Passage Painting

Born in Lancashire and now based in Leeds, UK, Tessa Houghton creates semi-abstract oil paintings that explore memory, atmosphere, and the emotional pull of natural spaces. Her work captures the poetic tension between land, sea, and sky — places of transition and stillness — with an emphasis on light and depth. Tessa spent 12 years living in Barcelona, where the Mediterranean horizon and colour palette had a lasting impact on her visual language. Her influences include Turner, Eardley, Rothko and Diebenkorn, and her landscapes are shaped by a blend of observation, memory, and intuition. Working primarily in oils for their depth and vibrancy, she layers paint using brushes, palette knives, cloths, and her fingers, building rich, textured surfaces that suggest rather than describe. She embraces accidental marks allowing them to shape the final image. Tessa holds a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from Liverpool John Moores University and is represented by Linda Blackstone Gallery (London) and Gallery 54 (Ross-on-Wye). Her work is held in private collections worldwide and has been shown at major art fairs in London, LA, Hong Kong, Singapore and New York. Recent highlights include Immersed and Imbued — a curated show of eight women artists exploring abstraction and contemporary landscape. She also teaches life drawing, mentors emerging artists, and champions women’s creative voices.