Tara Parker-Woolway

I’m an Oxfordshire artist, living close to the beautiful and inspiring White Horse at Uffington. I work from my own studio and love welcoming visitors into my space for exhibitions and open studios. I am largely self-taught and work in many media, mainly oil paint and cold wax and acrylic. My lively gestural painting style enables me to convey an impression of a subject which is rooted in reality not bound by it. It’s a process of play with colour, texture, layering, adding and wiping with my hands and squeegees.

I am fascinated by the boundaries, borders and edges found in the landscape and my work often references this liminal space. The point between realism and abstraction, where shapes and marks create fleeting impressions of a subject. Distant horizon lines, natural occurring shapes within the
landscape, misty mornings and flooded fields capture my attention.

I find most of my work is inspired by these natural elements. Layering paint and wiping sections away reveal the spaces as if mists are swirling, causing the landscape to appear and disappear. In acrylic I mostly work wet on wet, colour mixing as I go, glazing to create subtle transparent layers. When using oil paint and cold wax I work in thin layers of buttery soft colour, wiping colour across the paper, encouraging areas of colour mixing and blending. Cold wax adds body, transparency and depth to the oil paint.

I love collecting words from poetry, prose and language that link to my work and often the titles link to the feeling in the piece.

I have always studied and made art, first at Shelly Park, Bournemouth then at Middlesex University in London. My passion for creativity has led to a long career as an art teacher and I love helping others to find the joy of Art.

A period of illness in 2020 and 2021 meant that I had to step back from the act of creating but painting played an important role in my recuperation. After my illness my work has become very calm and peaceful, perhaps alluding to the joy I find in being alive.

In the past year I have had work selected for the ING Discerning Eye prize and was also longlisted for the Women in Art prize 2024 . I am an active
member of Oxfordshire Art Society and The New Bath Arts Club and regularly open my studio for Oxfordshire Artweeks and Swindon Open Studios.

I have work in private collections across the UK, Europe and Africa.