About the Artist
Rachel Harris is an impressionistic landscape painter using oils, pastels or gouache.
Landscape painting
I am an impressionistic landscape painter. I like to paint alla prima—a painting done in one session and in spontaneous style. I paint with various mediums, such as gouache, watercolor, or pastel. My process begins with a loose underpainting and then continues to become representational.
Education
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Graphic Design, Savannah College of Art & Design (1996).
Bachelor of Science, Management, University of Maryland, Heidelberg, Germany (1988)
After art school, I was a graphic designer for newspapers and I performed freelance work. After retiring from the Georgia Air National Guard as an Intelligence Operations Sergeant, I worked as a cleared artist at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and defense contractors. On my spare time, I attended painting classes.
Since 2015, I’ve lived in the Tampa Bay Area and enjoy coastal scenes. I admire the tropical paintings by Winslow Homer and John Singer Sargent and I am influenced by the Impressionists.
Shows, Awards, Honors in Florida
2025
Tarpon Springs Fine Arts Festival
Quick Draw Exhibit (Open), Forgotten Coast en Plein Air
Honorable Mention, Brooker Creek Plein Air
Oldsmar City Hall
2024
2nd Place Quick Draw (Open), Forgotten Coast en Plein Air
Moccasin Lake Plein Air Art Festival. Clearwater
2023
Dakota Pastels Award of Merit, “Possibilities in Pastel” Pastel Society Tampa Bay. Stirling Art Studios & Gallery
“Beauty of Tampa Bay” Pastel Society of Tampa Bay. Dunedin Fine Art Center
“Paint and Photo Tarpon Springs Plein Air” Tarpon Springs Art Association
2022
1st Place, Plein Air Event” Brooker Creek Preserve/Creative Pinellas
I am an Air Force Retired Reserve. Intelligence Operations Sergeant.
