Tamsen in February!!
Tamsen Armstrong is the featured artist from February 1st to February 26th. Her reception is on Saturday, February 9th from 2:30 to 5:30, at Main Street Arts in Martinez.
Growing up in an artistic family in Southern California, oil painter Tamsen Armstrong was told there was no such thing as being born with talent. By practicing keen observation, hard work, and imagination, talent will emerge, so said her mother, who was a poet and sculptor and her father, who was a painter and illustrator. “My brothers, sister and I were encouraged to discover our creativity, so we all dabbled in music, visual arts, dance and theater.”
It wasn’t until she was older that she began to study oil painting, encouraged by her father. Remembering her childhood lessons, she approaches painting as “skills to be practiced with as much imagination as possible”.
Lately, she has been searching high and low for places in the Bay Area that are a little off the beaten path in order to capture and celebrate the experiences that make us human. She respects the beautiful places as well as battered places; the expansive oceanfront and the old, tired storefront. In her still lifes, she tries to see the beauty in common objects but also give equal weight to things that are deemed eccentric or just plain worn-out . “My goal is to find manmade and natural creations, see them intimately, paint them honestly and hope the resulting paintings will touch people’s hearts.”
Tamsen has been honing her skills in both plein air and studio work for the past seven years, studying and being inspired by her father, Norman Kingsford Vance, as well as the works of Jullian Merrow-Smith, Randall Sexton, Michael Chesley Johnson and Terry Miura.
She is a member of the Lamorinda Arts Alliance and often paints with other East Bay plein air painters.
It wasn’t until she was older that she began to study oil painting, encouraged by her father. Remembering her childhood lessons, she approaches painting as “skills to be practiced with as much imagination as possible”.
Lately, she has been searching high and low for places in the Bay Area that are a little off the beaten path in order to capture and celebrate the experiences that make us human. She respects the beautiful places as well as battered places; the expansive oceanfront and the old, tired storefront. In her still lifes, she tries to see the beauty in common objects but also give equal weight to things that are deemed eccentric or just plain worn-out . “My goal is to find manmade and natural creations, see them intimately, paint them honestly and hope the resulting paintings will touch people’s hearts.”
Tamsen has been honing her skills in both plein air and studio work for the past seven years, studying and being inspired by her father, Norman Kingsford Vance, as well as the works of Jullian Merrow-Smith, Randall Sexton, Michael Chesley Johnson and Terry Miura.
She is a member of the Lamorinda Arts Alliance and often paints with other East Bay plein air painters.
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