Rakel Seneca
@rakelssart
Good art is a lot of different things. It can vary from perfecting a style or expressing thoughts and emotions. And other times it is great execution and craft. And Rakel provides exactly that. There is an unapologetic dedication to the classical discipline in her work - she sets her mind on a theme. Studies it. And then she goes to work painting one canvas after another, until the room is filled.
The theme is “metallic balloons” and the medium is oil paint. Her blending technique is incredibly precise, and the way she forces razor-sharp highlights out of the heavy oil to shape her metallic balloons takes a lot of skill and practice.
At first, I must admit I didn't really notice anything but the nice balloon shapes and the stunning technique. But it’s when these balloon paintings are brought together that the true magic happens. They begin to breathe as a collective. They expand, filling up the room and instantly dictating the entire tone and mood of the space. It’s an immersive experience; you don't just look at the art, you step into an atmosphere she has engineered through absolute technical control.
A second layer to these paintings is the beautiful contradiction in taking something so light and temporary, and transferring it to a heavy canvas. By doing so, she fundamentally alters both of those aspects, locking the dancing, weightless balloon into the framed standstill of classical realism. Suddenly, you are forced to behold it from a completely new angle. She makes the fragile solid and the contemporary eternal - choosing to speak not through loud abstractions, but through the quiet, fierce perfection of her brushstrokes.