Dream-like Drawings by Australian Artist Beray Uzunbay
My next interview is with Beray Uzunbay, an artist, educator, and curator from Melbourne, Australia. Beray discusses her process for creating whimsical, dream-like works of art, as well as her passion for teaching and what led her to pursue a career in art education.
Hi Beray! Tell me about where you’re from and how you initially became involved in the arts.
I am a Melbourne based painter, teacher, curator, co-host of The Creative Lens, and just a creative human being in general. I've been interested in drawing since childhood, but it wasn't until 2013 that I started taking the fine arts more seriously. It was during 2013 that I discovered soft pastels too. Little did I know that this marked the beginning of something very special.
Your pastel drawings have a whimsical, other-worldly quality. What inspires your work?
My other-worldly landscapes are inspired by the intensity of emotions. Sometimes passion is the overarching theme, sometimes it's grief, sometimes it's hope. I explore emotions and my experiences with those emotions through my landscapes. In all my paintings, hope is never absent. It's always there, whether I intended for it to be there or not, because hope is something always here in real life.
Why do I paint other-worldy and dreamlike scenes and use them as vehicles to deliver important messages about the matters of the heart? Fantasy art has always been a passion of mine because it's a place detached from some of the social laws of this world. The kind of freedom in fantastical realms is intriguing to me. I think freedom in general is something I'm very passionate about. I like my freedom, the ability to choose and be the person I want to be. So, this is why I paint free-spirited and otherworldly landscapes. Oh, and also, because I'm a daydreamer.
I also draw inspiration from the post-impressionist movement and from artists like Vincent van Gogh. I identify as a post-impressionist painter.
In addition to being an artist, you also teach workshops for emerging artists. Can you tell me a bit about your teaching experience and how you transitioned into education?
I started teaching in 2018. I love preserving art and nourishing creativity and I can do this through teaching others. The more artists we bring into the world, the higher chance we have to preserve this beautiful discipline.
How has your work shifted and evolved over the years?
I started off by doing realism. I wanted to be a realistic painter and more specifically I wanted to paint people in this style. Part of the reason was because I thought that realism was true art. I cannot believe I thought that. It was a long time ago and I was quite young. When I saw Claude Monet's work for the first time in 2013, I realised that I wanted to explore a contemporary style and I wanted to paint landscapes. So I did. Since then, my love for modern art has grown so much and I mainly create modern art nowadays.
What are your goals as an artist, and where do you hope to see yourself in 10 years?
My goal as an artist is to create art, which will inspire people to reflect and engage in introspection. In the next 10 years, I want to have my own studio where I teach and create art, I want to have curated many exhibitions and I want to be someone who creates amazing work opportunities for other artists. Supporting other artists is something I am deeply passionate about. I understand how hard it is being an artist and I want to create a future for other creatives where they don't experience the struggles I experienced.
Follow Beray on Instagram at: berays_art
Website: www.linktr.ee/BeraysArt