Sophia Tise

Sophia Tise
sophiebats@aol.com
www.sophiatise.com

Sophia Tise grew up in London, England and was educated in Oxford. Throughout her childhood and early years she developed a love of art, which eventually led her to pursue academic studies in Art - graduating with a BFA from Byam Shaw School of Fine Art, London. She is married and has lived in Pasadena, CA for more than ten years. Born into a family of painters and book publishers, her father Sir Brian Batsford, also known as Brian Cook, published Batsford Books and was known for the major series of books he worked on - notably The British Heritage Series and The Face of Britain Series, where he illustrated and designed the wraparound covers applying the Jean Berte process using watercolor inks of high intensity. He was a Member of the British Parliament and had a life-long interest in painting and garden design. Sophia’s mother was a painter and became a full time student at the Chelsea College of Art in London at the age of 80. Her son currently lives in England and is a Director and animator at Aardman.
During the years 1975 to 1990 Sophia was a full time photographic model under her maiden name Sophie Batsford. To most of her old acquaintances she is still known as “Sophie.” During that time she worked in print, mail order and television, and made over 150 national and international commercials. From 1990 to 2001 she worked in London as a stylist for many television commercials, then spent a year working in the art department for the movie director Stanley Kubrick on "Eyes Wide Shut".

Sophia is a member of The Collage Artists of America, Women Painters West, Pasadena Society of Artists and The Gallery 825, Los Angeles Art Association. Her work is in private collections in London, France, Bermuda and the Caribbean, and she exhibits regularly in the USA.

“I am a mixed media artist, and work on large scale impressionistic abstract works and also small intimate collage pieces. I have had a brush in my hand for as long as I can remember. I love intense colors, and use fierce angles to counteract the softer shapes and circles of femininity, creating images with thick oil, acrylic paint and paper. I spend many weeks on my larger pieces preparing the ground, often ageing the linens for well over a year before I feel they are ready. I constantly rework and break down each piece, building up layers with disparate fragments of collage and paint so my grounds become one with the finished artwork. In the past my work has been about struggle, determination and hardship, focusing on survival, mother and child, gender roles and third world devastation - the will to go on. Since the death of my mother I am moving towards more organic forms; the beauty of living things as opposed to death and destruction.
Everyday I must be in my studio or I deny myself the chance of something happening, a thread, an idea that I can work with. I embrace the work, really believe in it, run with the process and when it is finished, leave it for the viewer to question and move on.”

EXHIBITIONS/AWARDS

2009 "10^th Anniversary Group Exhibition," VIVA Gallery, Sherman Oaks, CA (Juror - Gerald Brommer)
2009 Collage Artists of America E - COLLAGE – ICAL VIVA Gallery, Sherman Oaks, CA (Hon Mention)
2008 Collage Artists of America Winter Show, VIVA Gallery, Sherman Oaks (Juror – Rosamund Felsen)
2008 First Frontier Collage Society 9th International Open Jrd. Exhibition, Austin, TX (Juror R. Burridge)
2008 Pasadena Society of Artists 83rd Annual Exhibition Brand Library Art Galleries, Glendale.

* None of the artworks may be copied or reproduced without the written permission of the Artist