Painting has always had a place in Tanya Webber’s heart. Photo: Supplied.
After leaving Wagga at 19, local artist Tanya Webber has returned to her roots and started her own paint and sip workshops at the Station Creative Space.
Painting has always held a special place in Ms Webber’s heart, but she put away the brush after graduating from Mt Austin High School.
While she did no painting for 20 years, she did collect materials such as paintbrushes and paint with the idea that she would eventually get back into it.
It wasn’t until 12 years ago when she came back to Australia after a stint in Singapore as a regional account director for a technology research company that she finally caved and broke out the tools collecting dust.
“It was always, ‘I’m going to use that one day,'” she said.
“When I did start painting again, I had a big collection of things – but most of it was unusable. Paint doesn’t last that long.”
Running workshops wasn’t always on her radar. The idea came to mind while she was living in Melbourne during COVID.
She was looking for ways to socialise without necessarily putting herself or her loved ones at risk, and decided to try her hand at running live workshops where a group of people went online and painted together.
“I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to create a painting community where beginners could join?'” she said.
“They could actually learn to paint online, but in a live environment.”
She never got to put her plan into action, but saw an opportunity when she moved back to Wagga to spend more time with her mum, who’s elderly and in a nursing home.
With Pinot and Picasso now operating on a smaller scale, she noticed the hole Pinot and Picasso left in the community and founded Tanya’s Paint & Sip Workshops to offer people in Wagga a fun time.
During her workshops, she guides people through the process and on how to put their own spin on things. Her goal is to deliver a fun experience and send people off with “something that they love”.
After ditching the corporate world, Tanya now runs paint and sip workshops. Photo: Supplied.
“I don’t want them to put it in the bin as they walk out,” she said.
“That’s the last thing I want.”
Her favourite part of the workshops is seeing people leave “gobsmacked” at what they’ve created.
“[Some] people come in and they’re terrified and they say, ‘I can’t even draw a straight line,'” she said.
“Then they end up walking out with a beautiful painting they’ve created, and they’re just gobsmacked.”
That sense of fulfilment was missing from her corporate career, which led her to pack up her things and return to Wagga. Now she spends time editing videos, colouring in with her mum and running workshops.
“I just decided that after COVID, I needed to come back to my roots,” she said.
“I think you get to a certain age where you really just want to do something that you love.”
While the big smoke has its draws, Wagga has a very different pace and lifestyle that “lends itself more space to be creative and sit back, rather than being on the go all the time”.
“Wagga is actually a very creative kind of place, once you tap into that,” she said.
“And it’s nice to be back and spend some quality time with [Mum]. Our parents get older and they start to need you more.
“It kind of gave me a new perspective on what it was that I actually wanted to do.”
Upcoming dates and bookings for Tanya’s Paint & Sip Workshops can be found on her website, or contact her for more information. There are workshops in October and November available.
