Celebrated artist Rachel MacFarlane’s work is especially relevant in relation to the solar eclipse (April 8, 2024).

*The Event*, 2024. Oil on canvas via Smithsonian magazine, a feature on art inspired by eclipses

One of the works for her new solo show in New York City is The Event (above), “a fantastical depiction of hurricane-battered Prince Edward Island coupled with an abstract depiction of a solar eclipse to imbue the landscape with a sense of foreboding,” says Smithsonian magazine in a feature on art inspired by eclipses.

See the History of Art Inspired by Solar Eclipses, here.

New York based MacFarlane was first profiled on Canadian Art Junkie in 2011, a young Canadian painter on her way up. It’s the rich jewel tones of her work, plus fantastical images lamenting the loss of places (especially landscapes) that draw attention to the Toronto-born artist.

‘The Rush at Cypress Creek’ 72 x 60 inches, Oil on Canvas (2023) via Instagram.

MacFarlane was at an artist residency in Clearwater, Manitoba when there was unprecedented flooding, captured in this painting of Cypress Creek. It’s rushing with flood waters and snow melt leading to the erosion and new shape of the surrounding earth.

After Storm in the Fen, 2024, Oil on canvas, 63 x 90 in., via Hollis Taggart, here

“As has always been her practice, MacFarlane does not document while she travels, instead preferring to absorb the atmosphere of a place and spend time really immersed in its sights and sounds. Upon returning to her studio, MacFarlane transforms her observations into three-dimensional maquettes created out of paper, paint, and plastic,” the gallery says.

Maquette for ‘Submerged in the Forest Flood,’ 2024 via Hollis Taggart gallery here.

Several maquettes, including the one above, are included in MacFarlane’s first solo show with her gallery (Hollis Taggert) when it opens in NYC later this month.

Submerged in the Forest Flood, oil on canvas, 72 x 60″ via Hollis Taggart, here.

Rachel MacFarlane was born in Scarborough in 1986 and currently is based in NYC. She attended the Ontario College of Art and Design and completed her MFA at Rutgers University. MacFarlane was awarded the 2019 and 2021 Canada Arts Council Explore and Create Grant, the 2019 Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant, the Doris McCarthy Artist-in-Residence, the NSCAD Robert Pope Artist Residency, the Triangle Artists Workshop residency, NYC, the Vermont Studio Center Residency and was a visiting artist at Cow House Studios, Ireland.

Her solo exhibition – Coming Events Cast Their Light Before Them – runs April 25-May 25 at Hollis Taggart.

Rachel MacFarlane’s website, here.

Her Instagram, here.