Acrylic and Pastel on Canvas
66.9 x 59 in (170 x 150 cm)
Mandy Racine

Mandy Racine was born in Scotland but grew up mainly in the south of England. In 2000, Mandy moved to Mallorca, Spain where she worked as a specialist painter in interior design before realizing her true dream was to paint as a full-time artist. Racine is inspired by the old masters, particularly the composition, colors & fabrics of the Rococo and Baroque periods. Drawing from such masters as Peter Paul Rubens, François Boucher, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, and Thomas Gainsborough, Racine interprets well-known classic paintings by theses artists by adding abstract elements to the composition. In this manner, Racine’s paintings create a bridge from the classical to the contemporary. Racine does not exclusively take inspiration from old masters but she is also inspired by the contemporary artworks of Joan Mitchell, Willem de Kooning, Cecily Brown and so on. Looking at a rendering of Gainsborough’s famous Blue Boy (ca. 1770), for example, is interpreted by Racine with highly expressive brushwork that breathes new life into a familiar image from art history. She is constantly experimenting with textures & layered paint to convey dynamic flow & movement. Racine mainly works with acrylic paint, charcoal, & pastels. Painting in a very expressive way, abstract elements are explored in her figurative subjects, landscapes and the spaces in between.
Mandy undertook a Foundation Course in Art, passing with Merit, and went on to achieve a degree in Fine Art at West Surrey College of Art & Design, UK. Racine’s work has been exhibited extensively throughout the UK, Spain, France & the United States and her paintings are collected privately around the globe. Recently her work has been widely publicized across various media including the New York Times due to her portraits being featured in luxury suites at Fouquet’s New York Hotel. Mandy is proud to undertake collaborations with charities such as 4bySix painting a panel from a London bus to raise funds for homelessness.. For a number of years she carried out book illustration projects with several published.
“Painting takes me to another place, my own special world inspired by the old masters & Baroque and Rococo imagery. I’m inspired by the composition, colour & flow of the works and love to put my own contemporary twist on it, painting in a very gestural, energetic way.”