Teresa Lawton

Artist Teresa Lawton lives and works from her studio in Dorset. Her abstract paintings are complex and are an instinctive response to the landscape. Walking in the Dorset hills every day means she has a strong connection to the land and nature; this being a key component in the way in which her work is created.  
After travelling extensively and living in Greece for several years she eventually settled back in her native Dorset to concentrate on bringing up her son & to establish herself as a painter. She has found much inspiration from her time living on the Isle of Purbeck and for several years lived in one of the most remote and isolated areas at the edge of Poole harbour. Living in such isolation, she became very connected to the rhythms of nature, her senses became heightened and she feels it was here that she truly developed her identity as a painter. Saying about her time in that remote cottage overlooking the islands, “It was always an inspiring romantic location, the winters could be bleak but all the seasons were contrasting and stunningly beautiful, it was a wild & special place that stays with me now and always will”.  
Whilst at college Teresa did much in the way of printmaking in particular etching, it is here she feels that she became interested in polishing surfaces & building up layers of colour in paint, inks & glazes. Her work can be dark and she is now known for this intense process of building up deep rich areas of polished colour which are scored & marked as the paintings develops, subtly revealing hidden shapes within. Clear areas of space and light lay alongside the dark contrasting shadows, with sculptural or still life forms adding structure to the work.  
It is clear that her work has gained much influence from the St Ives school, and indeed she has spent much time in Cornwall. She has been greatly inspired by the work of artists such as Ben Nicholson and Roger Hilton who were working in Cornwall during the 40’s & 50’s, identifying with their approach to the landscape and the need to abstract it, saying “For me the sky merges into the land and the shadows fall into the sea, they become one”. She still visits Cornwall often but as for her work, it is about a more brooding darker Dorset. The paintings have moods of the sea and barren landscapes. Though they have order and calm about them, it is clear that much is hidden in shadows or under veils of light, she seems to have a need to inform us of isolation and the wild freedom of desolate landscapes, untamed shores and unrevealed secrets.   
Teresa graduated with a fine art degree from Winchester in 1994 and has been painting professionally ever since.
Exhibiting in galleries nationwide and at the London Art Fairs; her work is in private collections from New York to Beijing. She has also exhibited at The Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions and at the New York Art Fair.