Bellingham-based artist Rachel May creates evocative oil landscapes and waterscapes that explore the interplay of light, reflection, and atmosphere in the natural world. Working on birch panels prepared with shellac rather than gesso, her technique emphasizes both the materiality of paint and the subtlety of perception, balancing lush, opaque gestures with moments of transparency and depth.

Deeply rooted in the landscape traditions of the Pacific Northwest, May draws inspiration from artists like John Cole, Thomas Wood, Emily Carr, Hart James, and the Canadian Group of Seven. Her work continues this lineage while contributing to the evolving dialogue of contemporary regional art. Each painting is a meditation on place and presence, what she calls “a visual love song to nature.”

May’s distinctive style, gestural, intuitive, and richly textured, offers a fresh voice in Northwest landscape painting. Her practice celebrates the expressive potential of oil on wood, embracing both spontaneity and craft in equal measure.