Raine Storey, FRD Designers & Makers artist in residence
There is new energy in the FRD Designers & Makers workshop.
Canadian born artist Raine Storey has become FRD’s latest artist in residence.
Growing up in Kawartha Lakes, in rural Ontario, Raine spent much of her childhood outside.
Her maternal British grandfather, Derek Woodhead, emigrated to Toronto in the 1960s and was the biggest influence on her as a child, spending hours in his studio, visiting galleries and critiquing artworks. She recalls that she ‘would cut his grass in exchange for art lessons!’, describing him as “masterful, so talented, and influenced by the surrealist movement”.
Derek, with a gifted talent for fine art painting never pursued it as a career, but this undoubtedly inspired Raine to carve out her own career in art. In his obituary it was noted “Art was more than a hobby for Derek, it was how he viewed life; as if every day, person and challenge could be viewed as an opportunity to acknowledge the beauty that was present, if only you took the time to capture it."
Raine was educated at Queen’s University of Canada, where she was awarded the Loran Scholarship, Canada's largest undergraduate award. She moved to England to follow in her Grandfather’s artistic footsteps, securing a Masters course at Sotheby’s in Art Business. She found lodgings in Camberwell, home to an artist and his girlfriend who had coincidentally studied on a similar contemporary business course at Christie’s.
Two weeks in to her course she developed a heart condition; Endocarditis, a rare but life-threatening inflammation of the heart's inner lining and valves and spent 3 weeks in critical condition at Kings College Hospital.
Miraculously Raine survived, and despite this unprecedented start to her time in England, she was determined to stay. Deferring her course for a year, she changed direction completely and began work with bespoke fine jeweller Harriet Kelsall, this allowed her to work close to her home in Primrose Hill, and paint in her spare time.
Raine Storey oil painting
Selling her own artwork through commissions and word of mouth, after a year as a jewellery designer she took a leap of faith and became focused on her own work. She was picked up by The ARX gallery, an ambitious 15,000-square-foot contemporary gallery on Brompton Road in Knightsbridge, London. The ARX shared its building with Smallbone, its sister brand. Artists championed by the gallery included Irish landscape photographer David Magee.
During London Frieze week in October 2022, Storey’s work was displayed at The ARX gallery with a solo show dedicated to her grandfather, centred around the surrealist movement.
Naturally other galleries soon took interest, and in a high-profile collaboration with The ARX Gallery she became the inaugural summer artist-in-residence at The Sloane Club, just off the King’s Road in Chelsea.
Here Storey created her first-ever sculpture, carving a relief live in front of the club to explore a Renaissance-era discussion over whether painting or sculpture is the superior art medium. “Inspired by her time studying the works of masters like Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci in Rome, her work blended abstract styles with realist elements. Primarily known for her oil paintings, her wider contemporary art style balances the ‘art of omission versus articulation’ and often touches on intellectually rich, deeply emotional subjects.”
Raine affectionately recalls the weeks she spent sitting on the edge of the Chelsea pavement, in such a prominent place where she “developed amazing relationships with local people that regularly passed by, walking their dogs, or children, or going to work”. They got to know her and would come by the check on progress, bringing her “gifts, flowers and food” and always stopping for conversation. She goes on the describe how this tenure developed her love of sculpture, “a really immersive art form”.
The ARX gallery eventually closed, by which time she had already found a new studio space in Notting Hill, where her London studio remains, describing it as her ‘painting studio’.
Gillian Jason Gallery,in London’s Fitzrovia, now regularly takes her work. It is the first and only gallery in the UK to solely champion female-identifying artists from across the generations to present engaging exhibitions about the most resonant ideas of our time.
Raine also has a London based talent agent who manages collaborations. She has worked with luxury brands, such as Bulgari and The National Gallery.
“Raine Storey is recognised for her expressive, texturally rich paintings that intertwine realism and abstraction.”
In sharp contrast to her life in London, her husband’s parents live close to the rural town of Sherborne in Dorset; a place they would visit often from London. She persuaded her in-laws to allow her to repurpose an old shed in their garden as her ‘sculpting studio’. So now she splits her time between London and Dorset, and has just taken on the lease of a house near Bruton, Somerset with its own space for her to work.
FRD Designers & Makers have always championed artists, working closely with designers and sculptors has allowed us to develop and make work across many media. We design and make for interior designers, period homes, architects, artists, and well-known brands to develop ideas and interpret a brief that ultimately results in exquisite metalwork. Whether for lighting, furniture, garden ornament or sculpture, we can manipulate metal in infinite ways.
Raine’s driving passion is design, and she confesses that “when it comes to creating things in any type of material, she feels compelled to learn about it”. So when approached to work in the bucolic Dorset countryside, to learn about bespoke metalwork, a totally new medium for Raine, she felt it was too good an opportunity, allowing her the freedom to challenge herself and for her mind to create. She goes on to say that she “finds bespoke metalwork similar to fine jewellery”, something which she had experience working with, “there is a functionality to both”. Having already designed a set of dining chairs with another metalworker, she had a basic understanding of how metal works.
So taking up the position as ‘Artist in residence” she has embraced all areas of metalwork; working in bronze, brass and copper, sculpting, casting, welding, machining and soldering. Left to her own devices, but under the careful support of the workshop team, they assist with health and safety, which alloys work together and how to use machinery.
Raine is a quiet, confident artist that has embraced a new way of working with enormous ease. She has not imposed her ideas on the team, but quietly sits in the workshop sculpting a piece ready to be cast and manipulated. She has brought a calm and understated energy to FRD Designers & Makers. Francis confesses that he is “enjoying the creative conversation enormously”. Raine and Francis talk endlessly about her ideas, tapping in to Francis’ immeasurable knowledge of bespoke metalwork, what will and won’t work, how to get the best results, and whether her ideas will actually work!
She is working on a specific piece ready for a London exhibition in 2027. Taking inspiration from the wisteria clad buildings in London she is confesses to “being infatuated by wisteria,”. It will result in a piece that represents a harmonious juxtaposition of nature with a manmade object, showing “how nature and fabrication can come together”.
Known for its emotionally deep subject matter with intellectually clever compositions, Raine’s work across all mediums is an expression of how she is personally evolving as an artist as each opportunity presents itself. Often reflecting the period she went through when ill, realising first hand that you cannot control things, her art is rooted in materiality, yet layered with narrative, wit and emotional depth.
Her pieces feel both technically assured and emotionally immediate, bridging the gap between classical influence and contemporary expression. Using painting, printmaking and sculpture, weaving together traditional techniques and experimentation with a distinctly personal voice, Raine is a very welcome addition to the FRD Designers & Makers workshop.