It all started with emus. They must have made a huge impression on me as a child because in 1984 when we got our first computer, I printed out business cards for my six-year old self entitled "Tanya's Amazing Emus". For these I chose different clipart backgrounds and over the top of them drew pen and ink emus with big eyes. There were emus on lounge chairs at the beach, emus with top hats, emus their gangly long legs looking wistfully at the sunset. So it's actually not that surprising to anyone in my family that later, this little emu character made it onto my school folders, any Christmas card between 1984 and 2000 and then made it into my profession as well.

After I left college in 1997, I became a graphic designer and illustrated wherever I could. In 2002 I took the plunge and started pursuing my art full time - I went to the Manly markets weekly and set up my first studio in a rented room from my dentist. Yes, my dentist! (he just happened to be renting rooms!) Imagine having terrified patients walking into the dental surgery only to be confronted by a smiley room full of animals that looked as wide eyed as they did!

Doing the markets led to a lot of commissions too! I had the privilege of painting 70 works of art for Sydney's Westmead Private Hospital. Thanks to the invention of the internet, I sell a lot through my website now at my home studio. My days are spent painting in my favourite medium, acrylic on canvas, preparing archival paper prints on my large format Epson and drawing watercolour and pen and ink portraits. I also spend many long hours colour correcting the photos of the paintings I've just photographed so that they look as close to the originals as possible, packing and sending orders.

I adore animals. I 'see' what they are thinking through their eyes and I laugh at their cheekiness and I capture that. People think I have something very unique in my artwork and what they are perhaps are seeing is the way animals actually are! My artwork has always been a filter into the world of animals - an ever present source smiles, innuendo, unique little characters, cheeky inspiration, warmth, innocence and laughter.