insideKENT Magazine Issue 75 - June 2018 | Page 40

Rachel
Arif
Award winning artist Rachel Arif has much to
celebrate. Since our last feature she has enjoyed
recent success exhibiting at the prestigious Mall
Galleries annual exhibition alongside The Royal
Society of British Artists. She has exhibited at
Talented Art Fair Shoreditch, been approached to
appear on Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the year
and is currently represented by several prominent
galleries across both Suffolk and London. Rachel
says she plans to explore the Kent Art Scene
further as she progresses. Rachel says her children
keep her feet firmly on the ground stating her
daughter often tells her she’s ‘ just colouring in’.
Rachel was born in Rochdale, Lancashire. She
developed a deep affection and appreciation for
drawing and painting as a child and was often
scolded by teachers for drawing in her text books.
She briefly studied History of Art then had a
change of direction several times before coming
back to drawing and painting. Her young children
both began school and she found she had an
abundance of spare time on her hands.
Soon sketches gave way to more serious works and
she found herself in artistic demand.
Her work focuses mainly around the Suffolk and
Kent Coastline but has been told several times that
her love and great affection for northern England
comes across in some way in each and every one of
her paintings.