Tania Dibbs: An artist in motion

Sometimes the tortoise wins the race.

Longtime Roaring Fork Valley artist Tania Dibbs will host a summer Art Open house from noon to 5 p.m., July 13, at Big Sky Studios in Basalt. The event celebrates a career that has evolved from modest beginnings to international success. 

“I am not a starving artist, but I started out that way,” the now successful Basalt painter said.

As a former ski instructor, Dibbs came to the valley one winter in the late 1980s. She discovered that “there are a lot of people in Aspen who don’t quite fit the mold,” and that’s when she realized she had found her people.

“I used to ski and do all sorts of other things, but gradually, I started putting more and more energy into my art,” Dibbs said. “It wasn’t flashy or strategic — I just kept working at it, and slowly, I became very successful.”

Dibbs’s latest body of work will be on display at the July open house for both “collectors and curious newcomers.”

I used to show in more galleries,” Dibbs said, “I never set out with a business model or a strategy to promote myself.” Over time, things shifted, galleries came and went, and eventually, Dibbs found herself handling more of it on her own. 

The open house is planned to coincide with peak visitation in the valley, allowing many of her long-standing clients to attend. “Many of my clients visit in July,” Dibbs said, noting the summer months bring a wave of art enthusiasts to the area.

Dibbs’ thought-provoking work featuring nature, culture and change can be found in galleries, institutions, and in private collections globally.

This spring, Dibbs sent a large piece to Australia by taking it off a stretcher and rolling it into a tube. Then, her clients had to get a crane to put it in their house. 

“I felt pretty cool about that,” Dibbs said.

She considers herself “an experimenter more than most artists,” stating that while many artists stick to one style and refine it over a lifetime, she thrives on constant reinvention.

“I am really knowledgeable about formulas and love experimenting with all kinds of materials,” Dibbs said. 

For Dibbs, experimentation is in itself a form of mastery.

“When I was a younger artist, I would get inspiration from the outdoors and sunsets,” Dibbs said. “But as my art evolves, I now get inspiration from riffing on a painting I have just done. Maybe I’ll try it again, but make it less predictable.”

Her willingness to experiment with various mediums, such as oil, acrylic, pencil, charcoal, and encaustic demonstrates her curious nature and desire to think out of the box. 

“Encaustic means to burn in, because you use beeswax as the vehicle instead of linseed oil, and you paint with a torch and you burn it in,” Dibbs said of the art form, which is making a resurgence in contemporary art after being popular in the 1990s.

Establishing her studio workspace in 2019, Big Sky Studios, she has come a long way since her first show at Wyckoff Barney Gallery more than 30 years ago. 

“I just built this big fancy display workspace in Basalt,” Dibbs said. 

The upcoming open house will be an opportunity for the local community to see the artist’s work, enjoy live music by local classical guitarist Chris Phillips, and eat light bites by celebrity chef Susie Jimenez. The event is free and open to the public.

“Chris is a wonderfully trained, classically trained, very talented guitar player from the Valley,” Dibbs said of Phillips, while she has been a friend and fan of Jimenez for years.

Dibbs’ sees herself as a “pulled herself up by her bootstraps type of girl.” Her career captures the essence of the classic fable, “The Tortoise and the Hare,” — hard work and persistence pays off.

Big Sky Studio is located at 280 Roaring Fork Court in Basalt. For more information please contact admin@taniadibbs.com or 970-948-4075.