LOCAL artist Rachel Toll and her 18 year-old daughter, Eliza, are celebrating having both been selected as finalists in the prestigious “Wildlife Artist of the Year” competition.  

Rachel, who lives in Coleford, is already an award-winning professional watercolour artist.  But for Eliza, who went to Queen Elizabeth’s School in Crediton and has just completed a Fine Art Diploma at Exeter College, this is the first competition she has entered.

The “Wildlife Artist of the Year” is an international competition attracting entries from some of the most talented artists around the world, who come together to celebrate the beauty of the natural world.

This year it included 1,290 entries from 46 countries. 

“We have painted together since Eliza was little,” says Rachel. “I am so thrilled, and proud that we shall get to show our work together at the prestigious Mall Galleries, what a place to exhibit for the first time!  A real dream come true.”

Rachel is a self-taught artist, who worked for 25 years as a nurse for people with learning difficulties, before turning her talent for watercolour painting into a full-time career.

Rachel says she gains much inspiration for her watercolours from the landscapes, wildlife and coasts of Devon and Cornwall.

Eliza is planning to study Drawing at Falmouth School of Art.

Rachel and Eliza’s gorgeous underwater paintings will be exhibited in the Mall Galleries in London from July 1 to 6.

Both paintings can be bought as prints via Rachel’s website: https://www.watercoloursbyrachel.co.uk/collections/prints .