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THE JOURNEYS OF A LAKELAND ARTIST
by Tiana Marie
I was born in Kendal, South Lakeland on April 16th 1960 into a family of artists and grew up nearby at Halfpenny. From Halfpenny Fields I used to ride my Highland pony to the top of Helm, the nearby hill, from where I could look down into Kendal. It was there for the first time that I found myself looking down at Nature from a high vantage point and looking into the future with optimism and curiosity, a desire to forge ahead with an inspiration and vision that has never left me.
Surrounded every day by Nature's Beauty, I was inspired to create my first drawings at the age of four, fascinated as I was by the mysterious natural power that was all around me. My favourite haunts while growing up were Longsleddale and Langdale, I can still feel the raw power of the landscape coursing through me to this day. It was this feeling of affinity with Nature that inspired me to begin my first landscape paintings, the desire to express what I felt about the places I love, the feelings fundamental to particular places and the way those feelings change, lightning-like in their intensity and speed.
 I have always been fascinated by Nature's elemental power and unlike some people, one of my favourite places to be is standing in the middle of a thunderstorm. The primal force feels to me to be that which gave life to the Earth and it imparts a sense of nature's majesty which is unique. Caught in one while passing through the Mickleden Valley inspired one of my own favourite of my paintings, 'Mickleden Valley', in which I tried to capture the essence of the experience of the thunderstorm and its aftermath in that most amazing of Lakeland places.
I went to St. Anne's School Windermere and, after leaving there spent the next five years studying at Lancaster College of Art and Leicester Polytechnic, where I attained a B.A. (Hons) degree in 1981.
After this time studying, I again returned to Halfpenny and established my first studio there as a professional artist in 1983, the same year in which I was elected to the Lake Artist's Society, the days playing in St. Sunday's Beck bearing fruit as I began my quest to capture the feeling of the world around me in watercolours, sketches and oil pastels.
 My first solo exhibition was held at John Ruskin's home, Brantwood, Coniston, in 1983. This was very fortuitous as Ruskin's philosophy, succinctly summed up in the quote, "It is the responsibility of the artist to reveal the beauty of God's Creation", has inspired my work since the beginning and continues to be a potent inspiration for me in my travels through Nature. Since then I have had solo exhibitions every year except between 1997 and 1999, when I was receiving commissions and teaching, working as a workshop facilitator and inspirer to help people expand their creative horizons.
From 1991-92 I was artist in residence at the painting workshop at the Theatre in the Forest, Grizedale. Forests have always exerted a strong attraction to me. The sense of being close to Nature and the Spirit of Creation is never stronger than it is here, among the trees and woodland creatures, and there is no better feeling than that which you encounter when standing still in the quiet, mysterious and velvet silences of the forest. I would one day like to live in a forest and be with that feeling all the time, hearing the song of the forest in the same way that the composer Sibelius did when he wrote his greatest music.
In those magical Lakeland Fells and Valleys lies the unguessed secret force of Nature that can enthrall and terrify by turns.
 Around one the living Heart of the Earth pulsates with the intensity of an electrical storm and the inner fire which animates it all appears everywhere in the fleeting images of natural forms which you can see every time you take a walk, in whatever direction takes your fancy. My paintings are a continually evolving attempt to capture impressions of these fleeting images and suggest their inner power and life. To me, all of Nature is on fire with an unsurpassable Beauty that is profoundly Spiritual in its impact, never a day goes by when I am not awe-struck by the ferocity in the clouds of a rainstorm or the mighty symphonic design in the colours of a sunset. I love the Lake District the most for its abundance and surging power, everything can be seen here if you care to look. Recently I established a new studio in Kendal, the Robin Hill Studio, and from here I can launch painting and sketching journeys to gather inspiration for my new works.
Among my recent projects is the publication of greetings cards with poetry based on my work, called the Truth and Beauty Series. I am also increasingly inspired by the strong connection between nature and classical music and I am going to paint the image which inspired the main theme of Sibelius' Symphony No.5, that of sixteen swans flying over head and turning slowly to disappear in the solar haze. The future promises to be a very exciting, inspiring and powerful place to be and as an artist, the prospect of the world becoming a more beautiful place through the production of inspired art has never looked closer to becoming a reality. My optimism and curiosity remain as on fire as ever, my passionate desire to communicate the beauty I see and feel in my heart is forever one with my vision, the same one that inspired me when sitting on the top of Helm and saw Nature spread out below me in splendour for the very first time.
TIANA MARIE
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