Painter. Born in Falkirk, Rae trained at the Edinburgh College of Art (1961-65) and, as a teacher, at Moray House College of Education. She taught at Ainslie Park School in Edinburgh (1968-9) and Portobello High School (1969-72) before taking a lecturing position at Aberdeen College of Education (1972-4). The bulk of her teaching career was spent as Lecturer in Drawing and Painting at Glasgow School of Art (appointed 1975).
In 1983, Rae became President of the Society of Scottish Artists and she was appointed a Member of the Royal Fine Art Commission for Scotland in 1995. She was elected an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy (1980), a full member of the RSA in 1992 and a Royal Academician in 1996. She was awarded a CBE in 1999 and received an honorary degree from Napier University (Edinburgh) in the same year.
Her style is abstract, with the use of strong colours and a range of materials. Her works include Mountain Pass and August - Sierra de Ronda, watercolours produced while she was in Spain, Black Pyramid in oil, Winter Sea at Altandhu, Mull Ferry and Late Harvest - Tuscany, a 'mixed-media' work. Rae has exhibited internationally and her work hangs in public and private collections world-wide, notably the Whitworth Gallery in Manchester and the British Museum. In Scotland, her work can be seen in the Aberdeen Art Gallery, City Art Centre (Edinburgh), McManus Gallery (Dundee), Hunterian Gallery (Glasgow), Kelvingrove Gallery (Glasgow), MacLaurin Art Gallery (Ayr) and the Perth Museum and Art Gallery.
