Insight...

Colour is so very powerful.
It can persuade us to feel a certain way.
It enhances what it touches.
It enhances what we feel and how we remember moments, events and places.
Colour affects our energy.
I am addicted to colour.

As a kid I loved to get up really early on a Saturday morning to watch the end of RAGE on abc. Sometimes these colourful graphics or one similar, would be featured on the screen, this was also the case for SBS. Now I know this is pretty weird, but I used to love to sit staring at these colourful squares and rectangles. I used to imagine being able to rearrange some of the colours so that they would be as close as possible to making a rainbow spectrum...I warned you that it would sound weird.


As an artist my style has changed, grown, improved and taken me on many unexpected journeys. I love to look back through my old sketch books and at images of works from the past. It makes me feel happy and it also makes me feel proud of my abilities. Every artwork that I have completed has been an achievement and while I have not always thought so, I can see it all a bit clearer now.

Something else that is almost always guaranteed to happen when looking at past works is an instant flashback to the time that I made the work. I remember the space that I worked in first. Whether it was on the floor listening to music in my bedroom of our old family home, or a desk in my high school art room. I think about that time in my life, where I was working, where I was living, who I was spending my time with and mostly how it felt to be in that moment of just making art. Completely relaxed and in my element.

When people ask me where the ideas for my artworks come from I always find this hard to explain. Ideas come from everything. If everything that we see is really stored in our subconscious mind, how can we possibly know exactly where an idea comes from.  We might know what triggers an idea, but ultimately it changes so rapidly it becomes something entirely different to what the first trigger ever suggested.

When I sit in front of a blank canvas to start a new painting all I take with me and all that I know is the colours I wish to use. These are often a combination of colours and often colours that I feel work well together...but this is entirely in my own opinion. Using one colour can be so limiting, but using different shades of one colour is instantly opening up more and more possibilities. For me one colour is rarely enough and multiple shades are also too limiting.

It has to come from the mood I am in, or a need to 'colour' my day with something bright, energetic, colourful and really something that will make me feel good to look at.
 I could talk about colour all day...but I won't!

Every artwork that I have produced this year and since taking leave from full time teaching, has taken a little longer to complete than the works I have created over the past two years. This is mostly due to TIME and having far more of it. I can see a lot more strength in my work this year and I do realise that that strength comes from me, because we are what we make.

No artist can be removed from their work, just like no person can be removed from their lives. Where we end up and how we got here may often seem like a blur but every path that we took we actively chose. At the time we made those decisions we did so for many reasons, but regardless we did it.

Finding what makes you most fulfilled in life is a journey, but one I strongly believe we often know within ourselves as children. If I had have followed the dreams I had as a child I would have perhaps come to call myself a full time artist many years ago. Or perhaps I did follow them and perhaps I am arriving at my ultimate destination now.  My journey has been incredible and certainly one worth reflecting on. Everything I know, everything that I have seen and chosen, accomplished and failed at has brought me to this time. Recognising this and acknowledging it 'publicly' is pretty weird and scary, but showing my work to the public and sharing images on all sorts of social media outlets is in no way different to sharing my personal thoughts on life...well some of them anyway.

So the exhibition I have been eagerly awaiting and preparing for is going to be installed on Friday at D-Bar Gallery in Coolangatta. 'Insight' is all about life and the journey. I have tried my best to communicate where I currently am and the view I am taking in. If you look closely at my owl eyes you will see mountain silhouettes, and yes I do live on a Mountain, however it is representative of heights and achievements. I am in the mood for celebrating mine, so hopefully each piece conveys lots of positivity, fulfilment and some kind of wisdom.

D-Bar Gallery has been supporting my art since mid way through last year after I approached them and showed them my work. It is a relaxed gallery space with many great wares on offer and I am really excited to see my new works up together in the main space.

I have decided to skip holding an opening night as I feel it is too much to ask of people, especially after plugging 'Empowerment' for three long months. Many people feel pressured to support art by going along to event openings and I certainly don't intend on doing that. So if you like what you have seen of my newest pieces than by all means get down to D-Bar and check them out in the flesh. The show runs from April 27th - May 30th and the gallery is open 7 days a week. The helpful staff will handle all enquiries and sales and I will be in store on Saturday (27th April) from 10am-12pm to talk to viewers that make the trek.

I will be sure to post some pictures of the collection once it is up and COLOURING IN the walls.
Tamara x