Rachel MacFarlane

Broken Images, Where the Sun Beats

Gossamer Dreams - 72 x 96 inches - Oil on Canvas - 2021 

Gossamer Dreams - 72 x 96 inches - Oil on Canvas - 2021 

Broken Images, Where the Sun Beats 

MacLaren Art Centre

37 Mulcaster St, 
Barrie, ON
L4M 3M2, Canada 

Dec 4, 2021- March 2022 

Curated by Emily McKibbon  

Come In Under the Shadow Essay  by Emily McKibbon

Link to Exhibition


Photo credit: Tyler Durbano

Photo credit: Tyler Durbano

Broken Images, Where the Sun Beats


Rachel MacFarlane’s Broken Images, Where the Sun Beats presents landscapes of our current moment. From ecological pressure on natural spaces, to the proliferation of computer-generated landscapes in the media that surrounds us, the show reflects the fevered world in which we now find ourselves. Planned before the pandemic but executed within it, the exhibition reflects the fracturing of our experience of the natural world in a time of lockdown. Collectively, the works are uncanny landscapes rendered strange through memory, nostalgia, and the influence of the screen.



Tectonic Shift at the Tablelands - 48 x 36 inches - oil on canvas - 2021

Tectonic Shift at the Tablelands - 48 x 36 inches - oil on canvas - 2021

Broken Images, Where the Sun Beats takes its title from T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land (1922), written partially in response to the Great Influenza Epidemic of 1918-1920. A few lines after this phrase appears, Eliot invites us to “come in under the shadow of this red rock,” a miasmic scene that brings to mind MacFarlane’s paintings of arid and fragmented deserts. Uninterested in creating empirical recordings of space, MacFarlane’s psychologically charged landscapes capture a central tension of our experience of the natural world, and a caution to experience it more fully once we make our way back to it.


Come in Under the Shadow Curatorial Essay for Rachel MacFarlane: Broken Images, Where the Sun Beats

Photo credit: Tyler Durbano

Photo credit: Tyler Durbano

Under the Bayou Canopy Waiting Dreaming - 48 x 72 inches - Oil on Canvas  - 2020

Under the Bayou Canopy Waiting Dreaming - 48 x 72 inches - Oil on Canvas  - 2020

Night Turns a Corner - 40 x 30 inches - Oil on canvas - 2021

Night Turns a Corner - 40 x 30 inches - Oil on canvas - 2021

Photo credit: Tyler Durbano

Photo credit: Tyler Durbano

A Dance in the Bayou - 42 x 78 inches - Oil on Canvas - 2021

A Dance in the Bayou - 42 x 78 inches - Oil on Canvas - 2021

Ochre Towers - 72 x 60 inches - Oil on Canvas -2020 

Ochre Towers - 72 x 60 inches - Oil on Canvas -2020 

Photo credit: Tyler Durbano

Photo credit: Tyler Durbano

Untouched and Alive - 24 x 18 inches - oil on Canvas - 2021

Untouched and Alive - 24 x 18 inches - oil on Canvas - 2021

Photo credit: Tyler Durbano

Photo credit: Tyler Durbano

Blossoms at Nightfall - 18 x 18 inches - oil on Canvas on wood Panel - 2021

Blossoms at Nightfall - 18 x 18 inches - oil on Canvas on wood Panel - 2021

Photo credit: Tyler Durbano

Photo credit: Tyler Durbano

Photo credit: Tyler Durbano

Photo credit: Tyler Durbano

Spanish Moss Curtain Split - 40 x 30 inches - Oil on Canvas on wood panel - 2020

Spanish Moss Curtain Split - 40 x 30 inches - Oil on Canvas on wood panel - 2020

Sandstone Horizon Junction - 40 x 30 inches - Oil on Canvas on wood panel - 2020 

Sandstone Horizon Junction - 40 x 30 inches - Oil on Canvas on wood panel - 2020 

Photo credit: Tyler Durbano

Photo credit: Tyler Durbano

Tempest At Earth's Edge - 72 x 84 inches - Oil on Canvas - 2020

Tempest At Earth's Edge - 72 x 84 inches - Oil on Canvas - 2020

Night Gale - 12 x 24 inches - Oil on Canvas on Wood Panel - 2021

Night Gale - 12 x 24 inches - Oil on Canvas on Wood Panel - 2021

Walk Down Green Gardens - 40 x 30 inches - Oil on Linen - 2019

Walk Down Green Gardens - 40 x 30 inches - Oil on Linen - 2019

Photo credit: Tyler Durbano

Photo credit: Tyler Durbano

Moonlight and Earth - 72 x 86 inches - Oil on Canvas -2020

Moonlight and Earth - 72 x 86 inches - Oil on Canvas -2020

Photo credit: Tyler Durbano

Photo credit: Tyler Durbano

Photo credit: Tyler Durbano

Photo credit: Tyler Durbano

The Night's Amphitheater - 40 x 30 inches - Oil on Canvas - 2021

The Night's Amphitheater - 40 x 30 inches - Oil on Canvas - 2021

Charred Forest by Goose Pond - 72 x 60 inches - Oil on Canvas - 2021


Charred Forest by Goose Pond - 72 x 60 inches - Oil on Canvas - 2021


Photo credit: Tyler Durbano

Photo credit: Tyler Durbano

Caged Magnolia - 25 x 18 inches - Oil on Canvas on Wood Panel - 2021

Caged Magnolia - 25 x 18 inches - Oil on Canvas on Wood Panel - 2021

Photo credit: Tyler Durbano

Photo credit: Tyler Durbano

Breaking Through the Shale - 48 x 36 inches - Oil on Canvas on Wood Panel - 2020

Breaking Through the Shale - 48 x 36 inches - Oil on Canvas on Wood Panel - 2020

Reaching - 20 x 16 inches - Oil on Canvas on Wood - 2021

Reaching - 20 x 16 inches - Oil on Canvas on Wood - 2021

Photo credit: Tyler Durbano

Photo credit: Tyler Durbano

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