Over her 13-year practice, Michelle Rawlings has enamored collectors and critics alike with her intimate canvases, exhibited in galleries and museums from Los Angeles to Tokyo.
Dallas-born artist Michelle Rawlings says her portraits of Jane Eyre convey a “feeling of aloneness and mystery” that she deems just right for the reflective season of winter.
Tony Krash
And no wonder — Rawlings’ feminine imagery has an instant intimacy and emotion that ring true to anyone familiar with the private world of young women. Mining the same romantic territory as director Sofia Coppola, she has previously used ballet dancers, Chanel couture runway shows and fashion photography as jumping-off points for her meticulously crafted canvases.
For her current one-woman show at James Cope Gallery (Rawlings’ first since 2023), she turns her eye to a classic heroine of page and screen. The 2011 movie adaptation of Jane Eyre, starring Mia Wasikowska, intrigued the painter, even if the only subject that mattered to Rawlings was Jane herself.
“I’ve never painted from a film before,” Rawlings explains. “I do a lot of research and gather images I’m interested in, and I was thinking about more somber interior spaces that you would see in 18th- or 19th-century paintings. The scenes were so beautiful, and they reminded me of the type of mood I was looking for.”
Rawlings’ portraits show Jane sewing, reading or contemplating her uncertain fate. In each she occupies “an interiority and psychic space” belonging to her alone, Rawlings says. “One has to try to understand and reach through the image.”
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One of Michelle Rawlings’ Jane Eyre portraits on display at James Cope Gallery.
Evan Sheldon
After one of the works from the series was auctioned off at a recent event benefiting the Dallas Museum of Art, the remaining 12 portraits on view convey what Rawlings calls a “feeling of aloneness and mystery” that she deems just right for the reflective season of winter. Dreamlike and calm, they enchant the viewer as much as they remind their maker of “the importance of staying close to your heart and passion.”
Details
“Michelle Rawlings” is on view at James Cope Gallery, 4885 Alpha Road, Suite 120, Farmers Branch, through Jan. 3, 2026.
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