Issue link: https://www.balharbourdigital.com/i/111120
TANYA CROWD LING DRAWS A The talented Londonbased artist has captured the attention of the fashion world with her fanciful illustrations. BY JACKIE COOPERMAN ILLUSTRATIONS BY TANYA LING From the garden studio behind her London home, artist Tanya Ling has become a fashion world darling, rendering feminine and whimsical illustrations for luxury brands and magazines like Vogue and Elle. ���Home for me is a piece of paper or a canvas. I see those as a territory, a principality, an empire. That���s the world I make,��� says Ling, 46, clad in her typical workday ensemble of ���slightly luxurious��� but somewhat consumed cashmere (her husband loathes moth balls) and a belted, paint-splattered safari dress. Indeed, Ling, the Calcutta-born daughter of peripatetic Indian academics, has always defined herself through her art, using creativity to balance a childhood spent in India, Africa, America and Europe. ���I was an only child, so painting and drawing became like a companion,��� Ling says. ���It was stable and I could control it. From that perspective, my life hasn���t changed much.��� Perhaps, but Ling���s life has become notably more glamorous since her early days toiling to gain admission to London���s prestigious Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, from which she graduated in 1989. ���I never really planned to make a living out of fashion illustration,��� says Ling. ���I was quite na��ve and thought everything was photography.��� After working as a designer in Paris for Dorothee Bis and Christian Lacroix, Ling returned to London, opening an art gallery called Bipasha Ghosh with her husband, contemporary art dealer William Ling. In 1996, Ling debuted her drawings at artist Gavin Turk���s Charring Cross Road studio, and soon was working on commissions for British Vogue, Diane Von Furstenberg, Selfridges and Harrods. Ling has also designed her own ready-to-wear collections, which have sold at Henri Bendel, and has more than 50 drawings in the Victoria and Albert Museum���s permanent collection. Idea Drawing 81, 2012 BAL HARBOUR 85