Hidden Places: ‘Quiet Copper Run’
Some places stay with you for reasons that are hard to explain.
The light, air, and quiet stay in your memory, along with how small you felt standing there and the way the place seemed to keep to itself.
That’s what this painting, Quiet Copper Run, feels like to me. It is named for the copper, brown, and tea-stained water that gives the painting its darker, grounded palette.
I started the Hidden Places collection because I keep thinking about tucked-away trails, dark water, bends in the trees, and places you almost miss when you are not paying attention. They feel private and specific to the people who found them.
The darker palette gives the painting depth and stillness. I kept the shadows and tea-stained water as I saw them because they are part of what made the place worth painting.
That matters to me in my work.
I want the painting to stay true to what made the place worth noticing. Here, that meant darker color, softened edges, shadow, and still water.
That’s what I kept coming back to here.
Its copper, brown, and shadowed water read quietly, and that restraint is often what makes a place stay with us.
This piece belongs in Hidden Places because it comes from the quieter, deeper, less-performed parts of life—the places we remember because we stopped long enough to notice them.
I love working on that kind of place.
Many of us still want quiet, depth, and beauty that does not perform for an audience.
Quiet Copper Run feels like that to me. Painting it lets me return to that place.
—Rachel
