How One Happy Accident Changed the Way She Makes Art| Justine Esagunde-Quinlan

For this Arts to Hearts Project interview, we spoke with Melbourne-based artist Justine Esagunde-Quinlan of Pensilly Studio about her creative path, the style she developed by accident, and how pop culture and books have shaped her perspective on the world. Justine shares how growing up between two countries and cultures helped her find her voice in both digital and traditional mediums, and how a quiet moment of encouragement led her to take her art from Instagram to gallery walls.

We learn how she taught herself to work across mediums, how she decides what tools to use, and what it felt like to see her pieces hanging in a gallery for the first time. Through it all, she reminds us that making a career in art doesn’t always follow one straight line—and that there’s value in letting things grow naturally.

Justine Esagunde-Quinlan is a featured artist in our book, “100 Emerging Artists 2025” You can explore her journey and the stories of other artists by purchasing the book here:

https://shop.artstoheartsproject.com/products/the-creative-process-book

Justine Esagunde-Quinlan is a self-taught artist living and working in Melbourne, Australia. Born in the Philippines, she moved to Australia with her family as a child. This has allowed her to embrace both cultures as her own. Her formal education is in science, but she has always known that her heart lies in the arts. Her studio name, Pensilly, is a play on the way she described her early watercolour work to her friends and family: how the transparency of the medium occasionally reveals the graphite sketch underneath, making it pencil-like.

This happy accident now inspires the style you see, where the sanguine-coloured pencil has become the most prominent part of her work. The art she makes explores identity, pop culture & literature, with an emphasis on portraiture. She enjoys combining analogue and digital mediums, utilising various painting techniques & digital drawing. Her work has been exhibited in two Melbourne galleries, and she was also a featured artist in Art Edit Magazine’s 2023 Summer Issue. In May of this year, she was picked as part of the Arts to Hearts Project’s Top 100 Emerging Artists of 2025. When the pencil is down, she spends her time playing video games, drinking matcha and keeping her nose stuck in a book.

 1. How did your early experiments with watercolour lead to the “pencil-ly” style you’ve become known for?

Watercolour is notoriously known for being an unforgiving medium. I had trouble controlling the opacity of this paint in my earlier work, resulting in my underdrawing peaking through. Traditionally, this look isn’t ideal, and I spent a long time fighting this “mistake”. Then, during one of my experimentation days, I purposely made the sketch more prominent, working with it and not against it. Oh, how I loved how it looked. I immediately knew this style was right for me. I picked the sanguine-coloured pencil to connect with the old masters’ sketches I’ve long admired since I was a child. I followed my instincts, and I think it has served me well.

2.   Pop culture, books, and identity all show up in your work—how do those threads come together for you?  

I spent my formative years in two different countries, the Philippines and Australia. As most immigrants would know, being immersed in two cultures is challenging to navigate because you cannot fully devote yourself to just one. Pop culture and literature (both classical and modern) have helped me discover much of my identity and have resulted in being my most significant source of inspiration. Additionally, being a millennial has given me a front-row seat for many ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ events, and my generation is very adept at finding a distraction within the chaos. I hope that my work lives on as a snapshot of the world as it is now, to give future generations a glimpse of what will then be their past.

3.  Pensilly Studio started as an Instagram outlet—what made you take the step to formalise it as a business in 2023?

I formalised Pensilly Studio as a business when my submission got accepted for my first show at Red Galley in Melbourne. I was very active in my practice in 2023, as I studied digital art independently to expand my skill set. With all the work I was doing at the time, I saw improvements and evolution in my style, which was both very encouraging and daunting. My husband was by my side, supporting me during times of doubt, and he was the one who convinced me to take the leap and submit my art to the show that turned my hobby into a budding career.

4.    You mix analogue and digital techniques—how do you decide which tools or approaches to use for a piece?  

It depends on how the final piece will be presented. For a gallery show, I mix both digital and analogue mediums for my pieces. I use Procreate for my digital work and employ either watercolour or gouache as my traditional mediums. I find that it showcases my vision in a more tactile and visually interesting way. If it were for print, my approach would be all digital to make it easier for the publisher to work with. Modern times call for modern techniques, and I want to keep up with the times without compromising my vision and neglecting all the tools that are available to me.

I purposely made the sketch more prominent, working with it and not against it

Justine Esagunde-Quinlan

5.    Your work’s been shown in two Melbourne galleries—how did it feel seeing your pieces on the wall for the first time?      

Seeing my work on a gallery wall for the first time was incredibly surreal. I imagined that moment a hundred different ways, and I was crying my eyes out in all of them. It was a moment of validation for me, realising I can actually be an artist. This gave me the confidence to pursue more opportunities to share my art on other platforms, which I have been fortunate enough to succeed in. This show marked the beginning of my professional art endeavours, and I’m grateful that I was able to share this special moment with my whole family. I would not have it any other way.

6.  Being self-taught, what have you found most valuable about learning outside traditional art school paths?  

I value the freedom of learning new techniques and methods without restrictions. Granted, I am aware of the advantages of these restrictions, but I find that I learn best when I have complete autonomy. I was never opposed to attending art school, but my younger interests led me in a different direction. I don’t regret picking a different path, and I actually find that the skills I’ve attained from a distinct subject of study have helped me with my approach to art. After all, if history tells us anything, it is that science and art pair very well together.

Justine Esagunde-Quinlan’s artwork is about finding meaning in what you love—whether that’s a story, a face, or a small detail that feels familiar. Through her signature pencil-ly style, she captures moments that connect to identity, pop culture, and the books and media that have shaped her.

Her journey shows us that you don’t need formal training to create work that matters. We’ve learned that trusting what feels right, even if it begins as a mistake, can lead to something special. Her story is a reminder that creativity can emerge from curiosity, and that the path to becoming an artist doesn’t have to follow a single, traditional route.

To learn more about Justine, click the following links to visit her profile.

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