Rachel Busch Obituary, Death – Rachel Busch, a printmaker, died on November 29. Rachel (60) was a member of Artists At Home and sold her art every summer with Lucy Strathon. She appeared in the Clayton Hotel presentations of The Chiswick Calendar. Rachel worked as a printer. Voysey’s Curves, one of her prints of Voysey House in Chiswick, was chosen for the Scarborough Museum Trust’s archive. “I’m inspired by the surrounding architecture,” she wrote. “These well-known structures are occasionally overlooked. I wanted to take a moment to admire them, to study every curve, brick, corner, and cranny, and to endeavor to imbue architectural beauty into every print I made.
Howard Heather, who shared her enthusiasm for railways and Britain’s industrial heritage, greeted the annual Artists At Home weekend invasion with calm. Her illustrations contained tube and train stations, as well as engineering features. Each architectural project began with her visiting, drawing, and photographing a building or site at various times of day and night. A sketch evolved into a comprehensive drawing, which she transferred to lino or cardboard before cutting, inking, wiping, and masking. She burnished each print with a wooden spoon. Her most recent prints were black-and-white photographs of Kew Gardens’ Palm House, which were on exhibit until a few days before she died.
Rachel has previously illustrated. After graduating from Maidstone College of Art, she worked as a freelance illustrator for nearly 25 years. Rachel discovered The Fry Gallery in Saffron Walden and was intrigued by the ‘Great Bardfield Artists,’ particularly Edward Bawden, Eric Ravilious, and Sheila Robinson. She enrolled in a short printmaking course at The Curwen Print Study Centre near Cambridge and hasn’t looked back since. The Royal Academy selected one of her pieces for their 2018 Summer Exhibition and has nominated others for 2019. Her work can be found in many private collections, including mine, as well as the Department of Health, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and many BBC Books. or Japanese baren, to create one unique print at a time – “made with care, passion, patience, and delight!”