The Beginning
Stephanie Victoria “Penny” Tan was born and raised in Davao City. Ever since she was young, she has always had an affinity and interest in art. Her earliest influences has been Japanese animation and comics. With other interests collected along the way including but notlimited to: K-pop, manhua, and Asian historical dramas, her art eventually matured to what it is today.
The Journey
She took up Bachelor of Fine Arts Major in Advertising Arts at the University of Santo Tomas and graduated on 2013. After graduating, she practiced in the advertising field, specifically on web design and e-commerce. In 2015, she left her day job to pursue watercolor painting. From then on, she tried various ways to push her painting career such as art merchandising, taking up commissions, joining exhibits or contests, and conducting art workshops. Currently, she is a freelancer and creative entrepreneur who also works as a wedding livepainter on the side. Outside of art, she is either cooking in the kitchen, working out in the gym, playing with her dogs or watching Asian dramas.
The Vision
Penny’s works are often inspired by natural elements and movements in the environment such as flora and fauna, people, culture, and everyday objects or scenes. She creates her artworks mainly with watercolor to seize the contrasts and balances that make our world interesting. Her artworks are expressed in energy or subtleness of strong versus soft to capture or even magnify simple narratives. Through her vision, she invites the viewer to observe the mundane, the boring, even the bleak and seek new hidden happy chances or sparks from it.
Penny Tan 