Art Now and Then: Chris Tatam

Saturday, October 21, 2017

Chris Tatam

Old Mill (on the island of Anglesey), 2003, Chris Tatam

Bird on a Branch, 2016, Chris Tatam

Every so often I meet an artist who, like myself, is not famous nor even well-known; and quite frankly, probably never will be. However, the Welsh artist, Chris Tatam, has a much better chance of achieving some degree of creative notoriety than I in that he's thirty-four years younger than I am. He's also talented in two distinctly different art media--painting and goose eggs. He works in oils, acrylics, and watercolor, each about equally well (nothing unusual about that). What is unusual as to his talent is that Chris carves and decorates his eggs in a manner reminiscent of the famous Russian Faberge eggs (which were not made from egg shells, by the way).

Painting copyright, Chris Tatam

Menai Suspension Bridge (upper image), 2009, Chris Tatam; photo of Menai Bridge to Anglesey (lower image).

Watercolor instructor aboard
the Queen Mary 2.

Chris Tatam was born in 1979 on the island of Anglesey just off the coast of Wales. According to his resume he's been carving eggs since 1989, which would have made him about ten years old at the time. At ten I was drawing horsies and cowboys. Chris had another distinct advan-tage over me in that his grandparents were both profess-sional artists. Then, while watch-ing a TV program about Peter Carl Faberge and the imperial eggs, he began researching various techniques in cutting the eggshell including the use of a hacksaw blade and a compres-sed air dentistry drill. From the ages of 14 to 20 he entered and won numerous arts and crafts competitions, which led to exhib-itions and seminars throughout the U.K.

Bejeweled egg by Chris Tatam (untitled).

As so often happens when young artists are faced with anxieties of making their way in the "real world," Chris chose what appeared to be a safer path to success. He chose to study psychology and law in college. Later he began working in the field of legal aid. Even so, Chris continued to paint and teach art and craft classes in the evenings. He has been teaching throughout the United Kingdom for a number of years and more recently in the United States and onboard cruise liners. It was on board the Cunard liner, Queen Mary 2 that I met Chris. He was the watercolor instructor on the return leg of our round-trip to England.

One of his most

elaborate eggs.

I'm the bald guy in the black shirt just left of center. The upper image is that of the student art exhibit on the final day of classes.

Dusk, 2016, Chris Tatam

Tatam has a wide range of experience and knowledge in the painting of landscapes and seascapes, using all painting media. Primarily Chris is self-taught. More recently he has adapted his painting skills to other crafts that incorporate a range of materials from decoupage and enamel to creating Faberge style eggs using real egg-shell. Chris’s work has received many awards and prizes over the years in-cluding a first prize at the National Eisteddfod of Wales and a highly commended (honorable men-tion in American English) at the Crafters Guild of Great Britain. To date his work has been promoted and published across various mediums. Chris cur-rently resides in Orlando, Florida, but spends his summers in Wales on Anglesey where he conducts seminars and exhibitions of his work. He is proud of his Welsh heritage and takes much inspiration from the natural scenery of his homeland as reflected in his creations. More of Chris Tatam's work may be seen at: www.christatam.com . He can be contacted by e-mail at: christatam@me.com .