Bee K. C. Tan
Image source Bee K. C. Tan
Bee K. C. Tan showed a remarkable aptitude for art from a very young age. She pursued fine art studies much later in life after a two decade long career as a medical doctor, before relocating to Perth, Western Australia with her family. She graduated with a Certificate in Western Art from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in 2000, besides completing many art courses both in Singapore and in Perth.
Bee currently resides in Perth, Western Australia, where she has also been teaching Art classes privately since 2009. Her professional art practice began in earnest in 2018, with a residency at Settlers Cottage Artists Studios. She is currently a resident artist and tutor at Tresillian Arts Centre since July 2019.
Interest in the therapeutic value of Art led Bee to obtain an MA in Art Therapy in 2007 from Edith Cowan University. Having worked with Palliative Care Patients, schoolchildren and orphans in Kenya, she maintains a keen interest in the community arts and Art as Therapy. She has also painted several murals including the massive Parable of the Tree mural located at Rowland Street in Subiaco, supported by a community grant from the City of Subiaco. In 2012 she started and currently still facilitates Artseeds, a community art and craft group now meeting monthly, supported by Subiaco Church.
In 2019, with support from Subiaco Church, Bee received a grant from the City of Subiaco to paint portraits of residents of Wandana Flats. The portraits together with their stories were exhibited at Subiaco Library in January 2021 to great acclaim.
Bee is an avid urban sketcher and regularly documents her experiences from life in her sketchbooks. She enjoys teaching this rewarding and beneficial practice for personal wellbeing in her popular Sketchbooking classes and workshops.
