Tan's artwork is available at The Gateway Gallery in Round Hill, VA, and at various shows and locations in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, DC.

Driven and prolific, Tan likes to paint all night to capture the fancies and the fantasies that fill her mind. Forests of Virginia, flowers of Thailand, skies of an enchanted land--Tan captures visions of nature as it is, or as we might wish it to be.

As a fifteen-year-old, Tan met artists in the Thai Air Force, in which her mother served. Their teaching got her started, but she has taught herself for her entire career since. Still today, the family farm on the Chao Phraya River inspires her use of vivid and verdant colors, with memories of tropical flowers, bananas, coconuts, and mangos. Those colors fill her still lifes, too, as well as the idyllic landscapes of dramatic Thai coastlands.

As a two-decade resident of Virginia, Tan takes inspiration from the hills of the Piedmont and mountains of the Shenandoah. And as a teacher, Tan wants her students to gain the same calm and peace of mind that she does when she paints: the freedom to forget daily problems, to break the rules, to experiment, and to delight in imagination.

Tan's latest works have blended the human element into fantastic scenes, whether with figures or architectural elements. A black-haired flute player emerges from dappled trees; a classical duet plays amid wildflowers and exotic birds; Adirondack chairs wait by a pond with blue turtles; and a staircase descends into a garden retreat.

Memory and imagination drive Tan through the night and into the morning as she paints. As the sun sets, her mind fills with the colors of the scene she wants to portray. When morning comes, another completed landscape or still life rests on the easel.

Email: tan@paintingsbytan.com