Welcome to the Soul Touched by Dogs Podcast, the show for dog lovers who
see dogs not as toys or tools, but wise souls worth our respect and care.
I'm an Herrmann, and I'm your host.
I talk to poor some humans, people who do great work for dogs and their people.
So come and join us for today's conversation.
Anke: Hello, welcome Tania.
I'm excited to have you
Tanja: here.
Hi, good morning.
Nice to be here.
Thank you for having me.
Anke: It's awesome.
And I love your background.
I love your background.
Anybody who's just listening, do yourself a favor, watch the video.
So Let's start out, give people an overview where you're from, originally
where you're based, and what's the
day
Tanja: job.
Sure.
So, um, welcome to my rainbow cloud, if you're watching the episode, and, um,
it's really great to be here with you.
I am originally from Germany.
Um, but I am based in the UK.
I've been here 19 years now, so, um, pretty much half my
life I've been in the UK.
Um, and my day job is painting, so I am a full time artist.
I create these very Very colorful, vibrant, um, happy paintings.
I call them my happiness anchors to sort of make people smile, sort of give them
a break from their day if they come home and they see this art and I just want
them to, you know, breathe and feel happy.
And, um, so, so yeah, that's what they do.
They anchor happiness in homes and offices, um, all around the world.
So that's what I do.
I love
Anke: it.
I love it.
I, I mean, first of all, I think a lot of people go like, wait, wait, wait,
what, how do you, you know, so many people try and turn a passion, especially
try and turn their art into a business and into a full time, um, career.
And so I think that's, there's, there's material for another episode
for a different show, but, um, Yeah, the happiness, Anke, and I think it's
almost like, it's just like dogs, right?
Like, you come home and they just brighten up your day.
Tanja: It is, actually, yes.
When you say that, it's like, I mean, obviously the dog, it comes
at you, it's so happy to see you, it sort of wags its tail.
And, um, so the paintings are, I guess, They sort of hang on
your wall and wag their tails, you know, like jump out of it.
They're very, they're so bright.
They really are, you know, they, they stand out.
Um, they, um, you know, you will notice.
And when you, you know, you, so you walk in a room and there's this sort
of splash of color and, um, those people who, my collectors, they, they
collect my art because they love it.
So even, you know, 10 years later, they still get that same effect of
just smiling when they see the work.
And, um, that's, that's my aim.
I think there's so much.
Um, out there in the world that kind of bombards us and, and, and, and
brings up loads of different emotions.
And I just want to go with peaceful happiness and, you know,
yeah, that's kind of my, my goal.
I love that.
Anke: It's almost, you know, I remember like the first time we spoke, my reaction
was, Oh my God, I love you, baby.
You know, and I had the same reaction again this morning.
It's like, you cannot.
It's almost impossible to feel kind of sad and, you know, looking at so
much, there's so much life in there, it's so vibrant and it's just like
you can't come home to a dog and feel
Tanja: miserable.
Exactly, exactly.
Um, it's, it's, it's like, um, you know, The moment you're with your dog, the
day just kind of, at least for a moment, you know, the day just washes away and
you don't think about it that much.
And that's kind of what I go for with my art as well.
I want that, that effect, you know, that it's almost like a break in your nervous
system or something, you know, like a little, like this anchor that it's like,
Brett, you're home now, you know, you're in a good space, you're safe, you're,
you know, you can take a breather and, you know, just sort of come down from
whatever day you've And, um, actually, even though, um, so I guess people who
are not that much into my art, they kind of look at it and it's like, oh,
that's quite nice for children and stuff.
But actually, um, so 90 percent of my art is owned and displayed by adults.
So it's actually a very small percentage of people who buy the, the
art or actually, um, the cushions.
I, I have, um, for a while I was doing cushions and they're
just sort of coming back.
So for example, this is one of them.
And, um, I have a whole, you can sort of see them in the background.
Um, I have loads of them, , but, um, so.
Very, very few of them, of all the questions that were then
went out, very few of them are sort of in children's rooms.
I mean, yes, I have, I know people who send me photos and, you know,
like with their little ones in the crib or in the, in the nursery, but
most of them are in living rooms.
you know, on couches.
I had, I had one person, he bought one for every room in his house,
so he just has one in every, every guest room, every, every room in his
house has a, has one of my cushions.
And, um, So yeah, it's, it's um, it's mostly adults who, who really respond
to my art and who, um, who love it
Anke: in their home.
And it's, I think it's not surprising, right?
Because I think, you know, everything from kids toys and clothes, everything
is always colourful, but as adults we don't really get that that much.
You know, most of our clothes are sort of a little more, you know, and, and that
splash of colour, I think it always works.
And I'm like, I'm
Tanja: just like...
Oh my god, there's a cushion with dogs on it!
You know, with Ryan Gannis and dogs, it's like, oh!
I had a cushion, I had a cushion with this one on it.
Um, but that's just left the studio, so um, that's not here
right now, so I can't show it.
Oh!
Yeah, it's very cute, yeah.
And, um, I think that's also when I started doing the, the greeting cards, um,
so I have, I have this one as a greeting card, you know, they came out so nice.
Um, and I just, I was so excited and I took them everywhere with me and I
ended up selling hundreds of cards just sort of in person and it's, it's all.
You know, it's all adults.
And again, it's a very small percentage of people said, Oh, I
can get this for my grandchild, you know, grandchild or something.
But most of them are like, I can't wait to send this to my friends.
And, you know, like send out these sort of happy, happy greetings.
And, um, that just makes me really happy to, you know, I just recently sold a print
where, where a collector they had bought, um, they'd actually bought two paintings.
Two prints and a card at the exhibition, and then they
commissioned, um, their dog portrait.
So this is actually the Snelly, she's an actual portrait.
And, um, and then they're just messaging, like, hey, can we have another print of
one of the prints that, hey, they had bought, but they're like, we're not giving
away our print, but we want to give a print to our friend for their birthday.
Can we have another one?
And I just.
So, you know, they just bought it and we send it off.
And, um, but yes, this, I love this one.
So this is just a print, um, of the original.
See, they already have the original, but, uh, so this is Nelly.
And, um, I, it was so much fun.
Um, the original is a little bit wider, but for this format, it worked out.
And, um.
It was sort of, I'd never met her before, so I'd done the portrait
from photographs, he sent me loads and loads and loads of photographs.
Anke: I was just about to ask you, how does that work?
Tanja: So, um, so he sent me a ton of photographs and then, um, and then I kind
of went in and I did the first design.
So I, I go in digitally.
I recently learned how to do it, and that's such a game changer.
But, so, um, this was sort of the first draft I did on,
uh, on the tablet digitally.
And, um, I didn't have the colors for the dog in my digital file
because I don't work with...
Um, I don't really have black in my art, and so the dog is, is,
is black, and I was like, okay, I need to, I need to do that by hand.
I need to mix the colors by hand.
I cannot do that digitally.
I need to see the actual, I need to see the, the, the, the paint.
I need to feel it with my brush.
I need to know.
What the paint is like.
So I send it like this.
I send it just sort of like an impression of the dog with the background, just
as a general approval to sort of say like, does this, does this kind of work?
And he's like, Oh my God, that's Nelly.
You know, it cannot be any other dog.
It must be my Nelly.
And, um, so that was great.
And then, um, when I had, so then I had painted the dog and done the
painting and I took a photograph of her.
Um, to, to sort of play around, and I went back in digitally to sort of design
the face, design the colors, uh, plan out the shadows, and, um, so basically,
I don't know if you can see from, so the face was different from the photograph,
and then I went in with all the different photographs and found, and tried to kind
of make her face more, More smiley and more, um, you know, see, like, counted.
She
Anke: looks at you, like, it's really like...
Tanja: Yeah, yeah.
And, you know, I thought of, like, how many teeth does she have?
Like, you know, I, like, this is really important.
Like, on all her pictures, how many teeth can you see?
Like, what, what does her tongue do?
Like, with these...
With these two, you know, it was, this is a sort of work in progress, so it's not,
it's not finished, it's just not finished yet, but it was sort of really important,
like, where do their tongues go, you know?
It's different with every dog, because like, my puppy,
like puppy, she's a year now,
Anke: but she has this really long tongue and always hangs out to the side.
You know, and the other dog, she just has a little bit of the tip
of the tongue in the front, like, very different from dog to dog.
Tanja: Yeah, so it was really good to have loads of pictures.
He really did send me loads.
And then this is, so obviously, so this is then how the face came out painted.
So, um, I did make a few more changes from there.
And it was actually funny, is, um, just before I was Like I had, because every,
with the paintings, they get more loads of layers to make the colors super vibrant.
And just before I was kind of finishing off the last layer,
I kind of, suddenly I was like, what if the dog is not blue black?
Like, you know, like, what if, what if she's not a cool black?
What if she's a brown black?
And, or like a warm black?
And I just, for me on my, on the pictures, it looked different.
I was like, what if it's like, you know, that would be terrible.
So I messaged like, look.
Just, just to check in, you know, is she cool or is she warm?
And you know, when I was putting the brown in the brown hair in the face, I was
like, it suddenly the rest looked so cold.
And then he's like, no, no, she is, you know, and, and he was like, oh no,
we comment, you know, we always talk about how, how she's like sort of a bit
bluish and, you know, more cool black.
Okay.
So then, um, I, then they came to the studio to pick up the painting
and it was a surprise for the wife.
And she had no idea, none whatsoever, and she didn't even know where they were
going that day, and so she insisted, well, no, she didn't insist, but
she said, oh, can we bring the dog?
And he was like, I don't know, and so I said, yeah, please do bring the dog.
And so, they came here, and, um, it was so fun to, to meet, uh, Nelif in, you
know, for the first time, and as they came into the studio, and, um, I had,
sort of hidden the painting a little bit, and then as they walked around and
looked and then she went back in this part of the studio and had a look around
and then I brought the painting out, put it on the desk, uh, to display it, and
when she came back she immediately was like, why is my dog there in a painting?
And then she started crying and she was I
Anke: saw her just thinking about it!
Tanja: Oh, it was like, that was the best moment because I was like,
what if she doesn't recognize it?
You know, because she didn't have any idea, right?
So what if she's like, oh, that is a nice dog, but the moment she saw it, she's
like, why is my dog on this painting?
And she was so happy.
And, um, yeah, it
Anke: was, I think that's just the most adorable, like, you know, I don't know.
It's just like to see your dog and, you know, and especially
then if you can have twins of it.
You know, it's like, oh, you can have it everywhere.
You can have a cushion and you can have the cards.
Tanja: Yeah, I mean, technically, you know, if they wanted to, they could,
um, have, I could make cards for them, um, and then they could use it to send
out to their friends or something.
Um, I didn't, I, I haven't talked to them about, like, open prints
or, you know, making cards just in general, because it still feels.
You know, when I paint a dog for myself, like the, like the, the little Frenchie
here, it's different, you know, it's, it's for me, and it's, it's, um, of, of
someone who has shared their reference picture, and it's great, and I will show
the person who, who made the picture available, but it is, it's for me,
it's, it's, you know, because I want to paint that happy, cute little faces,
and, you know, I want to imagine them, like, wagging their tails while they're
excited to be painted, and then I.
I can make prints and cushions and, and cards and, you
know, because it feels open.
But with the commission, even though anyone who sees this They
wouldn't know the difference.
They wouldn't know that this is someone's dog, you know, but I feel
like this is, it's so special that, um, I wouldn't by default just
make prints or cards or anything.
No, no,
Anke: I don't think so.
No, I think I was thinking of like prints for these people.
I'd say if you were to do, if you were to do something like this for,
for my dogs, you know, I would, yeah, I would want like that.
My cards and my cushions, because they're my dogs, they mean something to me.
They don't mean that much
Tanja: to anybody else.
So that's just...
And you may want to give, you know, give a cushion of your dog to someone who knows
your dog very well, you know, like...
They can order that.
But, um, but yeah, so obviously even with a commission, the copyright stays with me.
So if they wanted to do that, they, you know, then they just
get in touch and I can talk.
to them about how it works and like how we can make that happen for them.
Um, but, but yeah, I don't, it doesn't feel, it feels a bit yucky
for me to do it, so I wouldn't do it.
It
Anke: beats the whole purpose of it, you know, that you have this,
because it's about the connection you have with the dog and the art,
you know, so it's not a public.
Yeah, I don't know.
Totally, totally agree.
So if, if somebody gets as excited as I am, you know, so where should we,
where should they go to find out to get, you know, more eye candy and, and
Tanja: can get in touch with you?
Yeah.
So I do have an Instagram, um, which is I guess it will be displayed, right?
It's my little...
Yeah, no, I will,
Anke: yeah.
If you want to say it out, because this is going to be a podcast
too, if you want to sort of say it out loud, but it's going to be...
Of course, yeah,
Tanja: yeah.
So, um, my Instagram is, um, at Tanya Hassel underscore
art, and it's Tanya with a J.
Um, and so usually if you start typing in like T A N J A It sort of comes up,
at least for me, and it's, it's just a really bright icon, like, you know, like a
rainbow, like a rainbow little round icon, um, with, I think it's, it's the face.
I think my face is on there.
But anyway, you would know what my face looks like because you're
on a podcast if you're listening.
Anke: Yeah, but I think if you, you know, it's bright colors.
I see, I don't like, I'm, I followed you and I kind of, I don't remember what
the icon is, but it's clearly colorful.
And so I knew it was you, so there was no, there's no, there's no mistaking.
So if you like arts, if you love, if you love art, if you love dogs, like.
Get in touch with Tanya and do yourself a favor, you know, get you, give yourself
a gift, give a gift to somebody else.
Uh, I promise you, you'll love it.
So thank you so much, Tanya.
That was just wonderful.
A real bright spark in anyone's day.
And thanks for
Tanja: coming.
Thank you for having me.
Thanks so much for listening.
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That's A N k E at Soul touched by dogs.com.