Tahnee Lonsdale
A world that exists beyond
“I am trying to understand the message, if there is one.”
For as long as she can remember, Tahnee Lonsdale has needed to paint. “I’ve always had to work to feel normal", she says. “It’s very therapeutic. It’s a bit like journaling". On canvas, she uses layered oil paints to create a haven of emotional divinity. Her portraits are totemic, genderlessness and intuitive. Limbs and bodies entwine and entangle – the embraces are warm but claustrophobic. In all of Lonsdale’s work, there’s a push and pull between heaven and earth. Go lightly (2022) is one painting that shows a group of figures that could easily be a gaggle of fallen angels. Their heads reach...
For as long as she can remember, Tahnee Lonsdale has needed to paint. “I’ve always had to work to feel normal", she says. “It’s very therapeutic. It’s a bit like journaling". On canvas, she uses layered oil paints to create a haven of emotional divinity. Her portraits are totemic, genderlessness and intuitive. Limbs and bodies entwine and entangle – the embraces are warm but claustrophobic. In all of Lonsdale’s work, there’s a push and pull between heaven and earth. Go lightly (2022) is one painting that shows a group of figures that could easily be a gaggle of fallen angels. Their heads reach high into the sky, but their feet drag down, heavily.
Even though Lonsdale didn’t set out to make work about her life, it happened almost by accident. One life event that had a big impact on her art was moving to Los Angeles back in 2015. There, everything was different. The light, the landscape, and even her feelings towards womanhood. “Being in LA highlighted what it is to be a woman now. When I got there I didn't have a visa, my husband was working, I had the kids, and I didn’t have any money.” These experiences slowly dissolved into her paintings, becoming a tender and poetic diary of everyday life.
Tahnee Lonsdale (she/her) was born 1982 in the United Kingdom and now lives and works in Los Angeles.
When Lonsdale moved to LA one thing in particular captured her attention – sofas discarded on the streets. She loved the shapes they made all stacked on top of each other. As she painted them on canvas, the sofas turned into shapes of bodies.
When Lonsdale was born, her parents gave her and her three sisters each their own colour. Yellow was given to her, and throughout her whole life, it held a special place in her life and art.
