The competition consists of 13 participants armed with brushes and paint, and they will be tasked with painting a real-life portrait of a celebrity.
The artists must complete their painting within four hours, and the winner will be crowned the Portrait Artist of the Year in London’s Battersea Arts Centre.
Ms Guinee swapped a classroom for an easel in 2019 when tragedy struck as her twins Mabel and Blaise were born prematurely and died shortly after.
Julieanne with her husband James, her son’s Teddy and Jaspar, and her daughter Imogen.
Painting became both refuge and necessity for Julieanne.
“During my maternity leave I painted through my grief, and in doing so, I found a new path,” she says.
Ms Guinee showcased her works of art for the first time in 2021, and she sold 10 works.
“It was wonderful, and I couldn’t believe this was possible.
“Since then, I have in Royal Hibernian Academy and other group exhibitions,” she said.
Buttevant model with her portrait painted by Julieanne
Earlier this year, she was awarded the prestigious UCC Accenture Women on Walls commission, creating portraits of eight pioneering women for permanent display in UCC’s Aula Maxima.
The work will be unveiled in November, and Guinee also features in an upcoming Virgin Media documentary to be broadcast in January.
“I paint every day. It is my full-time job and I absolutely love it.
“I do a lot of commissions, and I have a lot of exhibitions running.
“It is just a wonderful life,” she added.
She said she practiced for the competition by painting 10 Buttevant residents, with a mixture of age, gender and ethnicities.
Buttevant model with portrait painted by Julieanne
“I said I would do a lot of practice runs so I painted 10 local people.
“I wanted to get different age groups, younger women, older women, younger men, older men and different nationalities.
“They came and sat for four hours, and I gave them free paintings for their time,” she said.
Buttevant model with portrait
During maternity leave, Ms Guinee realised art is her passion and she didn’t feel the same way about teaching.
“For me, teaching was always a normal and safe job, it was never my passion – while art is my passion.
“I wake up every morning so excited to go into the studio, while when I was teaching, I was looking forward to the weekend.
“I used to always have a holiday booked that I would look forward to, which is something I would never do now.
“I don’t even want to go on holidays now – I just want to be in my studio,” she said.
Follow Julieanne on Instagram via @julianneguinee.art