Featured Artist: Rachel Hayes
Rachel Hayes – Leabrooks Arts Complex
As featured in Creative Talents Magazine – Issue 009
🔗 creativetalentsmagazine.com
“My garden is my palette. I paint how flowers feel — joyful, chaotic, wild — not how they look in a vase.”
— Rachel Hayes
🖌️ About the Artist
Rachel Hayes is a mixed media and abstract artist based on the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire border. Working from a bright and leafy garden studio, she finds daily inspiration in nature — particularly the saturated colours, organic shapes, and layered textures of flowers. Her paintings burst with intuitive marks, unexpected colour pairings, and a bold energy that reflects her connection to the outdoors.
Largely self-taught, Rachel’s work proves that artistic growth comes from practice, passion, and play. She creates vibrant canvas paintings, contemporary collages, and expressive ink and watercolour pieces — all with a distinctive sense of rhythm and joy. Her studio is a space of curiosity and colour, where each new piece is a celebration of creative freedom.
🖼️ Featured Work
Cornflower
Medium: Acrylic and oil pastels
A semi-abstract interpretation of a close-up cornflower bloom. Layered with marks, textures, and subtle pencil details. The unexpected purples and pinks reflect how diverse these blooms really are.
Time for Pimms
Medium: Acrylic and oil pastels
Inspired by a vibrant summer garden overflowing with hydrangea, hollyhocks, and roses. Full of playful detail and joyful colour — a toast to summer sunshine.
Forever Summer
Medium: Acrylic and oil pastels
Exploding with fiery reds, crocosmia, and sunny rudbeckia, this painting captures the colour chaos of an overflowing flower border in high summer.
Dark Purple Hydrangea
Medium: Acrylic and oil pastels
Focused on the small but mighty florets of a deep purple hydrangea bloom. A moody, textured piece filled with hidden details and painterly depth.
🧠 Artist’s Statement
“I never set out to paint a perfect flower. I make bold marks, layer colour, and follow instinct. Sometimes I know where I’m going. Other times, I just let the garden guide me. I paint the way flowers grow — wildly and freely.”
📍 Connect with Rachel
🌐 Website: rachelhayes.art
📷 Instagram: @rachelhayes.art
💬 Editor’s Note
★★★★★
Rachel’s work is alive with spontaneity, texture, and joy. Her intuitive style mirrors the energy of the gardens she paints — uncontained, expressive, and filled with colour. Each piece tells a story of nature’s beauty from the artist’s point of view. It’s a delight to feature her in this issue.
