TEMPLE Reece’s love of art began as a child, when she would spend hours studying an oil painting at her grandmother’s house. Captivated by its beauty, she felt a longing deep inside herself to create—a hunger that was intensified as she watched her father draw. That creative passion drove her to teach herself how to paint. “Magazines and books provided some knowledge, but I didn’t know other artists growing up,” she says. “Practicing and learning from nature shaped my style.”

In adulthood, Reece studied the work of the old masters and many contemporary artists in addition to taking a few classes. Living in East Tennessee, Reece is largely inspired by her surroundings. “I often paint in my head, developing compositions, values and color until I can get to a canvas,” says Reece of her paintings, which tend toward realism with a softening, impressionistic quality. “There is so much beauty. I have a hard time doing other work because I see paintings everywhere I look and just want to paint.”

Reece is a member of the Oil Painters of America, American Impressionist Society, National Oil and Acrylic Painters’ Society, American Women Artists and American Artists Professional League, and she is represented at Johnson County Center for the Arts in Mountain City, Tennessee, and Alexandre Fleuren Interiors in Charleston.