​​
​Rachel Ryan - Biography
Rachel has been painting for as long as she can remember. Her father, a lover of sketching and painting, inspired her early artistic journey. One of Rachel’s earliest memories is borrowing his oil paints to create a picture of her Wendy house. By her early teens, she was painting watercolors of the local church and wildlife, selling them in her father’s antique shop in a small Norfolk village. Around that time, one of her paintings—a poppy field—was accepted and sold at the Royal Chelsea Art Society annual exhibition.
After school, Rachel was offered a place at Great Yarmouth Art College, but when her parents divorced, she moved to London to work in a press agency instead. Life took its course—she got married, had children, and later moved to Ireland. Throughout these years, Rachel continued painting, mostly for pleasure. Though she never formally studied art, her passion for learning remained constant. She also worked as a CAD technician in the engineering field, a role that further fueled her love for design—a passion that now flows into the visual identity of her creative world, from her website to her branding and beyond.
For a number of years, Rachel exhibited and sold paintings mainly of local street scenes and the surrounding countryside through The Peoples Gallery in Waterford, alongside a large number of commissioned pencil portraits. Several of her paintings were reproduced as limited editions, and an original painting of Waterford Quays was purchased by the local council and is now part of the city’s art collection.
In 2012, Rachel held her first solo exhibition at the Index Gallery at Waterford City Library, which provided her with the confidence to continue exhibiting across the southeast of Ireland. Her work has since been shown at the Dungarvan Arts Centre, Kilkenny Arts Week, GreenAcres Gallery Wexford, Tramore Arts Centre, and Garter Lane Gallery, Waterford, in addition to her regular participation in ‘Art on the Railings’ in the heart of the Viking Quarter of Waterford City.
In 2018, with their children grown, Rachel and her family moved to Cyprus, where her mother was living at the time. Upon moving to Cyprus, Rachel participated in a small number of group exhibitions in both Paphos and Limassol. However, painting remained a personal pursuit, shared with friends and family rather than for wider audiences.
Over the years, Rachel has explored various genres—landscapes, seascapes, and portraits—but her true passion has always been wildflowers, hedgerows, and meadows. Now, painting full time, her work is focused on capturing the beauty and quiet magic of nature, creating meadowscapes that feel peaceful, dreamlike and brimming with quiet energy. Rachel’s paintings often reflect her deep connection with the landscape around her, inspired by the Cyprus mountains and her travels to the UK and Ireland. Rachel's art continues to evolve as she embraces new ideas, incorporating symbolic elements that invite reflection and transport the viewer to a serene, almost otherworldly place.