I grew up in Chester County, Pennsylvania, right outside of Marshallton. I went to Downingtown High School, and then to Coastal Carolina University on an art scholarship. (I was also on an athletic scholarship and played Division 1 soccer there for 4 years which is a very random thing people don’t know about me.)

While there I obtained a B.A in Studio Art, and an M.A in Art Education. After graduation I moved back to the area and got a job teaching art at Villa Maria Academy High School in Malvern. After 5 years of teaching I quit to pursue my dream of becoming a full time artist.

In the beginning I spent most of my time doing pet portrait commissions. I also started painting tiny birds on pieces of reclaimed barn wood for a local antique shop. The birds on barn wood became pretty popular and high in demand which got me thinking about how I could take it to the next level. As much as I loved painting them they were mostly just silhouettes with no attention to detail—which is what I loved about the pet portraits. It was then that I had the idea to do a series of bird portraits.

The first bird portrait I painted was a bullfinch. I dropped it off at a local gallery, (Strodes Mill Gallery in West Chester), and it sold in 2 days. That sale gave me the confidence to do another piece, this time a zebra finch. I brought that to the gallery and it sold same day. That’s when I knew I was on to something, and things took off from there. I started doing local shows and showing in other galleries around the Philadelphia area. After a couple of years I expanded my gallery representation to Maine, Colorado, Delaware, and New Hampshire, and began doing shows all over the country.

Since then and even now my focus has been all about getting better as an artist and continuing to develop my skills. I am mostly self taught in acrylics, which is why I think I’ve had success using them. In college I was trained in oil and watercolor so I had almost no experience with acrylic. I had to develop my own process and way of doing things that felt right to me and catered to my natural abilities.

An enormous part of my painting process is utilizing a wet on wet technique in conjunction with a variety of brushes to get realistic looking feathers. I use a combination of filbert and flat brushes and begin laying them in one feather/stroke at a time. I often add water to the paint when I’m doing feathers because the water allows the texture of the bristols to come through more, and in turn create more realistic, three dimensional looking feathers. Once that is complete I spend a small amount of time doing detail work and highlighting. Even as a child I have been fascinated by the unique energy and spirit of birds. Every species has it’s own set of personality traits, which I try to bring out by painting them in portrait style, and by paying special attention to detail in the eyes. The fun part for me is watching their personalities come to life with each brush stroke.

Rachel Altschuler | #Artcrushxo