Watercolor Painting and Magic: Rachel Byler

Rachel Byler is an artist who creates a fantastical artistic watercolor painting that takes the viewer and sends that to a fantastical place.

I’ve always been drawn to fantasy. If you follow anything else I do, you have probably been able to deduce that I am drawn to things that recreate the world entirely, such as Tolkien or Frank Herbert’s work, or things that hint at an extraordinary world hidden beneath the mundane grind of our own lives. This is probably why I am drawn to art, because it focuses one on the detail of the world, a single snapshot in many cases, and it presents that snapshot as the artist sees it. Those in the school of realism seek to make their work mimic the world as closely as possible. Artists such as Norman Rockwell, Edouard Manet, and even Chuck Close create realistic images. But many other artists seek to bend  or represent abstract reality in their work such as Salvador Dali, Frida Kahlo (she has a special place in my heart), Man Ray, Antonio Berni, and Piet Mondrian.

This week’s artist falls into the second category. I was drawn to her work because of  its deep fantasy feel. In my own opinion, all her work has a dreamlike quality. Even her watercolor painting that is simply representational of reality have a softness to them that makes the viewer believe he has woken up in a dream-scape, and in those pieces where she seeks to explore fantasy more fully, she has recreated the world entirely, whether she does this by having a galaxy or whales in a bottle, by recreating Hogwarts from J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter, or (my favorite) by having those aforementioned whales swimming in the clouds rather than the ocean. By embracing fantasy in her work, I believe she embraces what makes art great for both the creator and those that experience it: play. And by choosing water-color as her medium, she has brought even her most realistic paintings into that a dream world. Here are a few of her works.

After majoring in art education with the plan to be an art teacher, Rachel came to the realization that she found the most joy in the act of creating, and decided to take a risk on her own artwork. Drawing her inspiration from fantasy worlds  and nature, she now works as an artist full-time, and seeks to bring a bit of the magic she experiences in the world to the viewer . You can check out more of Rachel’s work and support her by checking out her Etsy, Instagram, Facebook, and her website, The Colorful Cat Studio.