Rebecca Guay

Rebecca Guay (pronounced "Gay") is a Magic: The Gathering artist that has developed a large cult following since she began in Alliances. 
==Style==
Her artwork has a strikingly classical style that favors heavy use of watercolors.
Much of her artwork appears extremely soft and is considered feminine in form. Her palette and style makes her easily recognizable and lends itself primarily to green, blue and white cards, particularly elves, angels, and faeries. Outside of Magic she has worked for White Wolf, DC Vertigo Comics and World of Warcraft TCG amongst many others.
==Early life, education, and training==
She graduated from the Pratt Institute in 1992 and has since taught an Illustration Master Class at Amherst College. She currently resides in Amherst, Massachusetts with her husband Matthew Mitchell and child Eliette.
==Career==
Her cult following is anything but undeserving with work being chosen as "Best in Show" at Gen Con in 2004, and being elected "Best Artist" in 2005 by InQuest Magazine's "Fan Choice Awards". She has also received critical acclaim for her work in children's books. As a direct descendant of Emperor Charlemagne of France she seems destined for greatness. Many of her fans admire her strong feminine presence that stands out from much of the macho artwork of the modern fantasy landscape. Alongside Melissa Benson and Terese Nielsen, she brings a strong flavor to Magic from the female perspective.
Guay hasn't worked on a set since Magic 2010, but did loan her artwork to <c>Channel</c> for From the Vault: Exiled; additionally, a version of , painted in 1996 and previously only found in an oversized version, finally appeared at tournament size in From the Vault: Angels. In 2016, she also contributed the set of basic lands in Commander 2016 as a guest artist.
She contributed her first new spell art to Magic in ten years in the Mother's Day 2021 Secret Lair (). Her child Eliette Mitchell also contributed a piece in that series. The next year, she also illustrated her first planeswalker character in .
==Controversy==
After her exclusion from Legions ending an unbroken streak of five blocks, it was incorrectly reported that Guay was fired from Wizards of the Coast due her feminine style:
Art Director Jeremy Cranford responded that she wasn't fired - Wizard's artist policy was to use freelancers, who cannot be "fired" so much as not having renewed contracts - but simply not used due to her style conflicting with the style guide for Otaria:
 
This response was not reassuring for the community. The controversy persisted when she was not included in the art team for the subsequent sci-fi influenced Mirrodin block, as it gave the impression that Magic's art direction was moving away from Guay's style permanently. The controversy was parodied in the Un-cards <c>Persecute Artist</c> (illustrated by Guay herself) and <c>Fascist Art Director</c>, and the controversy died down after her work was featured for several blocks after.
==Artist Series==
In 2023, Guay's work was highlighted in the Artist Series: Rebecca Guay.
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==Gallery==
File:ChannelFTV.jpg|<c>Channel</c> - From the Vault: Exiled version.
File:ElvishPiper.jpg|<c>Elvish Piper</c> - Green cards shine around her artwork.
File:GaeasBlessing.jpg| - Perhaps Guay's most iconic artwork.
File:SustainingSpirit.gif|<c>Sustaining Spirit</c> - An early and high-recognizable art.
File:SylvanEchoes.jpg|<c>Sylvan Echoes</c> - Highly impressionistic artwork.
File:VitalizingCascade.gif|<c>Vitalizing Cascade</c> - Similar to Golden Age depictions of nude women & water.
File:WildernessHypnotist.jpg|<c>Wilderness Hypnotist</c> - Guay can get dark, despite her normal style.
==References==
==External links==
*The Art of Rebecca Guay - Official Site
*Unofficial Rebecca Guay Gallery
*The Magic Artwork of Rebecca Guay - Massive 3 Part Retrospective on her Magic Artwork
*Rebecca Guay's Books - Amazon listing (illustrated and authored)
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