Rachel Gabriel – portfolio

Contact the artist

http://www.rachelgabrielart.com

rachelgabrielart at gmail.com

Rachel Gabriel’s work begins, as it always has, with storytelling.

Before painting, Rachel spent nearly three decades writing and producing for television and digital media. A graduate of Brasenose College Oxford, and Goldsmiths London, her work earned her over ten industry awards, including a BAFTA and an IMA. Story, emotion, and connection have always been at the heart of what she makes.

In 2020, that life stopped abruptly. After contracting Covid in January 2020, Rachel developed severe Long Covid, which she is still living with six years later. By the end of 2020, she was largely bedridden, unable to work, and reliant on a wheelchair to leave the house once a week. In 2023, her occupational therapist suggested she try painting again from bed. Art had always been part of her life, but had never been her sole focus. She discovered abstract landscapes via Instagram and what followed became a lifeline—and the beginning of a new direction.

Working intuitively and learning through online tutorials, Rachel developed a new practice in abstract landscapes. Painting became not just a way to express herself, but a way of returning to places she could no longer physically reach. 

Her work has since been selected for exhibition with the Oxford Art Society, and she exhibited at Oxfordshire Art Weeks last year at Conways—where the show was a great success.

Rachel paints semi-abstract landscapes on wood panels, using colour, texture, and layered mark-making to capture not just places, but emotional states—memories, shifts in mood, and moments that linger. Her background in writing remains integral: fragments of text are often embedded into the surface, and each larger work comes with its own story for the buyer—something personal to live with and share. They make great talking points when you have visitors over. This new collection for 2026 focuses on light and hope. 

As one collector said:
“When I sit in my living room and look at the wall, your painting lifts my spirits every single day.”

That’s what drives Rachel’s work—creating pieces that bring energy, comfort, and connection into everyday life, both during the act of painting and long afterwards in the homes of those who live with them.

The exhibition includes original 40cm wood panel paintings, smaller block works designed as joyful accents for bookshelves or windowsills, and wearable landscapes—tiny copper and verdigris paintings set into necklace pendants. Each piece is entirely original—no one else will ever own the same pendant as you.

If you’ve only seen the work online, it’s very different in person—the texture, scale, and detail shift the experience completely. This is also the only opportunity this year to see Rachel’s work in person.

You’re warmly invited to visit, spend time with the paintings and stories, and see if one resonates.

Rachel will be exhibiting as part of Oxfordshire Art Weeks, 16–25 May 2026, alongside Alice Kwan and Tim Kapp, upstairs above Conways Opticians on George Street, Oxford.