Rachel McDonnell grew up in London, Hampshire and Co. Antrim. She now lives with her partner and two children near Stroud, in Gloucestershire. Rachel did a Foundation in Art & Design at City & Guilds Art School, before completing a BA in PPE at St Anne’s College, Oxford, where she won a scholarship. Rachel’s many interests, including environment, feminism, light and pattern, feed into her work. Her work is largely painting based, but when the subject demands can take many different forms and use various media.

Her recent work is landscape based and centred around concerns with environment and our interaction with it, informed by the current global situation and her participation in the Walking the Land group. She has exhibited widely, including solo shows in London, Belfast and the southwest, RA Summer exhibitions the RWA Open (she is a member of their artist network). Rachel won the BSAA award at the National Open Art Competition, and has been shortlisted for the BEEP painting prize (twice), Derwent Art Prize, Wells Art Contemporary, Black Swan Open, and Sunny Art Prize, amongst others.