Artist, poet and humanist, Rachel Berman is foremost an observer of life. Berman’s search to observe and paint others is in fact, an exercise in introspection. As she explains, “the paintings are autobiographical...they are about me, trying to find out who I am.” With no formal training in the arts, her work reflects her travels to Morocco, Paris, London, Ireland, New York and the people she met along the way. Using house painting brushes that she trims down to size, she paints long, pronounced brushstrokes and has an affinity for earth tones. When she completes a painting she then coats the canvas with beeswax and polishes it to a glossy finish. Her attention to interiors and receding spaces combine with figures of Mannerist proportion to create compositions that leave the viewer with a sense of existential angst. One can see the influences of German Expressionism and artists such as Egon Schiele, Kathe Kolowitz and Francis Bacon. (http://www.buyartnotkids.com/auction/#/berman/)