Grace Engel
Artists Profile
. My Work
I am currently self employed MD of Grace Engel Arts .I have been creating art and exhibiting since 1990 and I received a BA (hons) in Fine Art at University of West Of England in Bristol in 1996. In my artistic practice I run a portrait business I accept portrait commissions- can work from life or photos- and also accept Mural commissions: I have painted community and private murals. I produce hand painted cards as well as publishing some of my larger paintings as cards through the Out Of Print Art CO-OP in Bristol.
I also Teach Painting and drawing for beginners and improvers , I have experience teaching ages 4 through to 64.,I am trained and have taught courses to adults since 2007; .Much of what is shown in my portfolio may be interpreted as it would be if one were to find oneself in a room full of people, the story looks different depending on where you look and who is doing the looking. My Inspiration: The life interests that inform my work arise 1st from my being in the country for all it's organic forms and textures within nature and elements experienced through the body, then from the city for all it's intense human interaction as well as the textures and accidental patterns found in the roughness and decay of walls and old bill board postings: the happy accidents within the physical layering mirror to me the layering of individual histories and journeys: aspects of human stories, my own and others I have been touched by . In my portrait work I open to something special in each person I paint or draw and try to convey the character behind the visual image as much as I can. I am continuing to explore how situations, environments, belief systems and the elements influence human nature and my interests translate in my current choice of subject , with the emphasis often on the poetry and symbolism of human interaction with each other and the environment. I feel strongly that in practice, depicting the exploration that humanity is on visually can affect change and transformation in real ways . I am joyfully playing along with illusion by making an appealing image, but hopefully with some powerful resonance that goes beyond the superficial. Much of my work is coming from a very early enjoyment of art when I was a small child which I was very lucky to have encouraged and never have snuffed out. I am beginning always and yet coming to recognise more and more that the space from which creation occurs is closely linked to work that I have done around awareness and the body, and almost always from a point of stillness even if seemingly in chaos the eye of the storm is always at hand. My heartfelt wish is to share this , what it feels like and how to enable the artistic channel in my students,as well as the connection that i achieve with the subjects of my portrait with skills , tools and technique, providing the background to the important work which is to find a voice that has a vibrant and authentic presence.
