For Rachel English, the sky has never been simply a backdrop. From towering cloud formations and sudden flashes of lightning to the vast expanse of the Milky Way, her paintings examine the extraordinary forms, colors, and movement found overhead. In "Petrichor", her second solo exhibition with Square One Gallery, English turns her attention toward the more dramatic and unpredictable qualities of the atmosphere, capturing moments that balance beauty with the immense power of nature.
Drawing inspiration from the expansive Texas skies surrounding her home, English approaches each painting with a combination of careful observation, technical precision, and personal experience. In this edition of Stories Behind, she shares the inspirations behind four works from Petrichor, reflecting on her lifelong fascination with the sky, the challenges of translating atmospheric phenomena onto canvas, and the moments that compel her to stop and look upward.
Cloudscape 148, (2026)
40 x 60 inches, oil on canvas
Cloudscape 148 strikes first with its scale. The bright cloud formation looks like it’s billowing out of the darkened background, almost with architectural height and depth. Standing before it, the viewer feels as though the shape is unfurling into his or her immediate space. The limited color palette of cyan blues and cool grays is austere yet dramatic, wavering between realism and abstraction. Drawing closer to the canvas, the viewer discovers how thin and delicate the gestural layers of paint are that make up such an imposing shape.
You have painted the sky throughout your career. What continues to bring you back to it, and what did you want to examine differently in “Petrichor”?
I keep coming back to the skies because they are inexhaustible wells of inspiration. Movement, color, form, emotion, symbolism, you name it, the skies are abounding in it. Petrichor embraces the moodier, more confrontational nature of the skies, via extreme weather. The energy unleashed by a thunderstorm is hard to ignore, and I hope the viewer experiences a unique sense of that power when they see these works on the walls.
Strike 57
36 x 48 inches, oil on canvas
Strike 57 stands out among the series of lightning pieces in Petrichor for its varicolored palette and bias toward abstraction over realism. The mixture of neon light and rain emerges from the gray mass that holds the center of the composition. Straddling the emotional tension of suspense and wonder, the harshness of the storm as subject matter is softened by pastel hues that make it fascinating and appealing to behold.
Clouds, lightning, and the Milky Way each require a very different treatment of light. Which atmospheric phenomenon presents the greatest challenge for you as a painter?
Clouds will always be the greatest challenge to paint, because when they are done right, they float gracefully on the canvas and seem to glow. This takes a lot of effort and patience to achieve. Without the intentionality and discipline to be rendered well, they look cartoonish. The same can be said for all the other atmospheric phenomena, though the complexity of the varying forms, textures, shadows, edges, and colorations make the clouds especially challenging.
Milky Way 26
24 x 36 inches, oil on canvas
Milky Way 26 is an homage to the original works I was making when I first started studying the skies. My grandfather was an amateur astronomer who meticulously catalogued the heavenly bodies, and passed down his affinity for stargazing to me at an early age. With his guidance, I became fascinated with telescopes. I would stare up at the Milky Way galaxy on clear nights, marveling at its beauty and magnitude, and decided to reinvent that awe-inspiring sensation with paint and brush. Painting the night sky became a labor of love as I rendered each star by hand, and drenched the pitch-black emptiness of space with color and luminescence. Not only do these Milky Way pieces tend to remind me of how small I am amid the grand scheme of the universe, but they also empower me to take risks in painting the things that feel too big to wrestle onto the canvas.
What do you think a painting can reveal about the sky that a photograph cannot?
A painting of the sky incorporates textures and layers that a photograph does not possess. Paintings are a physical manifestation of the work of the artist’s hand over time. Both media encourage the viewer to look closely and appreciate what the artist sees, but painting takes the cake when it comes to tangibility.
Cloudscape 146
30 x 24 inches
Cloudscape 146 was inspired by a distant cloud rising over the treeline in my backyard. I was pulling into my driveway around golden hour and happened to see this two-colored, wiry outline of a thunderhead. It moved me to see something so immense and powerful present itself so delicately. I took a picture with my phone, and the more I stared at it, the more I felt a personality materializing from that shape. The painting that it eventually became feels more like a portrait of a visitor whom I encountered on that day, rather than the token “landscape-of-the-sky” theme that typically applies to my work.
When you look at the sky, what usually makes you stop and decide that a particular moment could become a painting?
I live on a ranch in the country, so I naturally spend most of my time either outside or commuting in the car. If a glimpse of the sky compels me to stop the task I’m doing, or if a cloud spotted through the windshield makes me want to pull over to photograph it, then it will probably wind up the subject for a painting down the road. Whenever I’m on the move, if something stops me in my tracks, listening to that intuition often uncovers something worthwhile.
While each painting in Petrichor captures a distinct atmospheric moment, English's work is united by a fascination with the sky's endless variation. Whether studying the delicate edges of a cloud, the electric colors of a lightning strike, or the countless stars scattered across the night sky, she approaches each subject with an appreciation for both its physical complexity and its extraordinary scale.
Together, these stories offer a closer look at the observations and experiences that have shaped English's practice, from childhood evenings spent stargazing with her grandfather to unexpected encounters with passing storms above her Texas home. Petrichor invites viewers to consider the skies not simply as distant scenery, but as an ever-changing presence that can inspire wonder, command attention, and reveal something new with every passing moment.
Petrichor is on view through October 10 at Square One Gallery. To learn more about the exhibition or inquire about available works, follow the link below.
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