Art is a reflection of Life.
“My art is a reflection of my inner and outer worlds.”
Inspired by nature and the indomitable human spirit, Bee K C Tan sensitively and skilfully captures the form and essence of a wide variety of subjects, including people, animals, florals and landscapes. She uses mainly water based media, especially loving the unparalleled luminosity and ethereal qualities of transparent watercolours to create lyrical and atmospheric narratives in her paintings. Apart from paper, she also uses wood and canvas as surfaces for her watercolours. An enduring fascination with three dimensional and kinetic art forms led to the recent presentation of some of her art as mobiles.
Biography
Bee K C Tan showed a remarkable aptitude for art from a very young age. She pursued fine art studies much later in life after a two decade long career as a medical doctor, before relocating to Perth, Western Australia with her family. She graduated with a Certificate in Western Art from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in 2000, besides completing many art courses both in Singapore and in Perth.
Bee currently resides in Perth, Western Australia, where she has also been teaching Art classes privately since 2009. Her professional art practice began in earnest in 2018, with a residency at Settlers Cottage Artists Studios. She is currently a resident artist and tutor at Tresillian Arts Centre since July 2019.
Interest in the therapeutic value of Art led Bee to obtain an MA in Art Therapy in 2007 from Edith Cowan University. Having worked with Palliative Care Patients, schoolchildren and orphans in Kenya, she maintains a keen interest in the community arts and Art as Therapy. She has also painted several murals including the massive Parable of the Tree mural located at Rowland Street in Subiaco, supported by a community grant from the City of Subiaco. In 2012 she started and currently still facilitates Artseeds, a community art and craft group now meeting monthly, supported by Subiaco Church.
In 2019, with support from Subiaco Church, Bee received a grant from the City of Subiaco to paint portraits of residents of Wandana Flats. The portraits together with their stories were exhibited at Subiaco Library in January 2021 to great acclaim.
Bee is an avid urban sketcher and regularly documents her experiences from life in her sketchbooks. She enjoys teaching this rewarding and beneficial practice for personal wellbeing in her popular Sketchbooking classes and workshops.
Works & Commissions
Bee’s art collectors are found in Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Canada, the Netherlands, UK and USA. She accepts commissions for people and pet portraits, landscapes and still life in watercolour, acrylics and oils.
You can follow her on http://www.instagram.com/bee_kctan
Her portraits of people and pets are featured on http://www.instagram.com/beekctan.
Classes & Workshops
Bee loves teaching and helping people discover their innate creativity. Her students attest to her systematic, inspirational and clear instructions as she provides a gentle and nurturing learning environment in her classes. Go to Classes page for latest details
Studio
Since 2019, Bee has been a resident artist and tutor at the Tresillian Arts Centre in Western Australia. She is currently in the Courtyard Studio. She was previously a resident artist at Settlers Cottage Artist Studios from February 2018 to June 2019.
Above mural is located in the Rowland Street Car Park, Subiaco.
Recent Exhibitions
Tresillian Studio Artists Exhibition 9Feb – 1 Mar 2024
Second International Watercolour Exhibition- Moore’s Building Fremantle, 11-26 June 2022 (group)
Tread Softly- Solo exhibition Tresillian Arts Centre March 2022
Tresillian Studio Artists Exhibition February 2022 (group)
Wandana Portraits Exhibition – Solo exhibition at Subiaco Library 11 – 31 January 2021
All Things Bright and Beautiful – Solo exhibition at Tresillian Arts Centre 16 Nov – 18 Dec 2020
Tresillian Studio Artists Exhibition February 2020 (group)
And others