Born in 1972, painter Rachel Fairfax grew up in the country coastal town of Tuncurry, northern New South Wales. She moved to Sydney initially to attend high school and university, settling there to work after completing her studies.
Fairfax studied Communications at the University of Technology, Sydney, from 1994 to 1998, majoring in filmmaking. After graduating, she immediately transferred to the National Art School in East Sydney so as to further develop her interest in drawing and painting. There she encountered two influential teachers, Wendy Sharp and Bill Brown, who were supportive of her development as an artist. She graduated in 2002 with Honours in Drawing.
After graduating, Fairfax completed a number of residencies. In 2003 and 2005, she traveled to Hill End, where artists Donald Friend, Paul Haefliger and others had worked in the 1940s and 1950s, to study landscape painting. Six years later, in 2009, she was selected for the Taronga Foundation Artists in Residence Program for which twenty artists took up residency at the zoo over a ten week period that included overnight stays, evening safaris as well as feeding the giraffes, all in aid of raising funds for the zoo. Fairfax has also been involved with a number of other fund raising and charity events, donating some of her artworks to philanthropic organisations such as Barnados.
In 2001 Fairfax begin exhibiting in galleries across NSW including Mary Place Gallery, Paddington; Ray Hughes Gallery, Surry Hills; Hazelhurst Regional Gallery, Gymea; Barry Stern Gallery, Hill End; Defiance Gallery, Newtown; Xavier Art Space, St Vincent’s Hospital, Darlinghurst; and Bathurst Regional Gallery. Her exhibitions often centre on a theme developed over a few months; each project consists of a large number of artworks, allowing Fairfax to work on multiple paintings simultaneously. Her works are started en plein air and then completed back at her studio space in the Sydney suburb of St Peters. She shares this space with a number of artists, such as painter and sculptor Stephen Bird; painter and collage artist Maz Dixon; and painter Ingrid Wahlstrom. Fairfax enjoys working in a group environment as a form of stimulation and company, and she often heads outdoors with other artists to create the base drawings for her paintings. She prefers not to work from photographs, only using them for colour reference or when painting a portrait, so as to correctly render her subject’s finer features.
Fairfax is inspired by nature, whether it is the landscape or the creatures that inhabit it. Of her 'Ocean Paintings’ exhibition at the Ray Hughes Gallery in 2009, Fairfax stated, “I believe that growing up in the country near the ocean [during] my childhood is imprinted in me deeply” (Ray Hughes Gallery website 2009). She also lists artists such as Elizabeth Cummings, John Passmore and Ian Fairweather as influences onher work.
In 2003 Fairfax was awarded two Reg Richardson Fellowships; in 2004 she achieved a Highly Commended in the Waverley Art Prize; and in 2005 she won the FONAS Infusion Barry Stern Galleries Prize. Fairfax’s work is held in a number of collections including ArtBank; Ray Hughes Gallery; St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, as well as private collections.
Fairfax teaches art at a number of institutions across Sydney. She runs classes in painting and drawing at the National School of Art, Darlinghurst, as well as classes in design and colour theory at the International School of Colour and Design, North Sydney.
- Writers:
- Roberts, Pascale
Catherine De Lorenzo
- Date written:
- 2009
- Last updated:
- 2011
