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Rachael Raymond is a local prolific artist from Bellingham, Washington originally from West Virginia.  She began painting with acrylics and oils circa 2004 as a focus and career path as a prerequisite for college curriculum. 

 

She put down her artistic journey in search of a more traditional career path, influenced by the surrounding practicality of a blue collar profession in the hills of Appalachia.  She sought out grounding and healing practices with her Physical Therapy education.  Healing arts in movement and medicine helped her physically understand health.  Nature always seemed to recharge her spiritually and mentally.  When she decided to move across the country to Washington in 2022 with her husband and young son the evergreens, the Salish sea, the shimmering lakes, and bursting sun rays through the trees in the Pacific Northwest brought about new inspiration.  Nature became her church, a connection to a force greater than her and she began trying to capture this feeling on canvas.  

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She was inspired to pick up the brush once again after nearly two decades.  She wanted the feeling of nature's nurture even on cold winter nights when she was stuck indoors.  The feeling she hopes to evoke in her paintings is the same therapeutic reaction that happens when one steps outside into an open forest and feels the grounding force of nature.

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Her paintings often focus on light in darkness: light through the dark forest in the early morning hours; sunset/sunrises over the vast sea; glitter of moonbeams across the lake.  Showing that if we stay present, we can choose to let the darkness be, but draw our attention to the tiny blessings that exist all around us whether we chose to see them or not. It is a matter of perspective and mindfulness. This is the essence of spiritual healing and it has been the missing link to her journey in holistic medicine.  

 

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