More Than Dahlias

About

Tessa Pearson studied Printed Textile design at UCA Farnham and the Royal College of Art, where she won the Courtaulds Prize and was commissioned by Liberty of London to produce a collection of printed silks. As Tessa Lambert she opened her own print studio and gallery in London and successfully sold her distinctive handpainted silks around the world.

In recent years Tessa’s professional practise has centred on her continuing passion for pattern and colour. Her influences have been many, from Matisse to Hodgkin and the bold colourists of mid twenty-first century painters Patrick Heron and Albert Irvin.

Tessa sees gardens as living paintings and they have been the inspiration she has returned to many times. Creating her own garden has been an influential process informing her current work. As the garden emerges each year she repeatedly immerses herself in the planting, responding to the colour, rhythms and characteristics that excite. The time spent drawing and painting these moments build a rich recollection of images to create larger scale paintings and monoprints. Working with unpredictable water media and experimental printmaking processes, mixing direct spontaneous mark making and considered digital imagery ensures the liveliness and energy captured from direct observation.

Tessa loves to share her enthusiasm for colour and painting in situ, working with artist and illustrator Lara Harwood for Creative Adventures in Morocco, taking people exploring with their sketchbooks in this culturally rich and colourful country.

Tessa currently runs the artist-led gallery i-Contemporary and is chairman of the Fountain Gallery, an artist co-operative in Hampton Court, Surrey. She exhibits widely at art fairs and galleries in the UK and internationally and has had work selected for prestigious exhibitions including the Royal Watercolour Society Contemporary Open and the Royal West of England Academy Print Open.