Name: Tamara Venn
Where are you from originally: Exotic Essex, UK
Tell us about your favourite place in Siem Reap: Its not a place – its the bicycle journeys and adventures I’ve discovered around the boundaries and within the Angkor Archeological Park. Having the remnants of an ancient civilization full of forest and wildlife on my doorstep is pretty significant and awe-inspiring.
What’s the story or inspiration behind your collection: Nature! I feel at my happiest when surrounded by the natural world and my art is an extension of that. Bizarrely the pandemic has made this – my first series of paintings – possible. Life before covid always got in the way, I didn’t have the time to stop and concentrate solely on one project. This past 7 months has been that time I needed – to pause and enjoy the process. This series is far from finished – I’m about 10 paintings in to a planned 21 which I will exhibit early next year. The big cats and beetles aren’t Cambodia-centric but they have always been so interesting to me and this series of ‘lockdown paintings’ are titled Wild Abandon. An ode to finally slowing down and focusing on what I love and screw the time and financial consequences that I would let govern my life. Each one is named after a mood or moment I have felt during this weird period of time – when things simultaneously slowed down out there in the world but sped up monumentally within my own art practice.
Name one thing you cannot find in Cambodia and that you miss: Monster Munch. And a decent art supply shop.
If you could have any product from the SATU collection (other than your own), what would it be: Anything Le Serey! And Saarti’s Darhi Everything Oil.
What was the last gift you gave someone: I gave the first ‘Anticipating’ print to a very special person for his birthday!
After answering these questions, you walk outside and find $1,000 on your doorstep. What would you spend it on: I would continue supporting the local businesses here as much as I can. Ordering food from local restaurants, shopping from street vendors, taking tuk tuks. It isn’t much but as long as covid is here and so many of us are out of work that’s the best thing I can think of doing with it! Oh – and I would probably order some fancy paintbrushes from America too 😊
Discover Tamara's Wild Abandon Collection here.