Acrylic Painting

Teneille Grace

For as long as she can remember, art and painting has been Teneille’s one true love.

Artist Profile

A versatile painter of both dreamy abstracts and more realistic depictions, Teneille’s work aims to tell a story and transform your space into a beautiful sanctuary where you’ll draw inspiration and life from every day.

Working mostly in acrylics, her inspiration comes from life, loves, nature, music and even a simple conversation or thought. The artist’s abstract work aims to delve more into the visceral experience, through the exploration of colour, form and composition. The crisp, smooth edges and brushstrokes are a hallmark of Teneille’s work, and serve as a form of meditation, through repetition and extreme focus to calm an anxious mind. Her more realistic depictions are focused on capturing fleeting moments in time, with a real passion for painting beautiful, Australian birds.

For as long as she can remember, art and painting has been Teneille’s one true love, seeing her through some very hard times while remaining a true and enduring friend. She views this practice as both therapy and storytelling simultaneously, and believes art is for and should be enjoyed by everyone.

Artist Interview

What medium do you work with, and why have you chosen them?

I work in acrylics mostly. I enjoy the convenience of the quick-drying nature of them and the process of layering thin applications of paint on top of one another, allowing me to speed up my somewhat time-consuming painting process.

How does your artwork get from initial concept to exhibition stage?

For my abstract work, I'll draw and play layering shapes on top of one another in Illustrator on the computer and see what feels compelling before moving to canvas to map it out. Having a background in graphic design has definitely influenced my more abstract pieces. I just love colour and how it can influence how we feel.<p><p>For my more realistic artworks, I'll usually start with the story or mood I wish to convey and then will draw out a few compositional sketches on paper. I'll then collage a few reference photos together or take my own photos in order to have a strong starting point to refer back to when I really need to get those poses and tonal values accurate while painting more figuratively. I really have such a passion for painting birds as I just think they are unbelievably beautiful and varied in colour and form. Spotting one in the wild is also a nice reminder to slow down and enjoy the present moment.

Can you tell us a little more about your creative working environment/studio?

I currently work from my spare bedroom (that I affectionately call my studio haha). I'm thankful to have a room solely dedicated to my creative endeavours, however, my dream is to one day have a light-filled seperate studio space on a quiet block of land somewhere. Maybe even have a private garden where I can capture my own photos to use as a reference for all the beautiful birds I paint. One can dream!