Rebecca Payne

Degree: BA Honours
University: University of Guelph
Graduation Year: 2018

New Blood Art Commentary

Can you believe these are made with marker pens? The medium of childhood: uncapped, immediate, unforgiving; turned into something luminous, layered, alive. Rebecca Payne draws the world as if it were still possible to see it for the first time. Fields hum, skies pulse, branches seem to breathe.

Her work moves somewhere between recollection and revelation, each line alive with a kind of nervous system. They seem to carry their own inner charge, as if the drawing itself has a pulse, a living current. Every mark feels exact; colour placed with an intuition earned through solitude, attention, a fierce kind of joy.

The images hold the ache of transience, and the act itself – drawing, line by line – feels like devotion. A way of saying: I was here, and the world was this bright.

Artist Statement

My name is Rebecca Payne. I love to approach landscapes with non-traditional mediums and perspectives. I have a fascination with liminal spaces, and the bittersweet feeling of parting with fleeting moments that pass and may never happen the same way again. My current work explores themes of loneliness, awkwardness, and atmospheres within spaces, as well as the mutual exchange between artist and environment.

Solo Exhibitions

(2025) Whimsiboring, Dog-Eared, Paris, ON

(2022) Wishing You Were Here!, 10 Carden, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

(2018) Are you going to respond to that?, Silence, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

Group Exhibitions

(2024) 38th Chelsea International Fine Art Competition, Agora Gallery, New York

(2022) Chateau Orquevaux Open Studios, Chateau Orquevaux, Orquevaux, France

(2022) The Beasting, 44 Gaukel, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada

(2022) Cézanne's Closet, Union Gallery, Kingston, Ontario, Canada

(2021) Temporary Collection, Ed Video, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

(2020) Friends and Lovers, Button Factory Arts, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

(2020) Homecoming, Clubhouse, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada

(2019) Unfamiliarity, Button Factory Arts, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

(2019) PRESS Show, Button Factory Arts, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

(2018) Feelings, VS Studios, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

(2018) Lorem Ipsum, Boarding House Gallery, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

Competitions, Prizes & Awards

(2022) Waterloo Arts Fund Grant

(2021) Cover Artist for Guelph Arts x Royal City Brewing