Tanya Morel
Artist and actor
With a father in the army, Lydford-based artist Tanya Morel spent much of her childhood abroad, her school years at boarding school in London. Her great passion being theatre, she trained as an actor in the capital and spent many years working successfully in touring theatre and independent film and TV production, both in front of and behind the camera.
As a founder member of the highly-acclaimed Oddbodies Theatre Company, she has performed internationally, with the company’s film work being showcased at film festivals around the world including the award-winning Mrs Lustleigh’s Fancies and the feature-length adaptation of Gogol’s Diary of a Madman.
The new millennium and a deep desire to start a family sparked a move to Lydford with her husband, the Devon-born theatre director and actor Paul Morel. Three children later and following a foundation degree in art and design from Kensington and Chelsea College, she graduated with a first class degree in fine art from Falmouth University.
Tanya now works mainly as an artist, currently concentrating on print making and ceramic sculpture, although she also draws and is involved with animation and the moving image.
Coming from a creative family, her path through life seems to have been inevitable: ‘My mother was a painter, my sister is an artist, my brother is a writer - actually my dad, although he was in the army, was very artistic,’ said Tanya.
‘When I was young I was torn between art and drama - I chose drama because I thought I could always come back to art, which is absolutely what has happened!’
She undertakes projects for the arts-inspired learning charity Daisi, teaching print making and animation, which she loves - she’s also a member of the Tamar Valley Printmakers.
At the moment the group is working on a project through the Mayflower 400 celebrations, collaborating with 20 artists from Cape Cod in America. Their work will ultimately be hung in the Museum of Modern Art in Cape Cod.
Explaining that working as an artist could occasionally be quite a solitary way of working, Tanya said she found the companionship gained by working with the other Tamar Valley artists very refreshing.
Tanya’s work is figurative; interested in people, her subject matter is very often narrative, driven by her extensive background in theatre and performance.
‘I will see an image or read a story that will inspire an image but pretty much all my work is people,’ Tanya explained.
‘When I’m working on an image, there’s always a narrative going on, I am always trying to capture an atmosphere.
‘On the face of it my images can seem quite benign but when you look at them a bit more closely, they can be quite sinister - I am a bit drawn to the dark side,’ said Tanya.
‘I also think there is humour in my work and sometimes you can achieve that through the title. I love titles, they are really important to me - some artists hate that side but I love thinking of titles, they’re part of the narrative.’
A print Tanya has recently completed, entitled Thanksgiving, was inspired by a picture of Sicilians on a hill dating from the 1970s, which Tanya particularly loved. She is delighted that this particular work has recently been chosen to be hung at the Royal West of England Academy.
Tanya said she and Paul felt ‘incredibly privileged’ to live on the edge of Dartmoor with the River Lyd running through the garden and said being able to work as freelance artists while bringing up their family in such an inspirational place was a source of great joy to them both.
She is also passionate about encouraging the arts, in whatever form, particularly from a young age and is clearly delighted that all three of their children share hers and Paul’s love of music, theatre and dance.
‘A love of the arts is part of being a rounded human being, to enjoy a creative process,’ said Tanya.
Jane Honey