Wendy Teakel is an artist who works intuitively from an internalised vision of the landscape.  Having grown up in the Riverina, and now living on an acreage outside of Canberra,  Wendy Teakel’s art has always been inspired by the land, and is particularly influenced by farms stricken by the current drought. Wendy is known for her use of acrylic and pokerwork on plywood, the surfaces scorched and branded with heated pieces of fencing wire, and the heat remains as if entrapped within the work.  The viewer is compelled to respond to a harsh reality through the subtleties of abstraction and metaphor.This language of symbols and discarded materials is grounded in regional topography, but has its origins in the allegorical and spiritual dimensions of time and place, achieving a visual, technical and philosophical unity which extends into the installation pieces.Wendy’s sculptural installations contain materials from the land such as animal feed, grass and corrugated iron. The detritus of rural life is arranged in a mysterious order that speaks of history and a sense of place with a pure, symbolic language.

Born in Wagga Wagga, Wendy graduated with a major in sculpture from Riverina CAE then moved to Canberra to take up postgraduate studies at the Canberra School of Art, where she now teaches.  Wendy has held 28 solo exhibitions in Australia and Thailand.  Her work is represented in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia,  Artbank, Australian National University, Chiang Mai University (Thailand), and the Australian Embassy in Bangkok.   She has received many awards including the inaugural CAPO Fellowship (1993), Alice Prize (1995), artsACT Creative Arts Fellowship (1996), Asialink residency to Thailand (1996), representation for Australia at the KHOJ International Artists’ Workshop in India (1997), Canberra Critics Circle Award (2002) and finalist in the Canberra Art Award (2004).