This Saskatoon artist can turn you into a fashion icon

Rachael Meckling has had a passion for drawing since she was a little girl.

Her fashion portrait style reflects the type of drawings she’s done since she was an artist as a child, but now she makes a career out of it.

“I mostly do live portraits and I have a portrait studio in Saskatoon,” Meckling told CTV News.

“But I also do large scale paintings which are Ink paintings,” she said.

Meckling even sat down during the interview to create a reporter sketch.

“I kind of developed my own style and I’ve developed, my own fashion. I’m not a fashion designer and I don’t sew, but I have collections in my mind and they come out in my fashion dolls,” she says.

Meckling has made a name for herself in other parts of the country with her art, but she says Saskatoon is where she feels safest to create.

Her small studio in an historic building on Third Avenue is very pink. She says the space is French-inspired after a recent trip to Paris.

Meckling leads paint night events for groups and sells her own work.

She was born and raised in Saskatoon — moved away to Ontario for school, then Alberta, but has been back for a few years.

Some of her big jobs have come from corporate connections she made in Calgary.

“I’ve done work at Holt Renfrew, Tiffany’s, Chanel and I did the Sak’s Fifth Avenue opening. I drew guests there,” she says.

A community group in Calgary took notice of Meckling’s work and wanted her to create banners to decorate the streets. They span 20 blocks in the Montgomery neighbourhood, just off the downtown. The same group also asked her to create a mural.

Meckling was commissioned to do an Instagram-able mural for the Montgomery neighbourhood in Calgary. (Courtesy: Rachael Meckling)

“It’s very Instagram worthy, as the buzz word is, and it’s right on the street and people can sit and have a coffee and interact with her artwork,” Marion Hayes, executive director of Calgary’s Montgomery Business Improvement Area told CTV News.

“I’m super thankful to Calgary to have me there so I can live and work there on my own collections. I need to be alone to create in a safe space to create and Saskatoon provides me with that,” Meckling said.

She’s hopeful that her name will catch on and she’ll expand her portrait work to more events in Saskatoon and area.