Rachel Collins considers herself a representational painter of natural and man-made abstract form.  Although she grew up in a home in New York state where her mother taught oil painting, design and composition, she did not pursue art on her own until she reached her mid-thirties.  By then she had graduated from Middlebury College with a degree in French, obtained a masters degree in library science from the University of Wisconsin, and worked for thirteen years as librarian, archivist and museum curator at the Baha’i World Centre in Haifa, Israel.

Upon her return to the States in 1990, an interest in natural science illustration led her to an internship in the Department of Entomology at the Museum of Natural History. But eventually watercolor, originally taken up as a once-a-week hobby in Israel, became her primary medium.  Her interest in natural science subjects has continued, but with a fine arts focus.  Her work has regularly hung and taken awards in a variety of nationally competitive watercolor exhibits, and she has had solo shows in galleries at art centers, colleges and universities, and other institutions in the Washington, DC area.  She was awarded signature membership in the National Watercolor Society, the Watercolor USA Honor Society, and the Transparent Watercolor Society of America, among others.

Rachel Collins is a juried member of the Torpedo Factory Artists Association, and as such paints regularly in her studio in the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, VA.  She welcomes visitors to her studio. She has taught classes and workshops in watercolor at The Art League School since 1996 and has offered workshops of varying lengths elsewhere in the United States and abroad.