Michael Rainsford

Michael Rainsford is a visual artist based in the west of Ireland. His practice is rooted in place: slow looking, walking, and working directly with local materials. Recent works are made with earth pigments and wax on paper, often developed outdoors before being resolved in the studio.

Rainsford frequently engages the landscape itself within his process, including rubbing local soils into unstretched canvases he calls “earth blankets,” to carry the physical presence of site into the finished work. He has lived in the west of Ireland for over twenty-five years and is drawn to mountains, stones, and boglands. In 2024 he was selected for Messums’ online exhibition Emerging Landscape Painting Today. He is a member of INTERFACE, an artist programme in Connemara where art and science intersect. Rainsford has also translated his language of place into design with Christopher Farr, including the rug Earth Matters.