Dallas native Jennifer Ayyad is a real estate agent and artist who is finding a beautiful way to marry her passion for both.
The Nathan Grace Realtor has received several recent commissions for her extraordinary, large-scale acrylic paintings. The first was for a friend at the W Residences who had recently purchased a condo there.
“He was open to all kinds of ideas—I started painting on clear acrylic and we decided, why not do something that’s functional art?” Ayyad said. “So we did sliding barn door with a modern, contemporary twist.”
Her friend loved the piece, as did many people who saw the photos of it she posted on Facebook. One of her fans was her own real estate firm. They commissioned her to create art for the new Nathan Grace Frisco offices earlier this year.
Ayyad painted a set of sliding doors made out of four 10-foot-by-6-foot acrylic panels for the office entry, pictured above, and a large piece for the kitchen, both with vibrant colors and metallic gold accents.
The pieces are unusual and arresting, and people are lining up for her work.
Ayyad passed her real estate exam on her 21st birthday and has been a Realtor for more than 12 years; almost three of those are with Nathan Grace. But her artistic talent goes back a lot further than that.
When she was in seventh grade, she took her first commission.
“I asked my mom if I could paint a mural on my bedroom wall, so I painted a celestial sun and moon,” Ayyad said. “One of my neighbors saw it, begged her mom, and they commissioned me to paint something on their wall.”
Her commission at the W Residences was painted on clear acrylic, a material that requires her to work backwards from the usual process of painting on canvas. What she first paints on the acrylic is essentially the “top” of the painting, and every stroke after goes behind; on canvas, it’s the opposite. This process is known as “verre églomisé,” where the paint is applied to the backside of the acrylic and then the image is viewed from the front.
Her medium is acrylic paint and palette is bright; recently, she’s been adding lots of gold touches.
“I like vibrant colors and add a touch of gold or some metallic in everything I do,” Ayyad said. “Lately, I have been incorporating a lot of turquoise, blues, and deep blues in my artwork. The door at the W Residences was very fun because my client wanted to incorporate a lot of deep red with hints of black and gold tones to go along with his home décor.”
Another accolade: Ayyad was named a finalist in the Kitchen LTO art competition in Trinity Groves with a voting party set for May 3.
“I’ve sold a couple of pieces here and there and I did a broker open house collaboration around February,” she said. “I’m also working with a couple of Nathan Grace agents who are doing flips and renovations and have seemed interested in having some of my artwork installed as part of staging until the house sells.”
One of her pieces is being auctioned tomorrow at the Dallas Challenge gala Art from the Heart. This nonprofit is near and dear to Ayyad’s heart; through them she teaches monthly art classes to youth who are part of drug or alcohol prevention/treatment programs.
She’s got her sights set high, looking at the possibility of working with Austin, Houston, and Dallas small custom homebuilders.
“I love real estate and I don’t think I’d ever want to leave—I’d love my artwork to be in homes,” she said. “I would like to extend my acrylic artwork even further and am working on creating kitchen backsplash and even accent walls.”
We’ll keep an eye on Jennifer Ayyad and her art—tell us your thoughts in the comments below!
