Subiaco Museum
2026 Shaun Tan Award for Young Artists
With the announcement of the 2026 Finalists for the Shaun Tan Award for Young Artists, Subiaco Museum is looking back at Shaun Tan’s artistic contributions to the City of Subiaco.
Born in Fremantle in 1974, Shaun Tan began drawing and painting images as a teenager and has since become best known for illustrated books with surreal, dream-like imagery. Tan’s books have been translated into many languages and are enjoyed by readers of all ages. For more information about his work, visit Shaun Tan’s official website.
In 2002, the City of Subiaco commissioned renowned artist Shaun Tan to create two murals for the interior of Subiaco Library. As part of this process, the Subiaco Museum also holds 10 preparatory pencil and pastel drawings relating to these two murals.
In his speech at the launch event for the two murals, which took place at the Shaun Tan Award for Young Artists ceremony in May 2003, Shaun is quoted as saying:
It took me a while to come up with a decent idea. I didn’t want to do just anything, and I thought it would be a good idea to do something Subiaco related. I wandered around Subiaco, taking pictures and making notes for a while, but nothing quite clicked. Then I went to the museum next door, conscious that Subiaco is quite distinctive in Perth as an historical sort of area. I’ve always been attracted to the idea that cities and communities don’t just exist now, they are built on layers and layers of time. In a freshly renovated library like this one, we might easily forget this fact.
THE TEA PARTY
The Tea Party, which features a riotous array of strange characters and landscapes, is a 24 square meter mural displayed in the children’s section of Subiaco's library. The artwork was commissioned after the library had undergone some renovations and the space allocated to the mural was a large but odd shape. Shaun had to get innovative with his design. He decided to paint eight separate canvases that could be locked together as a single composition. The project took three months to complete, with the final mural painted using acrylic and oils, mixed with a collage of printed materials, fabric, coloured paper, and gold leaf.
Image of The Tea Party mural at Subiaco Library.
Shaun Tan explained his intention for The Tea Party:
My concept was that long T-shaped area would depict a flowing landscape with whimsical creatures strolling, swimming, flying and rowing through it, some having conversations and reading books, others breathing fire and stormy oceans, with many drinking cups of tea made by towering teapots. Hence the title ‘The Tea Party’ which nods towards Lewis Carroll, as well as being an alternative or ‘extended’ version of the strange world that is briefly glimpsed in my picture book The Lost Thing … My biggest problem was trying to paint something so big in parts that could only be placed together, two at a time, in my backyard.
At one point, a pair of binoculars were installed in the library so visitors could see up-close the fine details and intricacies of the work. Unfortunately, the binoculars had to be removed after they were broken by overzealous children!
Black pencil drawing on white paper, as a preparation sketch for 'The Tea Party' mural created for Subiaco Library interior, 2002.
Colour pastel working drawing as a preparation sketch for 'The Tea Party' mural created for Subiaco Library interior, 2002.
Small black pencil sketch on white paper as a preparation sketch for 'The Tea Party' mural created for Subiaco Library interior, 2002.
Black and white drawing of a one-eyed mythical/imagined creature with a tail, wings and an astronaut-style helmet. Created as a preparation sketch for 'The Tea Party' mural created for Subiaco Library interior, 2002.
Black and white pencil sketch of girl holding a large pencil in both arms. While she draws a wobbly line on the ground, a seagull is perched on the end of her pencil. Created as a preparation sketch for 'The Tea Party' mural created for Subiaco Library interior, 2002.
Small black and white pencil sketch of figures sitting around a picnic blanket. Created as a preparation sketch for 'The Tea Party' mural created for Subiaco Library interior, 2002.
Large black pencil sketch on white paper created as a preparation sketch for 'The Tea Party' mural created for Subiaco Library interior, 2002.
THE 100 YEAR PICNIC
Shaun Tan’s mural titled The 100 Year Picnic is a feature of the Subiaco Library. His painting interprets an original photograph of the Hancock family of Subiaco picnicking in around 1925. The photograph is held in the Subiaco Museum Collection, along with the actual accordion shown in the painting.
Discussing this mural, Shaun says:
The image my painting is based on is a photograph from the early 1900s found in the archives of the Subiaco Museum: a group portrait of Subiaco men, women and children (largely anonymous) enjoying a picnic... An historical theme is particularly appropriate as Subiaco owes much of its distinctive character and identity to its past... What attracts me to this particular image over the hundreds of others I searched through was a certain sense of candidness, where the individuals express something of themselves in the absence of a formal composition; one man holding a puppy, another playing an accordion, children playing distractedly, a woman shielding her eyes from the intense sunlight.
...There is a strong feeling of early community, where people probably had to depend on each other in close knit groups to endure the hardships of life in early settlements. There is also a feeling of optimism and lightness as well. These are ordinary people we can identify with.
The tangled mass of gum trees in the background are like a memory of an original, ancient landscape into which these strangers have been transplanted, probably now built up areas with streets, homes and shops.
While this photograph was the main basis for the painted image, I did not intend to reproduce it with documentary accuracy - it is really a point of departure than reference for an imaginary painting, all history being in some way an act of imagination...Elements were edited and transformed, abstracted and stylised to some extent and colour used lyrically to create a certain mood...The painting is a mixed media work incorporating collage, acrylic and oil paint.
Shaun Tan, September 2002
While the photograph above was the main basis for Shaun’s mural, it was never intended to be a reproduction with documentary accuracy - rather a reference for an imagined scene with elements edited, transformed and coloured with imagination.
The third figure from the left is a man named Tom Hancock who is captured in the image holding an accordion. This exact accordion was later donated to the Subiaco Historical Society (now the Subiaco Museum) and can currently be seen on display in the newly refurbished back gallery, along with two original sketches for the mural. [see linked record below].
This is the completed mural of "The 100 Year Picnic" which hangs in the Subiaco Library.
Black Hohner Accordion (spelt Accordeon on the instrument itself) with mother of pearl keys. The instrument belonged to Tom Hancock of Subiaco.
Pencil drawing on white paper, preparation sketch for "The 100 Year Picnic' by Shaun Tan.
