Crinan Residency 2025 Winner Interview: Tafsia Muzib Dana

We spoke to the winner of the Crinan Residency 2025, Tafsia Muzib Dana, about their work, the Crinan Residency, and future projects.

Tafsia's painting, Another Sunset, is on display at The Kiosk (@kiosklondon) from 10 July to 10 August 2026. The Kiosk is a window display gallery in London's West End at 37 St Martins Court WC2N 4AL.

Hi, Tafsia! Could you tell us a bit about yourself and your artistic practice? 

My name is Tafsia Muzib Dana, and I am a recent Fine Art graduate from Leeds Arts University, specialising in oil and acrylic painting. I was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and moved to Leeds, UK, in 2021 to pursue my studies. I now move between Bangladesh and the UK, carrying memories, colours, and experiences from both places into my work.

Outside of my practice, I enjoy spending time with my family and my nine cats.

My work centres on the people, places, and moments that are familiar to me. I paint family members, beloved pets, local flower markets, quiet streets, and everyday scenes. Although my subjects vary, a warm yellow light often runs through my paintings. This colour comes from my childhood memories of Dhaka—an overcrowded city of scorching summers, constant movement, and the warmth of its people.

I paint both from observation and from memory, as I believe each approach offers its own endless ways of seeing and understanding the world.

As the winner of the Crinan Residency 2025, how did you find the residency? 

Winning the Crinan Residency 2025 was a very special moment for me, and one I will remember for a long time. It gave me the opportunity to spend time in Crinan, a small fishing village on Scotland’s west coast.

I was captivated by the village’s quiet rhythms: birds singing overhead, sunsets dancing across rippling water, and sailboats drifting in the distance. Long walks along the canal, stories of the past, conversations with the warm local community, and the gentle presence of Highland cows all found their way into my paintings. The experience encouraged me to slow down, look closely, and translate these moments into colour, light, and form.

The residency also helped me realise that painting does not always have to be a solitary practice. It showed me how meaningful it can be to visit a new place, learn about its history and its people, engage with a community, and allow my practice to absorb these experiences. I am truly grateful to have been awarded this residency and to have discovered such a quiet, hidden corner of Scotland—somewhere I might never have known about or visited otherwise.

Your work, Another Sunset, is on public display at The Kiosk (@kiosklondon). What can you tell us about the piece? 

Another Sunset started from a sketch of the window in my room. While drawing it, I found myself imagining a landscape inspired by Scotland’s beautiful hills and highlands, but with the warmth and golden light of a summer evening. From there, the composition slowly came together.

The window leads the viewer’s eye towards a pond, small hills, and the setting sun in the distance. The table and chairs are placed in a way that invites the viewer to sit down and enjoy the view. A tree reaching towards the sun sits at the centre of the scene, bringing everything together.

Under the tree, three women sit on a rug enjoying the day, while a boy quietly looks at his reflection in the pond. Inside the room, the cat and the fan add a sense of comfort and familiarity, reminding me of home. Although the landscape is imagined, many of the details come from places and feelings that are important to me. I wanted the painting to feel warm, peaceful, and inviting—like a moment of stillness at the end of a long day.

What are you working on now? 

At the moment, I am working towards my first solo exhibition at East Street Arts in Leeds, which will run from 16–30 July. Over the past few months, I have been a resident artist at East Street Arts, and this exhibition is the culmination of that experience.

The exhibition brings together a series of paintings inspired by my home city of Dhaka. Created on canvas, wood, and repurposed book covers, these works offer a glimpse into my world—my observations, experiences, and the people and places that stay with me. Through them, I reflect on the fading warmth of the city: not only its golden sunlight and intense summers, but also the changing streets, landscapes, and everyday moments that shaped my childhood.

Throughout the series, I have experimented with different techniques and approaches using both acrylic and oil paint. Some works are painted quickly and instinctively, almost like fleeting impressions captured in a single moment. Others are larger, slower works that have been built up gradually through layers of paint. Their textured surfaces reveal the process of their making, becoming records of reflection that preserve traces of the past.

This body of work has allowed me to think about my relationship with Dhaka from a distance, while also considering how moving between Bangladesh and the UK continues to shape my practice. Through painting, I explore how our connection to a place changes over time and how familiar people, landscapes, and moments can continue to stay with us, even when we are far away.

Banner image and bottom: Tafsia Muzib Dana, Self Portrait and Still Life | Photo credit: The Ingram Collection @ingramcollectionuk and Phil Adams @philadams.me. | Featured image: Tafsia Muzib Dana, Another Sunset, Oil on canvas, 145 x 96 cm