Pascale Rentsch RSW is an award winning Swiss-born artist living in East Lothian, Scotland, where she makes the most of her surrounding countryside, hills and coastlines. She draws and paints plein-air, directly from nature in all conditions. Pascale works instinctively, following her feelings, spontaneously capturing nature and the elements. Her language is paint and she enjoys working outside with her materials, exploring mark-making, connecting with her surroundings, reacting to what she sees, feels and hears.
She received the RSW Scottish Arts Club Award 2021 at the 141st annual Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolours exhibition held at the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh. Other awards include the Visual Artist and Craft Maker Award 2021 to part fund her film project This is My Voice, the Isaac Howitt Art Teacher Award from the University of Edinburgh, and a Society of Wildlife Artists bursary for travel and education. She has also been invited to take part in several conservation projects, residencies and workshops.
“Pascale’s work is imbued with the palpable energy that she applies to her en plein air practice, yet at the same time, she also manages to achieve an exquisite sensitivity of line and form.
Her art is rooted in experience and embeds her emotional response to the landscape within the paint itself. She is the most gifted artist that I have seen in recent decades to capture nature and the elements so instinctively and spontaneously. When looking at her work, I too am directly transported into those landscapes; I can almost feel the biting cold wind burning my cheeks as I look out over those snowy hills or hear the skylarks above me as I walk through a cornfield blanketed with poppies. Pascale makes us the participants in this journey, so that we unwittingly provide the human presence that is otherwise absent from these glimpses of uninterrupted natural beauty.
I am lucky enough to own some of Pascale’s work and they are highly treasured paintings in my collection. She is a one of the most talented artists working in Scotland today and a national treasure in the making.”
May Matthews | Managing Director, Bonhams Scotland
“I am always moved when painting in nature because wherever I look I feel hope – the skylarks singing high in the sky despite the stormy weather and the light sparkling like gold dust on the shoreline. I carry my art materials in my trusty trolley, weathered by big hills, rocks, sand and even snow. It keeps all my materials together in one place and saves my back from a heavy rucksack.
My setup may look rather messy when painting plein-air, such that I have been mistaken for a fly-tipper many times! However, I always lay the materials out in the same way so that when working fast and spontaneously they are quick to hand. For me, it is important not to follow a rigid plan but to enjoy the freedom of painting by not overthinking, just trusting in the feel of the moment. I never know what will happen or what image will finally appear on my piece of paper. It is a flow of feelings.
When painting in all weathers there are many practical challenges: the wind blowing my paintings across the Lammermuir Hills, low temperatures freezing my paints, and the frequent appearance of the rain in Scotland. But I am not overcoming these challenges to create the perfect image – all of these aspects are incorporated into my journey and channelled into the responsive marks and brushstrokes that I place. It all comes together as an expression of my experience and feelings in that moment.”
Pascale Rentsch
Beautiful Handa Island 2021, mixed media on heavy weight watercolour paper, 28x76cm (private collection)
Photography by Shannon Tofts, John McKenzie & Sarah Mason
