Stella Greig is a contemporary artist who works from her studio in the bayside Melbourne suburb of Mordialloc. She obtained her Fine Arts Degree at RMIT University, and has been a Visual Arts Educator for many years.
However, in the last five years, art and regular exhibitions have rather excitingly become a full-time focus.
Stella’s paintings are intuitive, autobiographical and experimental, and all done in a distinctive and expressive style. They are strongly influenced by the sea (as a metaphor for home) and a connection to vivid childhood memories and emotions.
Here at agos-co, we love stylish and striking art, and often feature Stella’s works in our warehouse photoshoots. We love the pop of colour it can provide to a minimalist home, or the comforting and tactile textures it adds to an already eclectic environment.
So, let us introduce you to Stella Greig – one of our favourite emerging Australian artists…
Style & Technique
Before commencing a piece, Stella Greig starts off the creative process by drawing thumbnail sketches of her observations. She’s highly observant of landscapes, their colour transformations and variations, as well as ambience, light and shade.
She begins with an underpainting, made up of paint and solvent, done with big brushstrokes to cover up all blank space on the canvas.
Once dry, she blocks out primary colour compositions, before adding a multitude of expressive and fluid layers, and finally, patterns, outlines and shapes.
Her paintings can take up to a month to complete and are usually executed in a series, allowing her ideas to be properly exercised and examined.
Influences & Inspiration
Stella draws inspiration from the bay area where she lives and her travels back to her homeland of Greece. It’s the concept of ‘we are only an ocean away’ that Stella touches on in her paintings.
Often exploring the balance between life and immortality, her works have emotional and energetic contexts, brought to life by environmental elements that as haunting as they are revealing. They aim to resonate and captivate.
Influenced by a number of artistic approaches, Stella blends aspects of abstract expressionism, landscape impressionism and colour field painting. Works can be everything from the various shades of one or two colours, to a kaleidoscope of colours, no matter whether they clash or compliment!
Exhibitions & Recognition
Over the past five years since Stella pursued art full-time, she’s had many notable highlights.
In 2019, she was a finalist in the Mornington Peninsula Inaugural Landscape prize by Southernbouy studios. Her work Blue Horizon, Flinders was one of five artworks selected to be produced as a postcard and distributed.
That same year, she took on a project with KingstonArts to deliver an exhibition about her recent travels to the south of France, following in the footsteps of Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Cezanne and Claude Monet.
She was a finalist the online show Of Colour and Light as part of the Women Abstract Artists Biennial in 2020, and a finalist at the St Kevins’ annual curated show in 2021.
In March 2022, Stella had her solo exhibition Memory of Place at her studio, Studio59. It took viewers on a visual voyage along the seas of the Mediterranean that border Greece, and the wild and wooly oceans that embrace Australia.
Through the amalgamation of emotive colour and dramatic compositions, each work within the series distinctively portrays the power and poignancy of the ocean, along with a sense of intense yearning, infinite strength and inner serenity.
For more about Stella Greig’s work and upcoming exhibitions, head to her website, Instagram page or Facebook page.
