From hobby to business - Tiana's artwork journey

They say you can lose yourself and find yourself in Art.

And this is certainly true of one local aspiring artist, Tiana McMaster.

The 19-year-old Castle Tower student is making great advances in the local art scene with her range of beautiful cards, pictures and bookmarks.

Tiana began her artistic journey during lockdown by drawing Anime, the popular Japanese animation style.

This was a great way for Tiana to offset the stresses and challenges and lose herself in a hobby that was to take on a whole new importance for her.

From there Tiana became interested in the history of art and was drawn to the works of Vincent Van Gogh and Louis Wain.

Tiana progressed to drawing animals, inspired by her own pet rabbits.

INFLUENCES

She now takes her creative influences from nature, including birds, flowers, trees and insects among her favourite subject matters.

Tiana sums up her style as whimsical, soft and with appealing improvised details.

This is one of the reasons she uses watercolours a lot in her work, which lend themselves to nuance and suggestion.

She believes expressing her ideas through Art has helped her connect with the inner imagination and to understand herself more fully.

Tiana is currently supplying some local businesses, including Carly Wright’s Studio, with her range of beautiful watercolour cards and is developing her style now to include pressed wild flowers.

She also gained recognition in the recent Ballymena Show, winning a number of prizes for her cards and pictures.

Tiana refers to her school Art teacher, Miss Murphy, as a strong mentor and more recently is delighted to be developing links with the community through Carly Wright and Ngage Start 360, where she recently facilitated a card making workshop.

As Tiana leaves school now her future plans include growing her own business to supply more outlet across Northern Ireland, delivering workshops and to inspire people, especially in her local area, to ‘lose and find themselves through Art.’

You can purchase Tiana’s cards through Carly Wright Studio, Ngage in Wellington Street and McCool’s Centra and Harmony Hub.