Raquel Alvarez Sardina was born in Barcelona. At the age of seventeen she joined Academia Leonardo da Vinci and in 1986 she started a degree in Fine Arts. Whilst doing the degree she attended academia Sant Vicenç and Boter/ Santalo and completed a drawing course at 'Academia Lorenzo de Medici' in Florence. After graduating in 1991 she came to England where she studied a Masters Degree at Cardiff University.
Drawing influence from the Master painters of the spanish Tenebrism of the Barroque period she has developed a personal contemporary style to represent beauty. Her painting method is slow, precise and full of feeling. It is as though she wants us to slow down and contemplate a few simple objects in silence. She spends a considerable amount of time setting the composition; each fruit or object is placed carefully in the space. Sketching is useful to decide, sometimes by a matter of millimetres where every fruit or leave should be. When she is happy with the composition she draws directly onto the canvas with a brush.
Her work has been exhibited in Spain, England and United States. Raquel now lives and works in The Cotswolds.
In 2016 she was elected Member of the Society of Women Artists (SWA) and HRH Princess Michael of Kent presented her with The President and Vice Presidents' Choice Award for the Best Work of Art in the Annual Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London.