Becoming: An artist's first whisper to the world

Here it is.

A Website.

A Blog Post.

A plunge into the deep end where everything feels painfully new and heartwarmingly thrilling. Where brushstrokes and verses meet and "Poetry in the making" becomes so much more. Here I am showing up with pen on paper instead of brush on canvas. Sharing my words to the world instead of just my colours, shapes and textures.

I am Teneal Kotze' (also known as Teneal van Aswegen because I married the love of my life in 2024) artist, painter, storyteller and poet. I am in love with nature. It's where I truly feel at peace and breathing becomes easier. Where the chaos of everyday life goes quiet. I aim to bring these snippets of nature - fields and flowers, trees and butterflies, oceans and fires - back home with me.

St Blaze hiking trail, Mossel Bay

So I can dream and write and travel even when I'm in Pretoria longing for the beaches of Mossel bay.

I've been a creative since forever. I grew up in a family filled with creativity and beautifully hand made, hand crafted pieces. My grandmother (Mom's Mom) had a wedding cake business and she made these intricate wedding cakes. For my one birthday she built me a fairytale castle out of tin cans and icing sugar. I don't think I properly said thank you as a child but as a 28 year old I think about that castle a lot and in many ways it shaped me and created an absolute love for fairytales and fanatsy worlds.

My other grandmother (Dad's Mom) lived on a farm. She taught me how to knit and shared her love of flowers, fruits and how to keep your own vegetable garden. Everyday at 16:00 we would have tea and cake; that's where my love for tea comes from. My grandparents had this beautiful Frangipani tree where I would spend hours looking at the way the sun filtered through the branches, the yellow in the flower seeping into the white petals, dreaming up stories.

Vaal Dam. Diary 2015 - 2016

The women in my family are creators from handknitted one of a kind sweaters (extravagant textile pieces) to making the best jams (the fig jam is my favourite).

Women who use their craft and knowledge to build businesses and brands that are deeply rooted in South Africa.

My parents also shaped me into becoming an artist. My mother took me to plays, art fairs and exhibitions. She introduced me to charcoal and pastels while she painted oil paintings, later introducing me to acrylics and watercolours. My father shared his love for reading, sharing fantasy books along with stories and poems my grandfather used to write while hunting. All of these things shaped me into becoming the artist I am today.

From taking art as a subject in school and extra art programs after school, studying and receiving and honours degree in Fine Art (but that's a story for another time). To starting my business in January 2020 only to be confronted with Covid-19 three months later leaving me to navigate and learn everything on my own.

Studio Scene, May 2025

Here I am today taking my next steps into something new. Something unknown that feels overwhlemingly big and uncertain.

Welcome to my Studio Diary where I get to share with you my stories, thoughts, behind the scenes and deeper meaningful conversations about artworks and why I make them.