It started with Bruce and Elfie.

Rachael grew up on a property on the North Coast with cows, horses, dogs and chickens. Her two adopted dogs, Bruce and Elfie, were the first subjects of these portraits, and they're still her best cure for a creative block.

She travels for the animals. She has swum with whale sharks at Ningaloo Reef, met quokkas on Rottnest Island and adopted a reindeer in Scotland. Many of those animals end up as originals on her table.

Each piece is built up from layers of textured and hand-picked papers, cut and placed one at a time, so the colour and grain of the paper does the work a brush would. She holds a Bachelor of Design from COFA and a Master of Education (Art) from UNE.