Tessa is often inspired by poetry and nature. She is a textile- trained artist and designer and her work is fresh and semi-abstract. Colour, pattern, texture, line and tone are the key elements that she focuses on.
Since 2006 Tessa has been an active member of Drawn To the Valley, the cooperative of artists and designers living and working in the Tamar Valley, spanning Cornwall and Devon. She has an up-cycled caravan in her garden where she works on the western edge of Dartmoor.
‘I love creating the threads, dyeing them, and setting up the loom-this is why I like to experiment so much with materials, both found and sourced. I do not start with a blank sheet of white paper. I love to have surprises, sometimes treasured collage applied, stitched or embedded on to the surface, be it canvas, paper or cloth.
I have terrible difficulty in throwing anything away! Rarely is my studio tidy but I know where everything lies waiting for its moment to be used, transformed into part of a new piece of work.
I like to play with colour combinations and patterns and take delight in recording what I see in unusual ways. Patterns for interior decoration require the designs to be seen from all angles and this is often the case with my work, which can sometimes be hung in any orientation and still please the eye.’
