A woman in a black dress stands barefoot in an art studio, looking at a large framed oil painting of a vase with flowers on an easel. The room is filled with various artworks hung on the walls, including sketches, paintings, and photographs, as well as art supplies and furniture.

In the “studio”

Long before I pursued photography, graphic design, or my career in the medical field, I was drawing, painting, and creating in every way imaginable. As the years passed, that impulse flowed primarily into photography and design work.

Then illness stripped life to its essentials. Despite the state I was in, I reached for paper, ink, pigment. I returned to the practice of making by hand, getting off screens. It reminded me that making art was never a hobby; it was how I made sense of the world. It was my lifeline.

That journey reshaped the way I experienced and appreciated time like never before. I noticed everything that aged and weathered: flowers as they bowed beneath their own weight and began their quiet return, fruit marked by time, handmade vessels that carry the evidence of years of use as they held life. I clung to seeing everything as lives fully lived and still living, not declining. That nothing loses its worth because it has aged, broken, healed, softened, or reached the end of its season. The same is true of us and the vessel that is the body carrying our life, too. And then, I painted.

Working primarily in acrylic on birch panel, my focus is now still lifes informed and inspired by Old World, Dutch still life painting and East Asian aesthetics, particularly an appreciation for space, balance, and restraint. Each painting is an invitation to pause. To witness the quiet reverence of time, craftsmanship, memory, and the beauty found in every stage of life.

Thank you for being here,

Tressa

See a little about my process below.

Close-up photo of a wooden surface with a pile of crumpled paper towels or rags at the bottom center. The background appears to be a plain, unfinished wall.
Close-up photo of a wooden surface with a pile of crumpled paper towels or rags at the bottom center. The background appears to be a plain, unfinished wall.

Process

I begin each painting by cutting and preparing the birch panel myself. Over several days, I build the ground through layers of glazing, developing the tonal variation and patina of an aged plaster wall before the still life is ever painted.

I work in acrylic, using a succession of layers and glazes to build depth, richness, and subtle shifts in color that change as different light moves across the surface. The finished paintings are often mistaken for oils, an effect of this layered glazing approach and part of what gives the work this Old World character.

A paintbrush with white paint on a wooden surface with visible wood grain and painted areas.
A messy artist's palette with dried and mixed oil paints, and two small paintings of flowers on canvas.
A textured dark gray surface with faint, irregular scratch marks and a subtle gradient of light to dark from top to bottom.
A cluttered tabletop with cans of wood stain, a large white unfinished animal sculpture, a paintbrush, a glass vase with dried twigs, and an empty glass goblet.
A hand holding a glass of champagne in front of a decorative ceramic vase and a wall sculpture that resembles a bird on a branch.
Black ceramic or metal pitcher with a flared top, placed on a wooden surface against a textured beige background.
A rustic metal pitcher with a handle, placed on a wooden surface against a wooden background.
A rustic wooden pitcher with flowers inside, placed on a wooden surface against a wooden background.
A wooden display stand holding five small canvas paintings in shades of blue, gray, and black arranged in a grid pattern.
Close-up view of an abstract painting with thick textures and a mix of earthy colors including red, brown, beige, black, and hints of green, with some white accents visible.