Rachel Garrick

My interest in art began in the 5th grade with an orange crayon when I copied Ruben’s “The Head of a Boy.” I was given the opportunity to create several murals for the classroom wall in my Bronx, NY school. In high school, I got involved with stage and fashion art.

I went on to study oil painting with Isaac Soyer and Eleanor Lust along with anatomy, drafting and the mechanics of commercial art. Later in life my education continued at the Art Students’ League and joined several art organizations, which allowed me to attend the World Conference on Women in Beijing, China as a female artist. I have also designed some pamphlets and menus for clients.

My involvement with RIVAA gallery has given me the freedom to branch out into other painting mediums and I have rediscovered my childhood interest in water colors and pastels. Portraits and capturing people’s expressions has remained my main desire, but I have also developed a love for painting horses and depicting the strength in their bodies contrasting with their beauty as they run.

My travels through the beautiful shores of southern California and lovely countryside in Italy has also inspired landscape work such as ROW OF TREES IN MONTECATINI (watercolor, 7 x 10), where I depict the trees as towering, mighty and elegant, creating shadows of darkness among the pastel colors of the city in the rain.