Rachel Personett

"Outdoor, Winter Self Portrait" Realist oil painting of the artist, outdoors

2022

Rachel Personett was born in Hawaii, but raised in Colorado. Being the daughter of a pilot, she has always traveled extensively. She has studied part time at the Savannah College of Art and Design, The Angel Academy of Art and finally settled on the Florence Academy of Art, graduating in 2015. In January 2016, she apprenticed under the painter Odd Nerdrum in Norway for eight months. Rachel Personett works strictly from life and enjoys the challenges of painting the ephemeral. It provides the opportunity to travel around the world painting the ever changing people and landscapes. Personett states that, “My mother had studied advertising in college, so she knew a lot about arts and good craftsmanship. She did talks at my elementary school each week and on a different artist. I remember being very moved by the images of Van Gogh and Andrew Wyeth. At the Florence Academy I really liked Sargent, Sorolla, Willard Metcalf, Henri Fantin-Latour and Velázquez. At Odd Nerdrum’s I gained new respect for Rembrandt and was introduced to other Scandinavian painters like Edward Munch, Anders Zorn and Frits Thaulow. I am currently really inspired by the 19th century painters like Monet, Manet and Degas. And more modern painters like Andrew and Jamie Wyeth, Ben Fenske, Daniela Astone, Michael Kline, Marc Dalessio and Dmitriy Permiakov. She has won numerous awards including first place in costume design at The International Thespian Society and the Colorado State Thespians, several awards at The Savannah College of Art and Design, Best Beginning Cast Drawing at The Florence Academy of Art, third place at the 13th Annual Art Renewal Center Scholarship Award and second place at The World Wide Kitsch 2016 Annual Competition. She has also been accepted into the Hudson River Fellowship and also the Alpine Fellowship in Loch Ness.