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South African visual artist Dayna-Gay Tate

Dayna-Gay Tate

Cape Town | 4 artworks for sale

  • Eden's Peace - Painting by Dayna-Gay Tate Eden's Peace
    Painting / 70 x 80 cm
    R17 000
  • Clothed In Glory - Painting by Dayna-Gay Tate Clothed In Glory
    Painting / 120 x 84 cm
    R18 750
  • Garden Walk - Painting by Dayna-Gay Tate Garden Walk
    Painting / 34 x 53 cm
    R9 000
  • Drinking It All In - Painting by Dayna-Gay Tate Drinking It All In
    Painting / 34 x 53 cm
    R9 000
  • Spring Symphony - Painting by Dayna-Gay Tate
    Spring Symphony
    Painting / 48 x 60 cm
Dayna-Gay Tate has always loved colour, but in recent years her relationship to it – and desire to express using it – has deepened significantly. The artist's practice is largely an exploration of colour, form and medium, and her works categorised somewhere between abstract expressionism with the softness of impressionism. Primarily a painter, the artist enjoys moving between other disciplines such as drawing, design, illustration and photography.

"As a prolific documenter and deep feeler, I’m most often inspired and affected by my experiences in nature. I tend to notice impactful colour-combinations as they appear in the natural world and collect them as mental, emotional and physical photographs. These stored memories spark my curiosity and guide my process when back in the studio. My process is intuitive and playful, and abstraction in varying degrees tends to be the common result.
I have no preferred medium and enjoy exploring the endless opportunities for surprise that a mixed media approach affords. I move seamlessly between the use of oil paint, acrylic paint, watercolour, ink, graphite, charcoal, oil sticks, oil pastels and coloured pencils. As for substrates, I create on paper, canvas and fabric.
Themes of nature, home, light, and time often occur in my work, and through it I hope to communicate and inspire joy, rest, slowness, playfulness, and reconnection. At the core of my practice, you’ll find my faith, vulnerability, and a love for storytelling."

Born in Zimbabwe in 1994, Dayna-Gay Tate is an artist and photographer based in Cape Town, South Africa, working with a range of mixed media.
The artist graduated with a degree in Visual Communication Design from Stellenbosch University in 2017. This period brought a rich shift in Dayna-Gay’s creative thinking and, upon returning to painting in 2018, hugely impacted the way she explored composition, colour and form.
Along with reviving her painting practice, she continued to work as a graphic designer, while also running a photography business and teaching watercolour workshops for 5+ years.

Dayna-Gay has participated in various local group exhibitions and in 2023 hosted her first independent solo exhibition, ‘Drenched in Eden’, in Cape Town. Following the success of this show, she made the decision to step into full-time painting and now practices from her studio in the industrial suburb of Paarden Eiland.

Selected Exhibitions:

Solo:
‘Drenched in Eden’, The Ladder, Cape Town, December 2023

Group:
‘Shape + Form’, Mullers Gallery, Cape Town, September 2023
‘Post Fair Blues’, TheFOURTH Gallery, Cape Town, March 2023
‘Genius Loci’, State Of The Art Gallery, Cape Town, 2021
‘Paper Translate’, Gallery One11, Cape Town, 2019
‘Natura Botanica Terrarum’, Gallery One11, Cape Town, 2019

Which artists, books or music have inspired your work?
‘Peace to all who enter here’ – music album by Josh Garrels
Claude Monet, Henri Matisse, Kaitlyn Rose Leventhal (US), Ash Holmes (Aus)

If you could only have one piece of art in your life, what would it be?
This is extremely tough to answer, especially because I’m very sentimental! If I had to pick, it would probably be the wonderfully blurry and honest photograph from my wedding day that sits in our little lounge.

Pick three artists who you would be honored to exhibit with – and why
Kaitlyn Rose Leventhal, Laura Brown of Eva Ray Studio, Ash Holmes
I deeply admire their use of colour, texture and form and their work moves me.

How did you get started? Did you always want to be an artist?
Yes, I’ve known since I was a little girl that I wanted to be in the arts and doing something creative as a vocation. It was always a no-brainer for me. I got started during my first year out of school when I began taking on portrait commissions to earn money on my gap year.

What are some of the key themes you explore in your work?
Joy, playfulness, curiosity, nature, home

What should people know about your art that they can’t tell from looking at it?
That it’s a lot of patient, slow and intentional work. While my physical painting process is typically quick and gestural, and some pieces seem very “simple”, there are many long pauses in between moves where all the thinking and composing and waiting happens.

What are the most essential items in your studio and why?
My day bed, because naps are essential, and my plants, because green is essential for the soul.

Tell us more about your creative process.
It’s very light-hearted and playful. I am intuitive and curious by nature, and this comes through strongly in the way I explore and experiment with colours, mediums and surfaces.
I am practicing allowing my process to be slow, gentle and patient.

Do you believe an artist should use their platform to influence society? Why?
It depends. I don’t believe one should try actively hard to influence––this can feel hurried, pressured, or even pretentious. However, I do believe that as one engages authentically with their inner world and Maker, and thereafter with their work, that a natural outpouring of connection and storytelling occurs. This seems to me a humble and honest way to influence society, should that be the outcome.
 
Do you have a favourite or most meaningful work?
Yes, it’s a tiny little painting of an abstract hillside. It was the first proper painting I made after I had navigated 2+ years of burnout and chronic illness. There was a time when I didn’t know if I’d be able to paint again, and this little painting now stands as a hope-marker of the beginning of my healing story. It’s extremely precious to me, so much so that I’ll never sell it.

What is your greatest achievement as an artist to date?
Taking the bold leap into working as a full-time artist. What a ride it’s been! But so worth it, I am very grateful that this is my job.

What are your aspirations for the future?
I would like to continue the journey of learning to create from a place of rest instead of hustle. I also aspire to grow in practicing the freedom of playfulness over outcome. If I can grow in those two things I’ll be content until the end methinks!