Tina Wilson – Artist
Thank you very much for visiting my website. I am a visual artist who loves creativity in all its forms. Through my website you will find samples of my artworks, illustrations, children’s books, learn a little bit about me and hopefully…find some inspiration for your own world.
Please enjoy 🙂
To keep up to date with all my latest works please follow me through Instagram. My latest posts are below.
I have worked as a visual artist and graphic designer for over 20 years, having received a Bachelor of Arts (Visual Arts) from Newcastle University, majoring in Plant and Wildlife Illustration.
I worked freelance as an illustrator for publishers in Sydney, before moving to Western Australia in 2000. Whilst working as a graphic designer for CLE Town Planning and Design, I did some planning of a different sort, creating WA’s very own national art prize – the Black Swan Prize for Portraiture.
As its founder and Executive Director for ten years, I was delighted to see it grow into Australia’s third richest portrait prize and the only one of its kind in WA.
In 2013 I was awarded the City of Perth Premiers Active Citizenship Award for my contribution to the arts and in 2018 I was honored to become a Patron of the prize. The Black Swan Prize for Portraiture is now proudly exhibited at the Art Gallery of WA each year with more than 10,000 visitors viewing the portraits on display.
Following its success I resigned in 2017 to return to my own creative practice.
I now live in a rainforest with my partner Matt Ottley in a small village in the Northern Rivers, NSW, and spend time moving between painting, drawing, writing, curating, creating children’s books…and drinking chai!
I am inspired by nature, people and the world at large.
I love creating art that spans a variety of genres. The fun for me is in exploring creativity; from intricate, detailed works of nature, through to more surreal and abstract works, I hope you find something that you like.
To view works from particular styles/genres or exhibition series click on the links below:
I absolutely love children’s books! I am inspired by artists and writers such as Dr Seuss, Bill Peet, Hergé (Georges Remi) and Arthur Rackham, and am currently working on two children’s picture book series – Monkey’s Great Adventures and The Sketchies.
I also like to think a little differently 😉
Monkey’s Great Adventures combines my love of travel and adventure with my appreciation and respect for the traditional hand-made crafts, combining real life scenes with knitted characters in an imaginative series that plays with the idea of children believing their favourite toys are real.
The first two books in the series, “Afloat in Venice” and “All at Sea” will be published in 2020 and 2021.
My partner, Matt Ottley, and I have set up a small publishing house called One Tentacle Publishing, where we aim to help emerging authors/illustrators break into the market and re-print some classic children’s books.
For our first collaboration we worked closely with author/illustrator Lisa Tiffen to produce a series of quirky children’s picture books that look at the emotional world of children. The first book in the series is “Grumps“, followed by “Lovelies,” “Sorrows,” and “Frights”.
It has been a pleasure mentoring Lisa through the production of these delightful books.
Matt Ottley’s classic children’s book, ‘Mrs Millie’s Painting,’ was re-released in May 2019 in both hardcover and softcover versions. Please visit his website to purchase a copy.
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Tina Wilson
