ANGELA TAY
My experiences, personal and cultural, have helped shape my philosophies and objectives.
I was born in Malaysia in 1952. In 1970 I came to Australia to attend my final years of high school,
then tertiary education.
I have made Australia my "home" since. However, the sense of transience and longing is ever present. .
Being an immigrant and because my father had been a mainland Chinese immigrant
who settled in Malaysia, as well as my earlier Chinese education,
I never ceased learning and involving myself in Chinese cultural activities such as literature, Taiji. Chinese painting and calligraphy.
In the early eighties I dropped out of teaching high school to teach and co-ran a
Taiji school fulltime, until the urge to fulfil my lifelong wishes
to further my studies in traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy
took me to the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts
(now China Academy of Fine Arts) in Hangzhou, China in 1987.
I went to China mainly in search of the brush and ink techniques and affirmations
of my knowledge about my culture.
After China I realized that I am really most at ease in Australia.
I came back in 1992 to get on with my life.
My affinity is with the Australian bush, its vast horizons and clear colours.
The Australian rocks, trees, earth and sky are all potential subjects of my work.
When painting, I am absorbed by the movement of the Chinese brush interacting with Xuan paper,
which has qualities that calls for certainty and integrity.
The transient quality of ink tones requires trust of instincts.
The basic structure of my ink paintings comes from drawings and watercolour paintings on silk.
For purity of colours silk paintings requires a build up of colours in thin layers.
During this long process the images I want to paint with brush and ink becomes clearer.
I begin a brush and ink work with certain image in my mind but the
uncertainties of the medium requires flexibility in adapting to changing circumstances.
The best results come from going with the natural flow.
In this process my concerns are simply aesthetic and a sense of adventure.
That is to say I am consciously pushing myself to the limit in creating a painting
that is both visually pleasing and interesting.
Similarly my work in small porcelain sculptures utilizes my
training in traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy.
Here my major concerns are movement, line, space and form.
I am not interested in being pigeonholed as a Chinese artist
just because I choose to use traditional Chinese medium in my work.
At the same time I have not chosen the Chinese medium to be gimmicky.
I pride myself in being able to use the medium well and to its advantage.
I am a product of my personal and cultural influences, which are Malaysian, Chinese and Australian. My visions are personal.