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ABOUT THE ARTIST
"The darkest dark in the light is lighter than the
lightest light in the dark." Despite a sign proclaiming this visual truth in the
family room of her home where her mother taught oil painting, design and
composition, Rachel Collins managed to avoid art once it was no longer a
required subject in school, until she reached her mid-thirties. By then she had
graduated from Middlebury College with a degree in French, obtained a masters
degree in library science from the University of Wisconsin, and worked for
several years as librarian, archivist and museum curator at the
Baha'i World
Centre in Haifa, Israel.
Upon her return to the States in 1990, an interest in natural science
illustration led her to an internship in the Department of Entomology at the
Museum of Natural History. But eventually watercolor, originally taken up as a
once-a -week hobby in Israel, became her primary medium. Her interest in natural
science subjects has continued, but with a fine arts focus. Her work has hung
and taken awards in a variety of nationally competitive watercolor exhibits such
as Watercolor USA and Rocky Mountain National Watermedia exhibit, and she has
had solo shows in galleries at art centers, colleges and universities, and other
institutions in the Washington, DC area.
She has taught classes and workshops in watercolor at The Art League School
in Alexandria, VA since 1996, and now teaches at the
Yellow Barn
Studio in Glen Echo, MD as well. In 2001-3 she taught an intensive
summer course in watercolor at the
Baha’i Academy for the
Arts in England. She is a member of the Torpedo Factory Artists
Association and as such works in her studio in the
Torpedo Factory
Art Center in Alexandria. From 2003-2005
she served as the president of the
Potomac Valley Watercolorists, a juried organization of watercolor
painters in the metropolitan Washington area.
Rachel Collins lives with her husband in
southeastern Fairfax County, Virginia; they have two adult children. When not
involved in painting, Rachel plays the bassoon with the Alexandria Band of
Northern Virginia Community College and currently serves as chairman of the
Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Mount Vernon, Virginia.
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