Fritz Thaulow

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.

Painting is an art form that has spanned innumerable cultures, with artists using the medium to tell stories, explore and communicate ideas and express themselves. To bring abstract, landscape and still-life paintings into your home is to celebrate and share in the long tradition of this discipline.

When we look at paintings, particularly those that originated in the past, we learn about history, other cultures and countries of the world. Like every other work of art, paintings — whether they are contemporary creations or works that were made during the 19th century — can often help us clearly see and understand the world around us in a meaningful and interesting way.

Cave walls were the canvases for what were arguably the world’s first landscape paintings, which depict natural scenery through art. Portrait paintings and drawings, which, along with sculpture, were how someone’s appearance was recorded prior to the advent of photography, are at least as old as Ancient Egypt. In the Netherlands, landscapes were a major theme for painters as early as the 1500s. Later, artists in Greece, Rome and elsewhere created vast wall paintings to decorate stately homes, churches and tombs. Today, creating a wall of art is a wonderful way to enhance your space, showcase beautiful pieces and tie an interior design together.

No matter your preference, whether you favor Post-Impressionist paintings, animal paintings, Surrealism, Pop art or another movement or specific period, arranging art on a blank wall allows you to evoke emotions in a room while also showing off your tastes and interests. A symmetrical wall arrangement may comprise a grid of four to six pieces or, for an odd number of works, a horizontal row. Asymmetrical arrangements, which may be small clusters of art or large, salon-style gallery walls, have a more collected and eclectic feel. Download the 1stDibs app, which includes a handy “View on Wall” feature that allows you to see how a particular artwork will look on a particular wall, and read about how to arrange wall art. And if you’re searching for the perfect palette for your interior design project, what better place to turn than to the art world’s masters of color?

On 1stDibs, you’ll find an expansive collection of paintings and other fine art for your home or office. Browse abstract paintings, portrait paintings, paintings by popular artists and more today.