Guest Post : Tasneem Kamies on Her Exquisite Watercolour Portraits

Have you met Taz? She is one of the most inspired humans you may ever come across and, after chatting to her for a minute, you will realise that her natural enthusiasm is completely contagious. As well as managing KIN on Kloof, Taz is a skilled artist. Her compassion and her innate artistic talents have led her to paint highly emotive watercolour pieces and it's been a pleasure to view her work in several group exhibitions over the last year.

For our Mothers Day Window Exhibition, Taz painted portraits of each KIN staff member's (aka "Angels") mum (with two guest portraits of a treasured KIN designer's and customer's mum too!). Each of her portraits are below with a bit more info from the talented hands and heart behind these beautiful pieces:

Tasneem's mum

Fazlin's grandmum

Tshego's mum

Chantal's mum

What they are

Each portrait is done using Watercolour paint.

My colour palette is tones of blue and purple.

The sizes are 16x21cm. 

They are framed in white box frames.

Lindsay's mum

Melany's mum

Eliana's mum

Adelaide's mum

How they are created
My portraits are created from Watercolour washes, bleeds and drips. I try to let the technique guide me rather than the picture. Hence portraits are not photo-realistic reproductions, but rather inspired by the image or subject I'm working from. 

I vary from subtle tones to bold. And each portrait is completely unique. I tend to focus on expressions, mostly the eyes where I try to capture the essence of that person. Their emotion drawn from the eyes.

Aurelien's mum

Tamzin's mum

Mimi's mum

For this exhibition specifically 

Working on these portraits was a very unique experience for me. Each portrait looks completely different as I had a different experience with each. Its been so beautiful painting the Angels' mums. Painting someones portrait is always very personal and I'm very honoured by this opportunity and humbled by everyone allowing me into their families to paint their mother figures :) It made me feel more vulnerable in a sense and I do feel so much closer to everyone. It's weird. So thank you!

Tanya's mum

Nick and his mum