Artist - Rebecca Tune
New Zealand Artist Rebecca Tune is not afraid to experiment with her work using a variety of techniques and mediums to great effect.
Rebecca has won the Mt Eden Young Artist Award two times, she has featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, and runs a successful graphic design business here in Auckland.
Art Bureau talk to the highly talented Rebecca Tune…
- How did it all begin?
In my Dad’s studio of course :)
We have photos of myself in nappies ‘helping’ Dad paint his large Mt Eden landscape paintings. I grew up surrounded by art, constantly sneaking the cheese and crackers at exhibition openings with my sister, and Dad’s studio with its numero
us tubes of paint and brushes was always available to me. Those were the days before devices. So I created instead. Growing up surrounded by art made it very easy for me to continue on that path. It formed a very special bond between my Dad and I with ongoing weekly art critiques of our work, and a constant flowing artistic dialogue.
- Describe your art style
My work is all about colour, texture and layers. I don’t like to call myself an abstract artist. I don’t like to define my work at all. My work is about a journey, both for myself as the creator, and for the viewer. As I am creating I allow the painting to grow and develop with a loose idea in mind, but then I like to draw the viewer in closer to the work to discover those smaller pockets on interest. It gives the viewer time. Time to think, to ponder, and to become involved with the work. Escapism. There is always something new to discover.
- How do you know when a work is finished?
When it reaches that point where it is singing to me. The colours are working, the layers are beautiful, and I keep finding areas that excite me. Sometimes that can take years, other times everything flows as it should, and the world is a happy place ;)
- What has inspired you recently?
This is a tough one and it hits that nerve of fresh grief. Dad and my relationship with him has inspired me. My work at the moment is about those fragile layers of experience, love, loss, grief. My work in my latest series is a bit moodier in terms of my colour palette and maybe my layers are a bit more ghostly and delicate. This is just what it is at the moment, and next month it could change. But I’m going with what I am feeling, and I feel like Dad is standing behind still critiquing me as I work!
- When you’re not creating art what do you enjoy doing?
Escaping the city. My family loves the outdoors so we do a lot of hiking/bushwalking/beach fossicking. Nature pulls us and I’m so thankful our children are this way as it’s so healthy for the mind and body. These moments really draw us closer as a family and ground us. It’s that escapism from the daily grind that we yearn.
