In May 2020, amidst the global pandemic and a time of escalating ecological crises, Beatrice Zach began an artistic process fueled by both personal and societal uncertainty. Without a conceptual blueprint, she entered her studio and intuitively reached for brush and paint. Turning to shades of blue, she allowed the pigment to flow onto an MDF board. From this immediate, process-oriented action, the first work of the Rain Paintings series emerged.

At the core of these works is water—not merely as a painterly medium, but as an active carrier of meaning. Water dictates flow directions, densities, and interruptions; it follows gravity and reacts to temperature, humidity, and material properties. The artist merely provides the initial impulse and the withdraws. The subsequent progression is subject to physical and climatic conditions. What appears to be chance reveals itself as a visible expression of universal laws of nature.

The Rain Paintings address water as an elementary resource and a symbol of global cycles. Rain, evaporation, and infiltration are fundamental processes that regulate the balance of natural systems, yet they are increasingly falling out of sync. In these works, these dynamics become tangible: flows intensify, structures break off, and traces drift unpredictably. Consequently, the paintings point to the fragility of climatic systems and the dependence of human life on stable environmental conditions.

In this series, water also functions as a connecting element between personal experience and global issues. The works oscillate between internal states and external environmental processes, between intuition and system, and between individual perception and collective responsibility.

For Beatrice Zach, the creative process is a meditative practice requiring time, patience, and attentiveness. Deliberately allowing natural processes to unfold enables a form of inner clarification, standing in stark contrast to the acceleration and exploitation of natural resources.

Within her art-historical exploration, Beatrice Zach found an important reference in the works of Pat Steir. Steir’s engagement with gravity, flow, and chance reinforced Zach’s conviction that artistic processes—much like ecological systems—follow universal laws.

The Rain Paintings invite viewers to perceive water not just as a visual motif, but as a vessel of meaning: as a vital resource, a shaping force, and a sensitive element of a climate system whose stability is increasingly under threat.

 

Acrylic on canvas
109.5 x 164 cm
2025

 

Acrylic on canvas
45 x 60 x 2 cm
2025

 

"Rain (May 2020)"
Acrylic on woodboard
90.8 x 59 x 0.4 cm
2020

 

"Let it rain!"
Acrylic on woodboard
70 x 52 x 1 cm
2021

 

"Not titled"
Acrylic on woodboard
70 x 52 x 1 cm
2021