Rebecca Rebouché

Painter of wondrous things.

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Winter Wreath Workshop

Craft a timeless preserved wreath at The Salon on Dec. 8! Guided by florist Violeta’s, all supplies + refreshments included. Reserve now!

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New Small Works are available now and until the debut of my new collection on October 19, 2019. The shop will be updated at random with these smaller size studies and alla prima works that have formed through the making of the larger paintings. Shop now at http://rebeccarebouche.com/smallworks

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The Calling is a short film series highlighting individuals who define themselves through a specific medium.

Rebecca Rebouché, naturalist painter, explores elements of the natural world as a metaphor for human relationships and the immediacy of transformative moments. In the film we observe her creative explorations and begin to embody these transformative moments.

The human experience through the natural world.

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This film is dedicated to my younger self, who never knew how to get here. And to young artists everywhere - your fantasy IS reality. I am here to say, it happens through the art. Any story or truth can be told through believing your own fantasies.

I hope you are enchanted. x, Rebecca

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“All humans are creators.” 

I am always looking for new ways to tell a story, so I teamed up with some brilliant and passionate filmmakers to bring you an enchanted piece of short-form cinema starring myself, as the creator. Step into my bucolic world in The Calling, a short film about how I am called to my craft as an artist. This is a teaser for the “longer” short film. Coming soon. 

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You enter the field alone at daybreak. The dew clings to your skin, the fog of dreams still with you as the soft light of a new day illuminates your mind. That’s what it’s like to experience “The Calling.” Coming soon... a short film, a manifesto, a meditation. Featuring Artist: Rebecca Rebouche Director: Kenny Benitez DP: Randy DeLeo Filmed on location in New Orleans and #treehouselouisiana

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Dear Young Artists

I’m thinking about ACTION. About all the excuses we have for not getting projects done or pursuing our aspirations and desires. Such good excuses we have. For me, the projects that get done are two kinds: The ones that pay the bills, and the ones that save my soul. But I’d like to change that, broaden it if I can. How else will I have fun, learn a new language, create when I’m happy, collaborate properly and more? I think it’s worth figuring out. ACTION. Movement. I want that. 

I want to be decisive. Nimble. Quick. Flexible. Energetic. Like a child and a superhero combined. (I’ll confess, I’m currently wrestling with some emotions that have the potential to depress me. I said different words here when I first posted, then thought to edit it.... alas, I know thinking and wishing is sometimes futile. And if I give in I will be dragged down to oceanic depths of longing for what is not. So I may as well be buoyant. On the surface where I can breathe, create, cultivate new neural pathways. The slow long forgetting of severed limbs and sunken ships. Amnesia Diaries.) I mention this parenthetical tidbit to illustrate the compulsion for action. The invitation for inaction arrives in our mailbox everyday if we let it. Depression often arrives in tandem with inaction. 

I know a better use of my heart is to paint, write songs, read, write, act. Create. Pure and simple. And anything that impedes that kind of pure creation and expression is the devil. Anything that keeps me horizontal in my bed, beneath an invisible boulder is the black magic of disease and apathy. It is population control and I’m letting it get me. I’m being a statistic by letting the devil ruin me into mediocrity. I want to cry out... Don’t let the devil ruin you! 

Fight for your right to live, create, thrive and be alive in a moving body and abundant mind. Let every day of your life be a reflection of the fecundity of your internal landscape. Tend to seeds planted and grotesque flowering beasts of intellect. Walk out into your garden each day and cut the largest poppy you can find. Carry it with you until it wilts. Wave it wildly at your opponents. Your enemy is apathy and lethargy and inertia. Show it to it’s death with your rebellion - like a swordsman in the arena. Go into the forest of your mind each night, and emerge each morning with a beast of an idea. Slay it quick. Make it bigger and faster than you ever dreamed possible. Hoist it up like Hemingway’s swordfish - to intimidate all others on deck. All those waiting on shore for “inspiration”, the devil got them already. You’re on the run. You’re making good time every sunrise when you emerge in the armor of your desires, and declare the hunt is on!

No beasts in your forest? Count your blessings to be so pure of thought. You’ve got beasts. We all do. Some of us are just better acquainted with them. Some beasts won’t let us sleep. Some drag us into the past kicking and screaming, while others hurl us into a future unreachable, of invention. Get to know your beasts. Cultivate an edible garden of root vegetables and leafy greens. And wait. First will come little rabbits of insight. Slay your rabbits! (I hope you are following the metaphor.) Get good at rabbit stew, and you’ll be ready when the dragon comes. The dragon is your call to adventure. But if you’re not in the practice of slaying beasts big or small, you’ll snooze on the call. The devil wins again. It’s fine because the world doesn’t need you. You will perish with mountains of regret, and this world we know will not bat an eye. It goes on turning. But I’ll let you in on the secret... You need the world. 

You need the world as your stage, as your teacher and your friend. I can think of no one so evil as not to marvel at a murmuration of starlings or a stampede of wild horses. And just think, this kind of miracle of living theater is happening out there everyday while we sit on our couches plugged in to the IV drip of news and social networks and endless avalanches of emails. Most days we are missing the show, and missing our chance! Practice the splendid rebellion against inertia. Create something today. Then, by all means, wave it wildly - online or otherwise. Your opponent is apathy. And it will know you’ve come to win. 

I have not posted to my blog in some time. The everydayness of life has gotten me. I’ve lost my blogging momentum. But I do miss the days of more active sharing, publishing thoughts like this, and not just in blips on instagram. If this blog brings you any pleasure or insight that you feel is valuable, would you drop me a line and let me know your thoughts? If you receive this blog via email, please reply and say hello if you’ve read this far. I have to pay monthly for a service that sends this blog to your inbox and sometimes I think of canceling that service. If you wish that I wouldn’t, would you let me know? This is an ever-changing digital landscape and I, like everyone, am navigating the unknown as each day passes. I want to speak to you in a language that you can love. Thank you for reading, for cultivating tenderness for the artist’s temperament, and for making your own art, love and life out there in the living theater of the world. 

Sincerely, Rebecca

[email protected]

Images: 

This Love, Rebecca Rebouche

Memory, Rebecca Rebouche 

Bear and Ballerina, artist unknown

Girl with Poppy, Tim Walker

Hemingway with swordfish

Rebouche with The Reeling, painting by Rebecca Rebouche, photo by Zack Smith, New Orleans

Murmuration, Rebecca Rebouche

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Art and Life at Treehouse, Louisiana. 

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Shades of blue. 

There’s something mesmerizing about blue, the color of sea and sky, below us and above us. The color of heartbreak and expansiveness, night and day. 

Throw pillows and all other merchandise is on sale Sunday and Monday: https://society6.com/rebeccarebouche/pillows 

You can get this “Night Balloon” on paper or canvas starting at $140. https://www.saatchiart.com/art/Painting-Night-Balloon/836916/2866778/view

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Behind the scenes of how I create a collection for Anthropologie.

These sketches show some early stages of design I did on a tea collection for Anthropologie some years back. These designs didn’t get produced in the end, but some of the concepts were reworked onto plates and later stationery. The final artwork is polished and created flat and ready to scan, but I always include sketches of how the design might look on the object itself. I try to be sure to let my imagination run wild at the beginning, even if it means we cannot achieve the exact thing in the end, whether that’s a fox-shaped tea cup handle or gold metallic paw feet on the tea pot. These elements help me to remember I’m inventing a whole magical world for people to be enraptured by. That’s what I love about designing products for the home.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little peak into the process. More to come.

Xo, Rebecca

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The changing light at Treehouse, Louisiana - my rural studio. 

I’m developing plans for a renovation/addition at the treehouse, and so I’m thinking a lot about light, shadow and the atmosphere here as I try to settle on important shapes and materials. I want to honor the bones of this place, built by an artist in the 1970′s. Oh, may there be many more illuminating moments here among the trees. 

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Step inside the dreamy world of New Orleans artist Rebecca Rebouche

New Orleans artist Rebecca Rebouche lives in a mythological dreamscape of her own invention.

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The mythology of my Red Balloon. 

My red balloon is a nod to the one in Albert Lamorisse’s 1956 french short film. It is a symbol of longing, friendship, love, loyalty and ultimately impermanence, loss, and the transformation of letting go.  

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If a tree falls in the forest of your mind, does it make a sound?

I often make visual connections between my experiences, my environment and my artwork, and I regret that I don’t get to share them as much as I would like. I confess that I don’t even know if anyone out there is paying attention or noticing these symbolic pas de deux. But even if no one can see the forest for the trees, the symbols in my work become stand-ins for an emotion or version of myself. I step into the scene and experiment with my own life as the stage for entire archeologies that are not fully expressed or mirrored. The headpieces I create become a gesture - the embodiment of these animal stand-ins - and I dance on a stage only the audience of my paintbrush can see. The juxtapositions on canvas become commentary for otherwise forgotten allegories. 

Photos and paintings by Rebecca Rebouche unless otherwise noted.

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Life is a journey from space to sea, from you to me, from truth to lie and back again. This alchemy is a mystery. 

The eclipse passed before our eyes and hearts in America yesterday. The shadow of the moon fell on our daydreams, proving you can sleepwalk in the sun, and dance in crescent shadows in the crescent city. 

I’ve decided to release this painting, Alchemy Tree (pictured: middle) as a print on Saatchi. Click here to review the options on paper and canvas. I hope you enjoy.

As ever, Rebecca

(Photos/collages above: sources unknown. Feel free to comment if you know the artists.)

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This dreamy landscape is back in stock. Consider it visual therapy for your end of summer woes. Available as an 18″ x 24″ pigment print on archival watercolor paper. Check it out.

I’m enjoying the end of summer in New Orleans in my air conditioned studio, working on commissions and products for my online shops. I’d be delighted to wrap up one of these for you. Enjoy. 

Xo, Rebecca

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“IF TO LIVE IS TO EXPRESS THE EMOTIONS OF LIFE, THEN TO CREATE ART IS TO EXPRESS THE LIFE OF EMOTIONS.” -EDWARD WESTON

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Palmettos and patience. Hands that let go. Ripe. Rain. Pluck. Pain. (Photo by @katelesueur 🌿) #theunlikelynaturalist #theunlikelypoet (at New Orleans, Louisiana)