Edinburgh Artist. Gallery

On until 31st August 2023

Here’s a sweet little painting 16 inches by 20″ (or 40 x 50cm for you metric folks) inspired by a recent mini-break firstly to Holy Island then a jaunt in the Scottish Borders.

I loved the dark and dramatic cloudscape over the sunlit fields – what’s not to love?

We’ll walk in fields of gold

Running at Colinton Arts Gallery from October until 21st January 2023

I’m very excited to announce that I have 8 paintings in the Winter Exhibition at Colinton Arts – images below but check out the details here Tess Dunlop – Colinton Arts (colinton-arts.co.uk)

It’s always good to try new things – these 2 paintings are slightly different style to my usual work and were fun to create in the studio.

I have fallen in love with them, with their soft colours and their light. I hope you do too.

They look good on their own or together as a pair.

Goodbye Tracey and HELLO TESS

As Babies we’re given a name by an adult; usually our parents but sometimes not. 

Usually a lot of thought goes into this name, we might spend a lot of time as parents-to-be making lists, narrowing things down, living with the idea of a name for a while before discarding and trying another.  Sometimes we, as parents, think, oh the baby definitely looks like a such and such.  And there we have it, a fundamental part of who were are is given to us, not chosen.

I think we are all on a journey in life; to discover who we are and where we fit into this world of ours.  What our sense of purpose is, how we can grow as individuals and how we can help others.  In life, in addition to working as an artist, I’ve been fortunate to train over many years to work as  a psychodynamic therapist and am privileged to work with clients who are on journeys of their own.

For me personally, part of my recent journey has been to explore my name and what it means to me and to come to a place where I’m leaving behind the name that I have been known as for 50 years, 2 months and 23 days.

Tracey, my given name, is a diminutive of Theresa and after a lot of thought, I have chosen Tess which is also a diminutive of Theresa.

And to add to the changes, I’ve also changed my second name following a change in marital status.  So, Tess Dunlop it is.

Warmly, Tess x

Sometimes, it’s interesting to see how an Artist works; to understand the layers that go into creating the finished work. To get an insight into their creative processes, learning that in turning the 3D world into a representation on a 2D canvas, every piece contains a joyful number of problems to solve. I say joyful, because to me, I’m trying to help the piece find a way of saying what I want it to say – and that process of bringing work to life is indeed joyful, liberating and exciting.

With this in mind, I’ve created an ‘In the Studio’ tab – you can find it on the menu – and this contains some of the artworks where I have remembered to capture the journey I’ve taken, the process of mark making and layering that is so important to me.

Usually, capturing it digitally is forgotten as I lose myself in the process of creating the work; judging by the positive feedback though I plan to improve how often I remember to do this and to improve the quality of the slideshows (every day is a school day)

Hope you find them interesting to view. As always, let me know what you think.

Warmly, Tess x

A really warm welcome to these gallery pages

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When people learn that I’m an Artist the first thing they always ask is, “what do you paint?”

I always think, “well, how long have you got?” since there’s no quick answer to that.  

Perhaps the honest answer is that I paint what my heart loves

Sometimes, I’m creating seascapes of the East Lothian coast – I can’t get enough of the changing light, the reflections, the shadows in the sand or the colours. 

Other times though, people grab my attention and I end up painting the humans and little humans who happened to be spending time at the coast when I was there.

Perhaps you love old boats?  I know very little about sailing but adore old fishing boats or little rowing boats.  There’s something very beautiful in their old, tattered charm and so these pop up in some of my work in paintings of Anstruther, Pittenweem and North Berwick.

Landscapes feature a lot too; I really enjoy painting on cadmium red canvases, leaving selected areas of the underpainting to shine through which really pops against the predominantly lush, green landscape and across these pages you will find landscapes from Scotland and England and also Italy when I have been lucky enough to travel.

I have also started painting animals; I’m drawn to their eyes and how the light reflects in them.  I always start with those and, it they feel like they are coming to life on the canvas then a new piece will be born on my easel.

Flowers feature, albeit briefly, but I hope do spend more time immersed in nature painting more of these. 

In all of my work, light and shadow remain very important, as does the very process of mark making.  I’m drawn to impressionist styles of painting but tend to the leave the work to unfold itself and so paint instinctively in a way that feels largely unconscious. 

Mostly my work is on coloured canvas.  For a long time, that was red though there are others now on black, cobalt blue, cadmium orange too. 

I hope you will enjoy browsing the images and will fall in love and give one of these pieces a new forever home.

Warmly,

Tess x