Rachel (Rusti) Warner grew up on a cattle ranch near Whitefish, Montana. As a teen she moved to Havre, Montana, a small railroad town, located between the Chippewa-Cree and Assiniboine Indian reservations. This experience had a profound impact on Rachel's interest in Native American customs and spiritual philosophies. While enrolled at the Flathead Valley Community College, Rachel had the opportunity to study Renaissance Art History in the northern cities of Italy under the instruction of professor John G. Rawlings. Due to this life expanding experience, the artist continues to stay connected with European art, culture and the Italian language. In 2000, Rachel completed her B.F.A. at Montana State University in Billings and began her career in fine art shortly after graduation. Rachel is inspired by many of the great oil colorists throughout American and European painting history, specifically; Inness, Redon, Mancini, Whistler, Corot, Pissarro, and Monet. Her greatest artistic influence is the Livingston, Montana painter Russell Chatham. The slang term 'tonalism' has been tossed around in recent years and it is very often associated with the quiet harmonies dispatched in the palettes of this oil painting master. Rachel considers herself a student of all of the great naturalist painters and a lifetime apprentice of Russell Chatham.