Rachel Heller

Rachel Heller focuses on life drawings: figures without vanity or pretension. Her drawings, although impressionistic, have intense realism due to the solidarity and weight that they express whether nudes or landscapes. The power of this body of work is its ability to convey innocence and honesty within sincere and natural expression. Rachel was born with Down's Syndrome but this has never stood in the way of her formidable powers of self-expression and her command of imagery and colour. Her work stands on its own as a body of endless inventive imagination and skill. Heller has had several one-person exhibitions, her first at John Jones in Finsbury Park when she was only twenty-two, which attracted much enthusiasm and praise. Rachel studied at The Prince's Drawing School (now the Royal Drawing School) and has attended summer schools at Slade School of Art as well as completing a foundation course and a diploma at Byam Shaw School of Art. Rachel went on to be awarded the Hugh Casson Drawing Prize at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 2006.