About the exhibition
Artist’s Statement
Some of my earliest memories are of collecting objects on the seashore and arranging them. I have always delighted in the act of discovery and chance encounter – spending many hours outdoors finding and observing the shells, sea life, diverse fragments of pottery and stones washed up on the tide line.
My work has drawn strongly on these early influences and my observation of colour, texture and pattern in nature. I return constantly to significant objects in my life for inspiration and as a vehicle for self-expression.
I am preoccupied with collecting and ordering natural objects and exploring the shapes, layers and contrasts that lend themselves so well to the medium of etching. I often use the specimens themselves in the etching process, leaving an impression of an actual feather or leaf for example, building up a multi-layered history or environment on the plate. I enjoy the play between the intricate design of nature itself and my own act of composition.
‘The Forester’ is one of a series of eight etchings taken from drawings made in the entomology department of the Melbourne Museum over the past eighteen months.
I find myself drawn to the moth for many different reasons. Often regarded as less exciting and striking than their more celebrated counterpart, the butterfly, their immense diversity of shape and colour, and subtle and beautiful patterning, carefully adapted for camouflage and survival, make them an intriguing and rich topic of investigation.
Profile
Tiffany McNab was born and brought up in the rural, Western District of Victoria. She completed a Bachelor of Arts in Painting and Printmaking and a Graduate Diploma in Printmaking at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology during 1982 to 1985 before leaving Australia to work overseas.
In 1987, Tiffany moved to England with a view to gaining greater knowledge of her field. She acquired considerable experience as a freelance etching editioner, working primarily for the artist Brenda Hartill between 1988 and 1993. Tiffany then established her own studio in a Victoria warehouse in Southwark, South London, working exclusively on her own prints and watercolours. At the end of 1996, Tiffany returned to Melbourne, where she now lives with her husband and two daughters, India and Charlotte. She works from her own print studio.
During her time in England, Tiffany had her prints shown in major competitive exhibitions. Works have been hung in the Royal Academy of Arts’ summer exhibition, the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers open print exhibition, the Royal West of England Academy autumn show and the Federation of British Artists’ national print exhibition. Her work has been widely shown in private galleries both in England and Australia. In 1999, she was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers.
Tiffany is a painter and printmaker, specialising in etchings and watercolours. Her work is primarily concerned with developing the expressive potential of the still-life. Through the juxtaposition of unusual and often unexpected combinations of objects, animals, insects and environments, Tiffany’s images play with our expectation of the everyday. Her works reflect the brilliant colour and light of her Australian background, her keen observation of nature and instinctive response to her chosen subject matter.
Tiffany is an enthusiastic collector and returns constantly to significant objects in her life for inspiration and as the vehicle for self-expression.
Click here to view Biography.
