Painting outside in the fresh air, Tessa Spencer Pryse captures landscapes around the world.

Here she gives us a taste of her love for a more local landscape; that of Wivenhoe village, Essex. Set just two miles from the hustle and bustle of Colchester, Tessa's intricate oil painted scenes remind us that a bygone era of tranquility and timelessness is still alive and well, here in East Anglia.

 

My paintings aim to convey qualities of light and delight reflecting the special nature of the East Anglian landscape and its people. I am a figurative colourist and always work outside in the en plein air tradition of painters.

 

Wivenhoe, my home village, has a fascinating and mysterious history, rooted in fishing, shipbuilding and smuggling. I moved here back in 1983 because I simply fell in love with it. Although Wivenhoe is now renowned for its artists and writers, that wasn't why I originally chose to live here. I simply visited one day and was captivated by the atmosphere of the place. Back in those days Francis Bacon had a studio in Wivenhoe and was a member of the local arts club.

 

Alma Street, set right in the heart of the old fishing village, has drawn me to paint it for many years. The foreground proscenium arch of dark trees draws the eye into the visually exciting rectangular arrangement of tone and colour and diagonal lines crossing the shapes of houses. Distant figures walking up the street serve as accents within the pictorial space. My intention in Alma Street, Wivenhoe is to evoke a feeling of the warmth of the narrow street on a sunny summer day, with sunlight flickering through cool shadows. This painting references Constable's beautifully fresh small studies, which he created on the spot in a few intense hours of observation.

 

At the winter solstice the sun sets directly opposite Wivenhoe Quay. Its glow envelops the forms of boats and jetties, and a golden gleam is reflected from the river. The slanting winter light is particularly interesting to me as an artist when there is snow or frost, with its soft, subdued tonal effects. In paintings such as Wivenhoe Quay made rapidly on the spot 'en plein air' seek to capture a fundamental mood created by the scene in a particular light and weather. Again, Constable remains an inspiration, but I also keep in mind other great colourists from Winifred Nicholson to Pierre Bonnard. 

 

I was trained in the traditional manner, which included gaining a thorough understanding of the chemistry of pigments and their binding mediums. As a result, I take great care in the selection of the oil paints I use; for example, I generally use white lead, which is not widely available nowadays. White lead (flake white) reflects light through the paint and gives an oil painting a distinctive glowing quality, which was used to such good effect by the Old Masters. I believe that it is important to use the best quality linen canvases and oil colours, so that each painting really is made to last.

 

 

Further Information
My work can be viewed in a large format in the book How Artists See East Anglian Places, along with the work of 46 other East Anglian artists.