Her Story

Born in Dundee, a small riverside city In the east coast of Scotland, Rachel was a ‘daydreamer’, ‘head-in-the-clouds’, ‘figuring out her own reality’ kind of human girl.

“sadly, I wasn’t inspired by the city where I grew up, it was old and industrialised with grey concrete blocked buildings; colourless in fact (thankfully this is now slowly changing)

I often chose to go inside my head and create colourful worlds that i would rather live in.

I did, however, find great Inspiration in Scotland’s nature, folklore and mysticism … some of the most unique in the world.

Our national animal is the unicorn after all!

We have many lochs where the fairies live and a local dragon!

Beautiful hillsides, mountains and valleys that will leave you speechless and the colours of our sunsets inspire the soul!-

Needless to say creativity played a predominant part of my life growing up,”

After High School, Rachel enrolled in Dundee’s, Duncan of Jordanstone, College of Art and Design, graduating with a BA Honours in Fine Art.

A little later her love of art and education lead her to obtain a PGDE teaching qualification in High School Art and Design.

“Ive always had a love of both creativity and education so it was a very natural step for me to become an Art Teacher. I did, however, begin to feel a little jaded by the education system and my heart was calling to experience more…”

After 3 years in mainstream teaching, Rachel felt the calling to travel and experience the world. She set off for Indonesia and then followed on to China to expand her horizons and learn more of humanity, culture and what the world had to offer.

…only to later realise it’s what she had to offer the world that truly mattered.

While teaching and travelling, Rachel abandoned her painting and creative expression for some time and this started to weigh heavy on her. She was strongly called back to her purpose while living in China,

“ China, and the special people I met there from all over the World, reignited my creativity, providing me with the opportunity to organise two of my own exhibitions- this really kick-started my realisation that to create is who I truly am;

To abandon my creativity was to abandon my soul.

I promised myself I would never do that again, so here I am today bringing my creativity to you beautiful people around the World!”

Rachel acquired the name, Ruì during her time living and working in China.

Ruì Qiū, was given to her by a local cocktail bar owner in the city of Suzhou in the east of China.

Ruì (瑞 pronounced Rae/Ray) means auspicious, Qiū (秋 pronounced Cho) means Autumn- Auspicious Autumn.

Born in the Autumn- It’s rather fitting!

Ruì uses this name in honour of her special creative journey in Asia.

“I knew I had to create, there has always been a deep knowing that it was part of my soul’s journey and I have spent most of my life figuring out how to share it with the world…”

Be sure to check out the work from her solo exhibitions in China!

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“If what we choose in life is a mirror of who we are then I choose to see worlds where there are colours not yet dreamt of...”.

::Always::with::Love::

Ruì