Tina Sideris

Love of the visual arts especially colour and pattern, inspired by both ethereal and earthly beauty has always captivated me.

My yearning to interpret the external world and my internal world , through the visual medium, is what gives me joy. It also helps me make sense of life’s journey. By drawing on my life, including my upbringing (family), my schooling, my travels, my daughters and husband, I am never at a loss for inspiration, for subject matter. It is also these very relationships and experiences that drive my desire to visually capture those reflections.

Thematically I take inspiration from these influences and the myths and legends of my heritage. Here I draw on the power and allure of the ancient goddesses and see these elements in all women today: by reflecting on the past, my art keeps me firmly rooted in the present.

My love of Matisse’s odalisques, religious iconography and Japanese woodblocks have all inspired how I approach my subject matter. Their serenity and stillness in a moment of contemplation and reflection (however fleeting that moment is). I like how they capture the transcendental in the ordinary.

The artform of pyrography allows me to celebrate a simple decorative style, letting the lines and colours work alongside the natural surface of the wood (something of the earth and so earthly) to tranquilly co-exist. I enjoy the interchange between materials and techniques, including, the egg tempera technique and the gilded glass technique of ‘verre eglomise’ that was predominant during the Renaissance period. My studio practice is continually evolving and I enjoyed my most recent intersection between the manual and digital mediums. The product a hybrid of analogue and digital montages, that so closely paralleled our world as we are living it today.

My art is simultaneously decorative, serene, sensual and grounded.

My plans are to extend my subject matter further into the realms of the imagination and to organically allow the interchange between materials and techniques and to allow myself to escape in the process and learn from where this journey takes me. Every stage illuminating the way. I find beauty and mystery in all aspects of life and that is why I pursue this enigmatic path and build on the mystery of storytelling.

• Monash University Bachelor of Arts 1985
• Monash University Diploma of Education 1986
• Monash University Bachelor of Arts (Graphic Design) 1992

News & Media

Sacred impressions through-art, The Greek Herald, 4 May 2024