her work, away from her busy home life.
After graduating from university having gained a degree in Art, European Philosophy and Literature, Rachel found herself working in advertising for over a decade. After having children, she decided to retrain as an SFX/film tv and theatrical makeup artist, Rachel comments: “This is something I had always wanted to do, and it allowed me to work for myself and around family life”.
Fast forward to the pandemic and Rachel found herself not being able to work, this is when she started to do more fine art pieces at home. She then started making prints and personalised greetings cards for customers, and painting furniture.
Rachel says about the pandemic: “I began to upcycle every piece of furniture I possessed which led me to work with Annie Sloan chalk paint, and then moving onto painting murals. It’s amazing how productive you can be when the world comes to a standstill (and you’re easily bored!)”
Most of Rachel’s work is quite intricate and can take weeks to complete; her wall mural took upwards of 60 hours. Rachel uses a lot of fine art as inspiration and incorporates aspects of well-known works of art in her furniture and mural designs, for example she painted a piano and its panels with Klimt, Van Gogh and Millais works – each panel taking 20+ hours to complete.
Rachel reflects: “My make up artistry has definitely given me some transferable skills, the principles behind creating an ombre body paint are the same across furniture and murals. My body painting experience has also come in handy when painting a mural on brickwork – i.e., painting on surfaces that aren’t flat to create a 2D design.”
Rachel decided to join Banks Mill as she needed the space, both physically and mentally to be able to create and increase her productivity, Rachel says: “having my own studio space is invaluable – trying to work from home with a large family can be tricky at best. The support that’s in place to help you to grow your business is another reason why I wanted to have a studio at Banks Mill – everything is there to help you achieve and I need that.”
Rachel is currently working on a mural, upcycling a desk, and creating some new digital designs for prints and her plans are to expand on the mural side of the business.
To find out more about Rachel and her work visit her website and follow her on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.