Raenell Doyle

Raenell Doyle grew up in Mesa, Arizona, and has lived and worked in Washington State for decades — currently in Yelm, where she paints daily in her studio. Her artistic career began in 1988 with the discovery of a book of work by the master watercolorist Sondra Freckelton; she worked in watercolor for eleven years before expanding into oil, which is now her primary medium.

Doyle is known for realist still life — the 17th-century Dutch masters and the French still life painter Chardin are her historical reference points, but the most direct influence on her current painting has been intensive workshops with the modern master David Leffel. She is drawn to fine china, pottery, silver, crystal, and tapestries, and works composition out carefully in her mind across days or weeks before setting up. Maintaining a large garden is part of the same practice: she grows most of the flowers she uses, and lives in a state that gives her access to the fresh fruit she paints.