When I think of Raquel’s work, I delight in the subtly various straight lines of the river series and other planar images. Here, though, the lines have magically swollen, bent inward, turned round, spread out. The line has become a curve.
A curve fits the heart better, and what we so much need are curves, words, that fill the heart.
Fill it honestly with the truth of what we feel and sometimes, I think, the greater truth of
what we say. Here, Raquel turns from the rigid lines, the swift flowing rivers, and
encounters the quiet marshlands of our feelings. I’m grateful to know such a painter who
could feel the true shape of silence, massive, gentle, thorough, all round.
—Robert Kelly
