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Rachel McKean is a Scottish landscape painter driven by a love of fine detail, and drawn to areas where water meets the land. The Isle of Iona is of particular significance to her; during the four years she lived and worked there, she became immersed in island life and the local community, and cycled daily to the beach to explore and paint the shoreline. Rachel’s fondness for detail has led her to paint hundreds of miniatures - mostly scenes of Iona – on the inside of tiny limpet and bivalve shells, and in 2023 she won the Elizabeth Meek Award from the Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers.
Now based in Edinburgh, Rachel returns to Iona through her work and continues to explore the tiny variations of an island landscape so quickly altered by the tides, the weather, and the shifting sands. There is a meditative aspect to her work and how Rachel closely examines nature – often working from a point on the canvas and allowing the image to grow outwards, a fleeting moment becomes captured through her time-intensive process of rendering it in acrylic paint. Rachel’s artworks are a celebration of a location which she loves: an island swept by the full force of nature’s elements. |
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C.V.
Education:
2008-2013 Edinburgh College of Art MA (Hons) Fine Art
Awards
2023 The Elizabeth Meek Award (Royal Miniature Society of Painters, Sculptors & Gravers)
2013 The James Cumming Award for Draughtsmanship (RSA)
2010 The Andrew Grant Bequest and Scholarship Award
Group Exhibitions:
2023 Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors &Gravers Annual Exhibition, Bankside Gallery, London
2021 Royal Society of Miniature Painters and Gravers 125th Anniversary Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London
2019 Royal Society of Miniature Painters and Gravers Annual Exhibition Mall Galleries, London
2018 Paintings and Prints of Iona Iona Gallery & Pottery, Isle of Iona
2018 Iona Craft Shop Art Auction Online Auction
2017 The Royal Society of Marine Artists Annual Exhibition Mall Galleries, London
2016 The Royal Society of Marine Artists Annual Exhibition Mall Galleries, London
2015 Rachel McKean, Heather Raeburn and Melanie Williamson Bon Papillon, Edinburgh
2015 Paintings and Prints of Iona Iona Gallery, Isle of Iona
2014 FBA Futures: an exhibition of paintings by 21 selected UK Art College graduates, Mall Galleries, London
2013 Royal Scottish Academy Open Exhibition Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
2013 Festive Exhibition The Ormiston Institute, Melrose
2013 Thomson’s Tower Festival Exhibition Thomson’s Tower, Duddingston
2012 Festival 5 Bon Papillon, Edinburgh
2011 Bridges and Barriers Universität der Künst, Berlin
Other
2014 RBGE Certificate in Botanical Illustration: Distinction
Press
'Psychedelic Safari: Edinburgh College of Art Degree Show 2013', The Skinny
'Close Up and Personal', Broughton Spurtle
Education:
2008-2013 Edinburgh College of Art MA (Hons) Fine Art
Awards
2023 The Elizabeth Meek Award (Royal Miniature Society of Painters, Sculptors & Gravers)
2013 The James Cumming Award for Draughtsmanship (RSA)
2010 The Andrew Grant Bequest and Scholarship Award
Group Exhibitions:
2023 Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors &Gravers Annual Exhibition, Bankside Gallery, London
2021 Royal Society of Miniature Painters and Gravers 125th Anniversary Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London
2019 Royal Society of Miniature Painters and Gravers Annual Exhibition Mall Galleries, London
2018 Paintings and Prints of Iona Iona Gallery & Pottery, Isle of Iona
2018 Iona Craft Shop Art Auction Online Auction
2017 The Royal Society of Marine Artists Annual Exhibition Mall Galleries, London
2016 The Royal Society of Marine Artists Annual Exhibition Mall Galleries, London
2015 Rachel McKean, Heather Raeburn and Melanie Williamson Bon Papillon, Edinburgh
2015 Paintings and Prints of Iona Iona Gallery, Isle of Iona
2014 FBA Futures: an exhibition of paintings by 21 selected UK Art College graduates, Mall Galleries, London
2013 Royal Scottish Academy Open Exhibition Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
2013 Festive Exhibition The Ormiston Institute, Melrose
2013 Thomson’s Tower Festival Exhibition Thomson’s Tower, Duddingston
2012 Festival 5 Bon Papillon, Edinburgh
2011 Bridges and Barriers Universität der Künst, Berlin
Other
2014 RBGE Certificate in Botanical Illustration: Distinction
Press
'Psychedelic Safari: Edinburgh College of Art Degree Show 2013', The Skinny
'Close Up and Personal', Broughton Spurtle