Tina Frantzen - Painter

Words from the Artist


My initial training was at Artstation where I worked with tutors Matthew Browne and Kathryn Stevens while studying life drawing, painting and photography.

So began a journey discovering the joys of painting with light, to capture the elusive and varied qualities of light to convey mood, atmosphere, emotion and understanding.

My first representative paintings were of Santorini and Istanbul, where I was using light to convey the atmosphere of these two very different places - calm versus clamour, simplicity versus grandeur, earthiness versus opulence.

Tina Frantzen

In the Doorways and Transition series, with a limited palette, I moved from depicting atmosphere to using light to convey ephemeral moments, moments which evoke our deepest emotions - looking outwards towards the light as a metaphor for change and hope.

In my latest paintings, there are figures, people who have entered my work as echoes of some distant past. These richly coloured figures emerge from the darkness, glow in their own right, and form their own sense of atmosphere.

Painting intuitively and allowing each figure to develop as it will, have created many surprises and I enjoy the wealth of enigmatic characters that appear in my paintings. Illuminated for a fleeting moment they present themselves to be interpreted however the viewer pleases.

Like all journeys there have been learning curves and discoveries, but along the way I have been surprised, delighted, overwhelmed and still committed to exploring that elusive quality of light.

Photography

Alongside my painting practice I have developed my interest in photography. I am attracted to the spontaneous unguarded moments between people, mirroring the ephemeral qualities of my paintings. I am also drawn to the changing atmospheric qualities of light within landscapes.

Art Links

Tina Frantzen Artwork Books

Buy Artwork books by Tina Frantzen. Preview and learn more about these self-published Fine Art books.

Tina Frantzen on ArtsDiary

A "one-stop-shop" to make it easy to see at a glance what's showing in galleries throughout Auckland

Tina Frantzen on Railway Street Studios

Railway Street Studios is an artist centric space. An art gallery exhibiting New Zealand contemporary fine art, with space for resident artists to work and extend their practice.

Tina Frantzen on The Arts House Trust

The vision of The Arts House Trust is to support, promote and expose New Zealand contemporary artists while providing the wider public with an inimitable cultural and historical resource of contemporary New Zealand art.

Tina Frantzen on Jo Dalgety - Art Blog

Art and art doings by artist Jo Dalgety

Women in Art - Q&A with artist Tina Frantzen

Interview on Railway Street Studios blog by Fiona Cable

My work is in private collections in UK, Australia and New Zealand, including that of the James Wallace Trust.