A life as vibrant as the art. Colorful, creative, engaging. Those adjectives are equally apt for the art and the artist. Rachel's brothers and sisters remember her painting from her youngest days, not so much an avocation as it was simply a part of who she was.

The next step for Rachel was writing of her many travels across Europe, Asia, South America and our own continent for national magazines and other publications. Ever the opportunist, Rachel parlayed this into ever more fantastic vacations. What started out as bus trips across Kansas or Georgia soonbecame cruises in Alaska and along the Danube. Of course quite often that travel bug intersected with her true artist self.

The first book, A Celebration of Art, highlighted Rachel's seminal trips to San Miguel, Mexico. The art travels did not start or stop there. Rachel traveled several times to Viterbo, Italy to take art classes in the country where the Renaissance began. And regularly she would take shorter trips through New England, painting or sketching one familiar scene in Truro, Massachusetts a half dozen times.

Decades of taking and teaching art classes, attending studio workshops and working with mentors took Rachel all over the North Shore. Oil paintings with real depth depicted coastlines of Gloucester, Ipswich, Rockport and of course Beverly. Other outdoor scenes are instantly recognizable: Bass Rocks, Lynch Park, the Rockport Quarries.

Now sit back and soak in Color & Charcoal, a dynamic journey around the world and through time. Your eyes will be treated to vivid and vibrant colors which seem to illuminate the soul of the artist, as well as the things which Rachel observed.