Artist of the Month Tanya Slate

I paint due to a compulsive desire to make things. I must have a project under way in order to be happy. Whether it’s a garden project, a building project, or a painting in the works...creating is almost as necessary as breathing.

My love of the natural and organic world is what inspires my subject matter. Colorful flowers, vast landscapes, sunsets...these are all traditional painting ideas that I attempt to treat in non traditional ways. Initially, I create chaos on the canvas with layers of texture, acrylic paint, and sometimes paper. Letting the textured ground peep through areas of lost and found edges, drips, delicate lines, and pooled paint, I merge the abstract with the representational. Form and order begins to take place as the piece progresses and transforms into something almost ethereal and seemingly incomplete. Leaving areas of my paintings unfinished and abstracted allows the viewer to engage and complete the piece with their own eyes, providing the ability to escape for just a moment into their own experience.

I work in a series with a central theme but will have as many as 5 pieces progressing at once. This helps me stay restrained, preventing me from over working a painting as I move from one piece to another, allowing each to remain

fresh and serendipitous.

Originally from North Louisiana, I am currently based in Tucson and part time in Santa Fe. My work can be found in collections across the U.S.