Artists of Australia
Inspired by the colour and texture of the outdoors -
Inspired by the colour and texture of the outdoors -
I don’t research anyone before I visit them as I feel then I come to the chat with a totally clean slate. It is therefore always wonderful to discover all the different layers that make up an artist. Tanya is fascinating – she has already done more in her life so far that would be hard for two people to achieve. She is not only a fascinating artist, but also an academic of substantial experience (PhD International Relations (University of Southampton), MA International Studies (University of Warwick), BA Hons History (University of Exeter)) Tanya is also a senior fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute. Her research focuses on understanding the dynamics of nuclear weapons proliferation, and on evaluating diplomatic efforts to reduce the risks of nuclear war. She has also lived in a number of countries before arriving here in Australia. I found all this out when I visited her 3 acres of green ‘heaven’ in Bangalow. She has an impressive garden, a delightful dog , lots of chickens, an Airbnb and a hardworking husband. Her art in total contrast to her work is really ethereal, almost dreamy and quite beautiful. As someone who knew little about encaustic work before this visit I was fascinated by the hours and layers needed to create just one piece of work. A lifelong photographer she currently is capturing her passion for wildlife and in Australia. She obviously finds great peace and tranquillity in nature and capturing its beauty to use in her artworks. Does your garden influence your work – either in what you create or how it affects you? Our garden brings the birds who are one of my main inspirations – I am obsessed by birds and Ausralia has the most incredible and colourful birds in the world. I love parrots as they are so intelligent and we get a lot here – the Rainbow Lorikeets; the Scaly Breasted Lorikeets; the Eastern Rosellas (which I think are the most beautiful birds in the world); Galahs; Corellas and the Black Cockatoos. I think birds suit encaustic which feels misty and dreamy – almost fragile -and this suits birds that are so fleeting, here one moment and gone the next.. If you can capture that in encaustic that is amazing. Encaustic was developed by the ancient Greeks and the Egyptians used it in order to enhance the embalming methods so they could paint a perfect likeness and then preserve the painting. It preserves it and the pigment doesn’t break down. You have to get the right ratio of beeswax to hardening agents because otherwise it never fully cures. The surface changes with the light and time – when first done it is misty and it gets clearer with time. It can look ceramic if you don’t polish it and it stays quite misty but if you keep polishing it then it becomes glassy over time. I go off in the Land Rover and take my wildlife photography. The most recent one was to the Nymboida river and I did a series based on the birds there – titled ‘Out On The Edge’ . In it the birds are quite small and right on the edge of expanses of water. I think water suits encaustic as it is so reflective and shiny. I have enjoyed that range which is selling well and I will continue with it. I am going to do a whole series on flowers, native grasses and butterflies from around here from photos that I took during the Covid times. If you get the right time of year and the right light sometimes it just all comes together – even the weeds were beautiful. I have just finished a big project for the UN and I now have the time to work on my art. When all the exhibitions were cancelled it was awful as suddenly the planned schedule changed . I went to the Other Art Fair last year which went really well but suddenly all future plans were gone and now suddenly my art was going nowhere and no one could see it and there seemed little point in keeping making and stacking up artwork. I decided then to work on creating my photographic series that I use for inspiration - as it was about me going out into nature for the photography - so now I have lots of stuff to create new series from. Do you have a favourite corner in your garden? I would say my hammock overlooking the Banksia as I love watching the birds there - and also on my Bali daybed looking over the valley where I have my breakfast daily as I watch the birds in the Bangalow Palm and the Lilly Pilly – there is also a Pink Flowering Gum over there that the birds love. What is your favourite plant or flower? The Pink Flowering Gum – I am obsessed with it as a flower. I have done a piece with Blue Faced Honey Eaters in the gum tree - and I can’t wait to do just the gum flowers when they bloom again. I am going to plant three more this year. The one I have had been quite stressed as it got a borer and it is rather old now. I don’t want to be without one. We didn't have a lot rain last year between September and December and it got rather stressed then. Do you have a favourite garden? My mum’s garden which was an English cottage garden just outside of Henley in the UK. She still is obsessed by it even though she is now nearly blind. She still gardens and can just see colour and some movement and it still makes her happy. She was designing quilts and tapestries etc up to a couple of years ago. My one sister lives near her and she is technically brilliant in craft and that’s her thing. My brother is a wood turner, like my dad, who creates amazing art from wood. My older sister has an incredible eye for interior design. None of us studied art but we are all creative – my mum studied art and she taught us lots and inspired me a lot. She can work out any problem coming at it from a different direction. How does the act of ‘making’ relate to your personality and who you are? I'm quite an obsessive personality and not a multitasker. When I do something I am 'all in' and as a result of that I find it creates anxiety. I find that in my creative process – because it is quite technical and needs full concentration - it allows me to let go of that side of my personality. I find I need to control my environment but in my artwork I can’t fully control it - so it makes me 'let go' and it forces me into a meditative state without really trying. I can be obsessive about it then without being anxious about it and it lets me be in my ‘happy place’ all day in my studio. I know I am very sensitive and feel a lot of 'angst' about a lot of things. Because my work in International Politics really explores the darker side of nature - in a way my art is an escape that allows me to be obsessive as well. This is definitely a healthy way escaping that fulfils that need in me. The process suits me more than any other style I have tried over the years. I am detail orientated but I am also quite impatient as a person – for instance I liked oil painting and I really liked the technical side of things - but it is too slow for me and I get frustrated, Encaustic is very fast. Each stage is fast even if there are about 20-30 stages. Tell us about your career journey to date – did you always want to be an artist? I was born in Malaysia and then grew up in Nigeria – my dad was an entrepreneur with 4 kids – he was an engineer and loved to travel. My dad then decided when we got older I should take my schooling more seriously and my sister and I went to Switzerland to the end of school then I went to university in England. I did a lot of art at school – my mom was an artist who did batik and was always experimenting with different types of art techniques and she had a real eye for art and interiors. I was fascinated by art techniques but unfortunately at school because I was academic I was encouraged to follow that. While at Uni I would run my art business making hand painted clothes to pay my way through Uni. I painted them with fabric paints inspired by famous artists and paint a whole outfit for instance in the style of Monet. I also always kept up my photography when working and travelling. I did fine art photography – street photography and landscape as well. After my Phd and coming to Australia I started to really enjoy the wildlife – in 2003 we were in New Zealand near Christchurch and I loved that. The earthquakes were too much though and our whole neighbourhood was damaged and so we decided to leave after a year and that was when I came to Australia. I feel that I am lucky as I have the best of both worlds and I am privileged as my job is now done remotely since Covid. I am part of a UN dialogue at the moment and supposed to be going to Geneva in a couple of weeks but of course that won’t happen. So I will have to be travelling again but not right now. Could you talk us through your creative process? First stage is going out into the garden or nature and take the photographs – then I edit the photos to make them suit the encaustic - as not all will suit it. You need a particular type of scene and the colour range and dynamic range have to be right – the contrast has to be right - lots of things must be perfect in order for them to work. The shading must be right it needs to be light and bright with depth. So I do a lot of editing in Lightroom. I love this creative and technical stage. Then I print this out on a big colour printer with heat resistant inks which need to withstand the heat and fire that I use with the waxes. The photo is printed and then I need to bond them to the surface and weight them down using a special heat resistant glue. Then I trim them up. I always have two or three pieces going at the same time as these phases take time. Once you have the bonded piece on the board you can start adding your wax layers. You have to put on about 10 layers to even get going or else you will burn through – you heat up the wax and use the fire torch to smooth it out and then scrape it back with a metal razor and then add another layer. The fire smooths it out well and you also polish between layers. Then after about 10 layers you can start playing which is where I feel I can get really creative like my canvas. I have an idea in my head what I want to do from the start – what will I want to create, what feel do I want, how much do I want the subject of the picture to come forward or recede back, how immediate do I want it to be; how do I want to change the colour or the palette; how soft or hard do I want it. Then I start on playing with it using my coloured waxes, pastels, powders, gold leaf etc and I start adding materials between the layers. I can rub them into the warm wax and not rub back and it can create an ethereal colour almost like a glaze or water colour – so it is translucent, and you add sparkle or pearl. You can leave or put another layer of wax to seal it. So you now have your image and layers of translucent colour but then if I have lost hard edges and I want them I can carve into the surface of the wax and use ink to get a couple of edges back – depending on where the light is falling – so I will get it back and add another layer of wax. Like an oil painting the final step is the light on a subject matter and that is my final step too – I use white ink or gold leaf right at the end to capture a sparkle or where the light catches. Then I put a final layer of wax and polish and leave to cure for six months. So, you have to work a very long way in advance. I love the fact I have taken an ancient art process and made it my own and I find people are fascinated by it. What has been your most crucial tool to grow your creative business? My camera. If you talk about traditional tools that is my most important. But to grow the business probably Instagram, Bluethumb, my website, Saatchi art, The Other Art Fair – but I find people need to see my art in real art through Art Fairs and Exhibitions. Online sales would usually only happen after an exhibition. What has been the most challenging lesson learnt since you started your art? I think managing my own expectations has been hard. Not having qualified specifically in art – coming in raw to art has felt hard. I feel I have to justify myself constantly and it has been a huge challenge. In my other work I have ‘badges’ of authority through my Uni qualifications and track records in universities around the world and publications - but I have nothing like this in the art world. There is a certain snobbery in art circles with people asking where you studied. I had to learn my own techniques on my own and had lots of challenges along the way. The biggest challenge has been realisation that you just can’t make it happen overnight and that it is hard to make your art sell online – just building a website is not enough to sell online - even though you need all the online presence to window dress your art. It just isn’t the right sales outlet for me. The Other Art Fair are looking to find a better way with a virtual art space that looks like a gallery and you have a video of the artist making their work alongside this so the artist can explain about their art. I'm hoping that will work well for me. What’s been the best thing that has happened to you since you started? I think feeling more rooted being here in Australia. As my work is International I have lived in many places but I felt like a fish out of water when I arrived. My art has given me a reason to be here. I find the wildlife so incredible and inspiring that it makes me feel at home. I felt like a visitor but my artwork gives me a feeling of belonging through the art community. The second thing was meeting someone at an art opening in Byron who used to curate The Other Art Fair and she told me my work would sell there - she told me to apply and got me to go. I had never heard of it before but she gave me the confidence to do it - it was really successful for me. I think it was a serendipitous moment for me. As a result of that I am now part of their network and their webinars and it is a great ‘family’ that gives support to each other. I have made friends with other artists across the country and internationally. Do you have any advice you might give your younger self? A lot!! Somebody told me once at 17, when I was leaving to study at Uni, that in your life you should do something that comes from the heart and that makes you fulfilled. Are you studying something because you’ve been expected to or do you love it? If it comes from your heart you might not make a lot of money but it means something. However, I always wanted to please so I never followed my art. I would have kept up my violin and pursued my art which was my passion. Art was always my safe and happy place. So I would say 'just do it' - don’t worry about other people’s expectations and don’t worry about ambition. If you love something you can make it work. I would listen to that advice if I had my time again! What are your top tips for a great garden? When we arrived our garden was overgrown chaos and we didn’t know where to start – it was hard and it really just evolved. We had never gardened in the sub tropics – we came from Canberra and it was so easy there as it was dry - but you can manage it easily if you can water it. Up here it just takes over – so do your research about the plants and live in your garden for a year before deciding to change it. See where the sun goes and understand the soil changes across the seasons and understand what you already have. Look at the mature things you might have and work around them. Find what will love that spot without stressing you. Some things grow like mad – we had Star Jasmine everywhere here when we arrived. We blitzed everything and as a result made lots of mistakes, in hindsight we should have just trimmed back and learnt over time. I think sometimes you need to recognise you need some expert advice – for instance I realised I needed some help with my big trees and so I got a tree expert in to help so I do that regularly now. That frees up me to do what I’m best at. Do you have any projects coming up you would like to talk about? I am part of the Open Studio Trail on weekends of 28/29 November and 5/6 December – website info http://www.os-bbb.com/and the Other Art Fair in March next year. The virtual gallery will run for 6 weeks afterwards. I want to complete my ‘Out on the Edge’ series – then I want to move onto my 'Plants and Flowers with Butterflies' series which I haven’t done before. I think that encaustic will really suit butterflies, like birds, for their fleeting, ethereal and delicate nature. I also want to exhibit my extinction series which is about drawing attention to animals that are in crisis – species under threat – so looking at Australia birds and marsupials. I’m hoping to do that at the Lone Goat gallery and perhaps do some lectures alongside that. I also want to get my International Art Fairs up and running – I would like to do Singapore and Dubai and also go back to Santa Fe. It is not cheap as you have to ship your work there, but it gets you International attention. I have had people come up and stay at my Airbnb to also look at my art which is lovely. Tanya's website is https://www.scorchingskiesart.com and her instagram is scorchingskiesart.
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5/8/2023 09:30:17 pm
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Kay KnightsI am an Australian artist who is crazy about her garden and I'm inspired by the colours and contrasts in my backyard. I truly believe that Gardening is Art - I believe that many Artists are similarly inspired in their gardens. This Blog is for me to go and meet some of them and share their gardens and art. ArchivesNo Archives Categories |