Rachel Howard (born 1969) is a British artist. Early life and career Rachel Howard grew up on a farm in Easington, County Durham. She attended The Mount School, York a Quaker school from the age of sixteen and the stories, concerns and questions raised by religion have had a profound effect on her work throughout her career.I went to a Quaker school and it had such a powerful effect on my life that I've carried it with me ever since. I'm an atheist now but Quakerism was the first time as a child I came across a religious structure that made some sense … the silence, contemplation, the acknowledgement of our responsibilities not just to each other but also to nature, they are pacifists. I was quite unruly as a child — Quakerism makes you take responsibility for your own actions without being heavy-handed, it's subtle and beautiful. The Quakers believe in celebrating the light within, it'll come as no surprise that James Turrell is a Quaker, for example.Howard graduated from Goldsmiths College, London, in 1991. In 1992, Howard was awarded the Prince's Trust Award to support her art practice. She received the British Council Award in 2008, and in 2004 was shortlisted for the Jerwood Drawing Prize. She had four children in her twenties, which helped her focus in the studio. In 2008 Howard designed the front cover for The Big Issue newspaper. Work While Howard more recently employs oil paint, from 1995–2008 she primarily used household paint Howard allows the paint to separate inside its can so that the pigment and varnish can be used in isolation. The pigment is applied to the edge of the canvas, then diluted and manipulated through the addition of the varnish. Gravity's pull then draws the paint down the canvas. Of her work, Howard says:I'm interested in how we each make sense of the world. In paintings such as Missive to the Mad and Missive to the Sad, I use the grid in varying degrees of degradation and dissolution, building up the ground and then the grid only to knock it back using gravity, turps and gloss varnish, a balance between control and chaos. They are odes to madness and melancholia, the gentle slip and slide of life, what the mind can do and where it can lead you. I think that's why I'm fascinated with religion and human beliefs and what