At her first London exhibition in June 1980, Rachels father, Ben Nicholson, commented on Still Life on Navy Blue, 1979: I had never realised she could paint so well. I would have been happy to have painted that one myself. With the daunting heritage on her fathers side of two generations of Nicholson artists, &, as the daughter of Barbara Hepworth, a famous sculptor, Rachel freed herself from the anxiety of influence & created a distinctive & unmistakable style of her own.