Tessa Newcomb and St James Village Orchard
In 2021 Suffolk artist Tessa Newcomb produced an illustrated book "Where I Belong" on places to which she felt a particular attachment.
“In this book I start in the Waveney Valley, where I lived until I was sixteen. We visit the Fens when I have just left school, biking out into the unknown. It was foggy. Then up to the high plateau of Suffolk: here we walk the roadside, and I can feel as my mother felt as I look at the same plants.”
She devotes Chapter three of her book to St James Village Orchard, a place she enjoys visiting often and where she produced a whole series of paintings: the trees, the blossom, the fruit, events and activities. These are used to provide illustrations for the Chapter.
Tessa has generously allowed us to use paintings and quotations from her book to enhance the orchard website pages and you may find them on your way through. We have also collected some of them together in this gallery.
Born in Suffolk in 1955, Tessa attended the Norwich School of Art from 1972, received a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from Bath Academy of Art in 1976, and in 1977 completed a course on printmaking at the Wimbledon School of Art. Tessa Newcomb is the daughter of the renowned painter Mary Newcomb and has emerged as a major artist in her own right.
Suffolk, for her is a land involving odd encounters with working figures, dogs, boats, allotments, wild churchyards and even wilder flowers. Her first memory of painting is as a child using up the offcuts of board left by her mother, and she says that is why, to this day, her paintings are often on unusually shaped rectangles of board – either long and thin, or tall and thin.
The starting point for a painting is swift notations drawn while out wandering. This may mean cycling in rural Suffolk or Norfolk, ambling through allotments, crossing London streets & bridges in sunshine or drizzle, or exploring ancient European squares.
The Suffolk countryside and country events feature predominantly in Tessa’s paintings. She also produced jacket illustrations for Julia Blackburn’s Daisy in the Desert and the paperback edition of The Emperor’s East Island.
Tessa’s first solo exhibition was held at the Annexe Gallery, Wimbledon in 1979. Her work was included in mixed exhibitions at Crane Kalman Gallery between 1995 and 1997, followed by two one-man shows in 2002 and 2004. She exhibits regularly with Crane Kalman Gallery in London, several galleries in East Anglia and Kentmere House in York and has works in many public and private collections including the Bradford Metropolitan Museum and the Whitworth Art Gallery.
With thanks to Ann Petherick, Kentmere House Gallery, and Crane Kalman Gallery
All text and illustrations from "Where I Belong" reproduced by permission and © Tessa Newcomb 2021; first published 2021 by Sansom & Company Ltd 81G Pembroke Road Bristol BS8 3EA https://sansomandcompany.co.uk/product/tessa-newcomb-where-i-belong/