Working for HARE as a Creative Producer Tanya uses art, storytelling, media and experiential design to foster a connection between people and the natural world.

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She runs events and workshops connecting people with nature through their creative expression, exploring environments, materials, processes, narratives and cultural contexts.

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Her artwork is a celebration of nature through Animism, symbolism, ritual and narrative. It is influenced by the natural surroundings, history and folklore of the Forest of Dean, combined with her childhood experiences growing up as a British expat in The Netherlands, and her lifelong love of Japanese culture. She is exploring nature-centric female archetypes through a storytelling shape-shifting muse and emerging alter-ego Wendy Moth.​​​

 

- History -

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Originally from Frimley in Surrey, Tanya was raised an expat in Holland from the age of 6 months, then Belgium from the age of 5 years. Her childhood was spent pretending to be animals and dinosaurs, playing in the garden, cycling everywhere, doing arts and crafts, playing computer games and building Lego, reading fantasy stories, watching David Attenborough nature documentaries, and learning about other languages and cultures from her school friends.

 

Her family returned to the UK when she was in her early teens. She kept one foot in nature, and the other in art, studying Biology and Art through to A Levels. In 2008 she received a Bachelor’s degree in Animation Arts from the University for the Creative Arts. She moved to North Devon after graduating and began working as a freelance creative, whilst exploring the diverse and wild riches of the North Devon landscape and coastline. She began to surf, and in 2011 she began scuba diving with BSAC, and became an Assistant Diving Instructor in 2013.

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A pivotal moment for Tanya was in 2015, when she began working as Arts Manager for Broomhill Art Hotel in North Devon. Broomhill was a beautiful haven for art and nature, with sculpture gardens and slow food restaurant. It was a true labour of love for the Dutch owners Rinus and Aniet van de Sande, and was a testament to what could be achieved when the abundance of creativity and nature were celebrated in harmony.​

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In 2017 Tanya and her husband started a family. It was a time of transformation, with the primal transition into motherhood, the emergence of a powerful maternal energy and a need to connect more deeply with mother nature. Since moving to the Forest of Dean in 2019 Tanya has been learning about the area's nature, history and culture, as well as researching her own English and Irish roots. She is developing her garden at home with her two young children, looking to increase biodiversity and following a forest garden method taught by Martin Crawford. She loves to explore wild places, getting creative and learning new things, and spending a lot of time reading real, dog-eared, musty and wonderful books.