Our Artist of the Month Tina Bopiah on Finding Her Voice Through Social Storytelling

We are excited to start a new series of interviews as part of our Artist of the Month program! This initiative by the Women in Arts Network celebrates exceptional talent across various creative disciplines, offering artists a global platform to showcase their work. The program fosters a vibrant community of creators, providing invaluable opportunities for growth, recognition, and connection.

We’re excited to introduce Tina Bopiah as our Artist of the Month on the Women in Arts Network. Tina is a talented artist whose journey through motherhood, self-discovery, and creative rebirth has shaped a unique and powerful creative voice. She opens up about everything from her early experiments in egg tempera to her current work with thread, paper, and acrylic on canvas. She shares the physical and emotional challenges of each shift in medium, the joy and chaos of working large, and the profoundly personal themes that drive her practice.

Tina also discusses what it means to become an artist later in life, how storytelling—especially whispered or overlooked ones—fuels her work, and why she considers recognition from fellow artists her highest compliment. This interview celebrates resilience, reinvention, and the thrill of finding one’s voice on one’s terms.

As Cyril Connolly said in 1938, ‘there is no more sombre enemy of good art than the pram in the hall’, and I, like legions of women before me, matured in an age where conformity was the gold standard. Art was always a problem searching for a solution that rode on the back of the authentic self, knitting pink & blue booties. When the nest emptied, I tore off the chastity belt of my religion. I immersed myself, for the next five years, in an orgy of studying art in all it’s myriad forms and experimenting with endless media to find my artistic feet.

1. Your journey through various media led you to egg tempera—what drew you to such a demanding medium, and what did it reveal to you creatively?    

Finally, I found expression in egg tempera. The medium seemed best suited to my autobiographical concepts at the time, and I painted thus for a very long time. Although egg tempera supports are modest in scale as one paints flat on a surface, the work, to me at least, was exhilarating in experimentation and visualisation. The endless layering of colours and the final translucency is pure magic to the eye. BUT of course, nothing is perfect, and my back finally packed up with all that bending. A further drawback was the drying time – a whole year, and although it is the most complex paint medium in the world, it is prone to damp. A huge drawback.

Art was always a problem in search of a solution that rode on the back of the real self knitting pink & blue booties.

Tina Bopiah

2. You mention a shift to paper, thread, and acrylic for greater immediacy—how did that change your relationship with scale, space, and spontaneity?   

There were other media in the interim, but none large enough, and I wanted to go BIG. I experimented and finally settled on thread and paper on an acrylic background on canvas. Here, too, as with anything new, one painting emerged at a time out of so much frustration. This being all very new, none of these works have ever been exhibited by me and at times I dread starting a new one and dealing with the hair-pulling exasperation of it all as I try to make my concepts work on much larger supports with thread that should not look like embroidery to me.

3. You describe yourself as a ‘collator of insights and a collector of gossip’—how does storytelling, especially informal or whispered, shape your work?   

Since I work in the broad category of social engagement, I love to translate endless life in all its glory, fraught and joyful, onto my painterly supports in an endeavour of substance as opposed to the glamour of art.

4. With works in significant collections and representation at key institutions, how have you balanced recognition with staying true to your internal creative compass?   

Maturity has allowed me to delve into my psyche, draw out concepts, and hold to them. Today, another artist’s appreciation is the top hat I wear and dance in the sun. Here, I thank worldwide Instagram and the artists who visit. THANK YOU, DARLINGS!

The assumptions of ageing are not for you.

Tina Bopiah

5.  What advice would you give to women artists finding their voice later in life or after a long pause in practice?  

While one is set back in time and facing a cupboardful of rejections, all that can be done mentally and physically is to develop a manic drive to make up for lost time, working harder and deeper. The assumptions of ageing are not for you.

6. Congratulations on being featured as Artist of the Month by the Women In Arts Network! How do you think opportunities like this help elevate your career and open new doors for your creative journey?  

The excellent exposure offered me by the Women In Arts Network will hopefully allow my incurable artistic drive to continue unabated, with the added advantage of greater exposure, for a good wind can fill our sails quite easily.

Tina Bopiah’s artwork is a powerful reflection of lived experience—stories of womanhood, resilience, rebellion, and rediscovery. From Tina’s journey, we’ve learned that creativity doesn’t follow a single path or timeline. Her story reminds us that it’s never too late to find your voice, break rules, and explore new ways of expressing the self. Whether working small with delicate layers or going big with bold new forms, Tina shows us that art is about courage—about daring to keep going, experimenting, and telling your story. To learn more about Tina, visit the links below.