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.