As a fifth-generation rancher, Rachel Brownlee draws from a lifetime of experience on her cattle ranch to create highly realistic artwork that captures the rugged beauty of the Western lifestyle. After pursuing a career in software engineering, Rachel returned to a family ranch in Nebraska intending to focus on her software company and the ranch, but her self-taught artistic skills took her in a different direction. Her photorealistic style of drawing with charcoal is entirely self-taught. A local librarian encouraged her to enter her work into an art exhibition. Since her work’s debut at the Mountain Oyster Club in 2021, her charcoal paintings have earned her several major awards including the Mountain Oyster Club Best of Show Award in 2021, the Cowgirl Up Best of Show Award in 2023, the Museum of Western Art Roundup and Exhibition Best of Show Award in 2023, and the Mountain Oyster Club Purchase Award in 2023. She was selected as one of Southwest Art Magazine’s “21 Artists under 31” in 2024. She is now represented by Settlers West Galleries, Broadmoor Galleries, and InSight Gallery. Through her work, Rachel honors a way of life that is still very much alive. She lives on her family’s historic cattle ranch in Nebraska with her husband and two children.