Tucked away in a house in old Wiltshire, England, is New Zealand-born artist Tanya Achilleos Lock. She started her oil painting journey in 2011, while studying under Raymond Harris Ching. Since then, she has honed her craft in realism, focusing primarily on wildlife. And in the first year of her art career, she went on to win a number of awards, including first place in the BBC Wildlife Artist of the Year in the Frozen Planet category, and has had her art shown in a number of international exhibitions.
The Recovery, the fever broke, oil on board, 31½ x 23½"
Recovery Day 2 - Lily, oil on board, 30½ x 24"
Painting people and pets like dogs and horses is an immense joy for the artist. “Over the pandemic I have been studying the love between a dog and owner and started to paint a series of portraits,” she says. “One of the fun challenges is setting up the next sitter. I am lucky to have a house that fits classic backdrops. For commissions, people have the opportunity to come to the house and we can work together on the layout. I take a series of paintings and also do some drawing to get my reference. Then my real passion of turning this into oil starts.”
Humming birds with vase – Flying in for lunch, oil on board, 22½ x 15"
Tanya Achilleos Lock works on a new piece in her studio.
She continues, “[I] won’t stop until I have managed to make a small inch of the canvas look like that person, object or animal...I love to use a whole range of colors, lots of cadmiums, deep reds and light bright reds get mixed to create the exact skin color.” Versatile in her subject matter, Lock also paints a variety of wildlife, including rhinoceroses, flamingos, manatees and sea turtles, to name a few, as well as a number still lifes.
Lock is represented by Torrance Gallery in Edinburgh, Scotland. —
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