Ta Byrne

Ta Byrne is a Thai painter whose artist's work transcends traditional boundaries with its blend of surreal and representational styles, engaging a global audience with its depth and originality. Her vivid and dynamic compositions invite viewers into a world where fantasy and reality converge, blending everyday realism with unique visual experiences.

"Egg Girl with her Cat" by Ta Byrne, Thailand, 2024, Oil on Canvas, 120x100cm. Courtesy of the artist.

The Artistic Journey of Ta Byrne

Born in 1974, she lives and works on the island of Koh Samui, off the southern coast of Thailand. A simple person with a simple life, Ta has humble origins as she is the daughter of farmers and lived her childhood in the rural outskirts of Bangkok. Her adolescence involved a lot of work. She had to leave school at twelve to work in the rice fields of her town. However, her destiny was already making its way to her without her knowledge. Before long, she left the rice fields to work as a seamstress in a tailoring workshop where she met an elderly street artist who showed her his creations and often invited her into his studio. This experience suddenly opened Ta's eyes, instilling a strong desire within her to dedicate herself to art. From then on, Ta Byrne began to see the world through new eyes, trying to draw and paint what she saw both outside and inside her. However, Ta believed that her dream of becoming an artist would never come true, despite her infinite passion. But in 2010, something changed her life forever: a small sketch she created was so successful that it opened the doors to her dream, bringing her into the limelight and starting her career.

"Egg Flowers in Red Vase" by Ta Byrne, Thailand, 2023, Oil on Canvas, 110x80cm. Courtesy of the artist.

Ta's success has gradually grown, and her paintings are now exhibited in homes, hotels, offices, clubs, and restaurants in more than 66 countries around the world, including Europe and Australia, and spanning Asia and North America.

"Egg Girl in Red on a Windy Day" by Ta Byrne, Thailand, 2023, Oil on Canvas, 120x100cm. Courtesy of the artist.

Artistic Influence and Style

The painter has always been fascinated by artists who have crossed borders, experimenting and changing the world of art. Her main sources of inspiration were Van Gogh and Picasso. For this reason, she has become an artist who is not afraid to experiment, exploring different styles such as Modernism, Impressionism, Cubism, and Surrealism.

The technique she uses for her works is oil painting, which allows her to create decisive brushstrokes and rich details, often combining colors in a lively mix of contrasts. In fact, oil painting helps achieve a great variety of shades and different consistencies, making the images always captivating.

Ta Byrne paints in a representational and adaptable style, capable of blending soft shapes and colors with sharp lines and figures. She is able to combine the familiar and the unexpected, the natural with the surprising. She herself states, "I want my paintings to have character and tell stories but without words, as if through mimicry."

"Egg Boy with his Friend the Iguana" by Ta Byrne, Thailand, 2022, Oil on Canvas, 122x107cm. Courtesy of the artist.

Signature Works and Continued Inspiration

Art connoisseurs and gallery owners consider “Egg Girl with her cat” to be Ta Byrne's most representative work. In this painting with oil technique, the author has created an extravagant fusion between the everyday and the fantastic. We perceive the strong surrealist influence, a style that seeks to combine the real with the subjective dreamlike. In the center of the painting, there is an egg facing upwards, which serves as a headdress for a serene girl holding a kitten. The artist, with this image which has the effect of surprising us, wanted to represent the purity and comfort inherent in the relationship between us and our pets. The surrealist character of the work is given by the juxtaposition of the family relationship between humans and animals with the figure of the egg, which symbolizes nature with the beauty of its details in a completely subjective way. The colors of the egg then immediately transmit a playful energy to those who look at the entire composition.

But Ta's artistic inspiration does not end here: on 2 October 2023 she signed a contract for the publication of her first book, entitled "Egg Island". The publishing world welcomed this novel with applause, describing it as a compelling and attractive read, capable of capturing the taste of the most demanding public. The story is set in a fantasy world called Egg Island, in which imaginary and rather eccentric characters live. An example? The Egg Family, the prestigious dynasty that in the story holds power over the entire island; but there are still women in red, fascinating and seductive for anyone; and also goddesses who reign supreme, conspirators who plot to acquire power over the island, and so on. An indiscretion has it that Ta Byrne is already working on her second novel, perhaps a continuation of the first: we’ll see what surprises the future holds for us. The certain thing is that, with this artist, boredom does not exist. Who knows what other compelling stories the eggs hanging on the walls will be able to tell us!

"Lady in Red and her Jazz Band" by Ta Byrne, Thailand, 2024, Oil on Canvas, 130x180cm. Courtesy of the artist.

Her vibrant, joyful, surprising but at the same time intriguing and symbolic style made her dream possible. She invented a new type of communication through pictorial art. In addition to an Instagram profile, which was mentioned at the beginning, we can get to know Ta and her works by visiting the official website, which serves as her personal permanent art gallery. But those who have been able to admire her works in person, on display from Koh Samui to Bath (UK), swear that there is always something that catches the eye in her works, and that is why they are successful. Whichever painting by Ta Byrne you take as a reference, you can look at it a thousand times and each time notice something different than before. And that's what's making "the egg girl" great.