Biography

TESS PAUL
Vancouver, BC

Born and raised in Kelowna, BC, Tess Paul moved to the West Coast to study creative writing and film production at the University of British Columbia. An avid hiker, she sources imagery from personal photos and responds to them in the studio, building her paintings intuitively around a tone or colour, resulting in a harmonious, variously hued monochrome aesthetic.
In her latest works, Paul’s personal visual language emerges in undulating rhythms of line and lucid colours. Her hypnotic flow with the fluorescent punch of Kim Dorland or Tom Thomson expresses the hyperconnectivity and psychic intensity of the unknown that lies at the heart of nature. In approaching the sublime, Paul routes us through dreamlike landscapes to sensuous pacifying effect. As felt in her paintings, there is peace and joy in the surreal enormity of nature and in one’s awareness of being enveloped in something that cannot be fully grasped.

— "I heard Jeremy Strong quote Glenn Gould by saying, 'The purpose of art is not a momentary ejection of adrenaline, but rather the lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity,' and I don’t think I could describe it any better."