Rachael Grimm grew up in the northwest of England and moved to the U.S. in 1996, after getting her degree from the University of Glasgow, Scotland, in English Literature and Art History. She trained at the Art Students League in New York from 1996-2000, specializing in figure painting in oil.
Rachael is an award-winning watercolorist and has exhibited her work widely in the U.S. and U.K. Her work has been displayed in numerous fine art publications including Watercolor Artist and The Best of Watercolor magazines. One of her charcoals was selected as a finalist in Strokes of Genius 16: the Best of Drawing Art Competition. Her paintings are featured in an 8-page article and on the cover of the December 2020 issue of Watercolor Artist magazine. Her painting, ‘At the MoMA’ won the Samuel Leitman Award at the American Watercolor Society exhibition in 2025.
In her watercolors and drawings, Rachael is often most inspired to depict simple, everyday things. She feels that the most commonplace things in life are often the most beautiful and timeless. She strives tocapture the feeling of a fleeting moment in time and paints in watercolor because no other medium can capture the effects of light and atmosphere so well.
In addition to watercolor, Rachael loves to use charcoal. Sketching from life has always been a very important part of her practice. She attends life-drawing sessions at the Spring Street Studio in New York and sketches and paints outdoors regularly.
Rachael lives in Larchmont, New York, with her husband, Stephen, and is the proud mother of three grown up children. She considers herself extremely lucky to live on the beautiful coast of the Long Island Sound where there are endless things to paint. She travels frequently with her family and often paints on location. She particularly loves to visit and paint her native England where the sky is ever changing, and the countryside is very close to her heart.
Her paintings are in numerous private collections both in the U.S. and overseas. One of her portraits is permanently installed in the main library at Fordham University, and her three commissioned watercolors of Clare Hall, the University of Cambridge, are on display at Clare Hall and are part of the college’s art collection.
