Where are you from and where is your Art practice based currently?

I am from Porto, Portugal, I've been living in the rural countryside in the North for 16 years where I have my home and studio 5 minutes away from my home, in a village called Forjães, Esposende.

Do you have a formal Art education or are you Self Taught?

Well, to be honest I should say both, I have a degree in fashion design but before that I studied in an Art school but never finished the degree because I wanted to follow Fashion. After that controversial experience I started painting and never stopped. I never practiced fashion design but it informs my work in many ways.

Where do you look for inspiration? What themes do you find more interesting?

In my life process I’m a firm believer of Self-study and Self-improvement: on my surroundings and everyday places because I’m a result of a series of decisions that completely changed my life. In Psychology and geometric abstraction because I feel that abstraction in the way I talk without words, although words have great importance and relation to my work. Music, especially classical, also has an effect on the way I paint. Finally, the Raw in everything inspires me a lot.

Have any Woman Abstract Artists influenced your work? Which current Artists do you admire?

With no doubt Carmen Herrera, Luchita Hurtado, Helen Frankenthaler, Benedetta Barzini for her style which was her Art, Ellsworth Kelly, Marlene Dumas and her watercolors and Georgia O'keeffe.

Do you identify most with a specific Art Abstract genre?

Yes, geometric with color. Minimal. I love to depict the essence of shape in everything and take the masks off!

Can you tell us about your process?

I have evolved through the years in the direction of self-discipline. I have hours to be at the studio and hours to close. I work during the day and never at night, I have hours and days for Admin and no matter what I allocate closed trunks of time for painting.

I go to the studio everyday and manage two offices. One is the studio, and another is a small intimate gallery where I store and exhibit my work when its ready and clients can come and see it outside of the studio visual noise.

I always write in the morning and have a studio diary to see the evolution of my daily practice, I have a notebook for colors that gives me directions of what colours and brands I’m using or not using.

Usually I work on more than one artwork at the time, although 70% of my attention goes to one of them. I think my work informes itself in conversation and I work in series a lot because of that. I love the idea of opening a path, closing it and everything is said there.

I learned to see clearly what I want to accept and what is a waste of time for me, although it could look great, I treasure my work and work time and especially my energy. I learned to say no a lot and no regrets! I have three major lines of work always in motion. Acrylics, Watercolor and Textile art.

Where can we see your work?

In person, in my studio. In my personal gallery. In my website: gracapazart.com

In my instagram accounts:

@graca_paz_studio (my studio practice)

@gracapaz_acervo (myart room gallery)

@daily_Sketches_and_notes

(My visual diary trough my notebooks)

Also here:

In the Martinhal hotels chain, especially the recent Martinhal Residences in Lisbon,

At Cebola loja atelier: @cebola_atelier_loja

A Livraria do Arquivo in Leiria:

@arquivolivraria

At @trendy_pillows in my Canto collection for Trendy Pillows,

At @postermostra

At @casascaiadas

How has being a Woman affected your Arts career? Any challenges?

I was never affected and in reality never gave a minute of my thoughts and energy thinking about that.

Of course I’m also thankful of living in a culture that enables my dignity as a woman in whatever I choose to do.

I was a young woman and an artist, a wife and an artist, a mother and a artist, a divorced woman and mother of many and an artist, sometimes with difficulties and the normal challenges in life, but I never thought of not doing what I wanted to do.

I always found ways to use my creativity in more challenging moments (like giving workshops) but only until I found that anything done in resistance doesn’t last long.

When I embraced my life as a full time artist, exactly the way I wanted to do it and with respect, everything flows. Doing what we are blessed in this life is a way of service and gratitude.

What advice would you give to other Abstract Women Artists entering the Art world?

All you need is a kitchen table and some discipline and all can be achieved, always! Everything else is an excuse.

Never, never give excuses to not do your Art by saying that you are a mother and don’t have time or resources because that will be a heavy burden in your children's life in the future, great resentment will built up along the years in your family life, all because you did not have the necessary courage to discipline and respect yourself.

Never compare your work to other artists works, explore other artists, look for inspiration, but don’t look to the sides, look to the path ahead of you. Be gentle with yourself knowing that there are always going to be moments of doubt and inner criticism, but that is also part of your story and in time it fades away.

Choose your path in the Art world, even if it is out of the box. Others opinions are just that, honestly, none of it matters when you are consistent in what you do.