Rachael Brook
Inspirational Boonah artist, "Rainbow" Rachael Brook, has her own definitive style that reflects her fantastic zest for life. Unable to use her hands because of cerebral palsy, Rachael expresses herself through her art. As Rachael writes: "Since I can remember as a little girl of five, art has been my release and inner strength through my imaginative life where I’m able to excavate images from within myself".
"Excavate" is the definitive word when you see how much effort it takes for Rachael to create her distinctive art works which are colourful, sometimes quirky, sometimes thought-provoking, and always highly-imaginative.
Born in Cairns, Rachael moved to Brisbane with her family at the age of five and attended school at Newfarm. When she was eight years old, her parents bought a property at Wallace Creek in Boonah Shire, where Rachael spent her holidays and weekends.
Art has been part of her life since her early childhood years and, at the age of 18, she took an art course at Brisbane TAFE. Rachael moved to live in Boonah Shire in the mid 1990s.
In 2003, Rachael won second prize in the hotly-contested Oils and Acrylics section of the Ipswich Art Awards, taking the silver from a field of 126 entries with her painting, "The Bleeding Sea". Rachael also won first prize in the Fine Art Portrait Section at the 2002 Boonah Show with her painting, "The Contorted Ballerina".
In 2010 Rachel was announced as a finalist for the Portia Geech Award for her portrait of Michael Zavros.