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TESSA WESSELS

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Tessa Wessels is a concept artist working from Cape Town. After studying Fine Art at Stellenbosch University, majoring in oil painting, she spent a year becoming more familiar with the digital medium. Since 2018, she has worked in the film industry, creating concepts for environments, VFX, creatures and robots. She has worked with many of the world's biggest production
companies including Warner Bros, Paramount, Sony etc. As a concept artist or designer one creates the look and feel of a film or series, creating paintings and drawings to inform the design of any creature, environment, robots etc. In her spare time she paints concepts and images of her own ideas. 

'Faces on a Train' 

While still at high school Tessa took the train between False Bay and Newlands (route from home to school) and found herself sketching away on the train, familiar faces, the familiar yet unidentified crowds on the train. She states that every morning meant a new face. These sketches she would do on her train tickets and soon these tickets piled up, she added numbers and symbols and soon she and her friends would play with these at school as playing cards.

These cards were so popular that she extended the idea and used the famous faces of the Italian Mafia to be portrayed on each individual card.

The Tessa Wessels playing card series ( no longer available) , consisted of: A Face on A Train and a face from the Mafia. Each series featured all 54 playing cards in the deck. From the original sketched train ticket playing cards, digital prints were made which were available as packs of cards or 30x18cm individual card prints. The individual prints consist of a limited number of 52 prints per card.

The prints 'Faces on a Train', and "Mafia' are available at Artvark Gallery. 

Artist Statement:

Painting is personal. My love of painting rests on my arcane and jubilant sentiments that the paint substance, with its marks and colours, has a secret life of its own. This is plagued by a cutting suspicion that an attempted mark of honest self-expression turns to farce as soon as it hits the paper. My themes differ, with allusions to physical power and authoritative embodiment while my painting itself is an attempt at something- at this age, I feel that I am not supposed to know. For me, painting gives a momentary satisfaction in its paint and the subsequent realization that it lacks that satisfaction.

 

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Tessa Wessels. 

NOW ON SHOW AT ARTVARK GALLERY

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Tessa Wessels.

De Waal Park  After the Storm 

Oil on canvas 

94 cm  x 63 cm 

Unframed

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Tessa Wessels.

The Long Haul

Digital Painting 

Framed in Kiaat Wood

132 x 88,5cm 

SOLD

Available unframed.

Price on request. Please email us at artvark@iafrica.com

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Tessa Wessels.

Studio

Digital Painting 

Framed in Kiaat Wood

130 x 80,5cm 

Framed print.

SOLD

Available unframed.

Price on request. Please email us at artvark@iafrica.com

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Tessa Wessels.

Studio

Digital painting on canvas.

60 x 112 cm

Unframed

Price on request. Please email us at artvark@iafrica.com

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Tessa Wessels

Midnight Palm

Digital painting

Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Archival

Framed in Kiaat

142 x 96 cm

Framed print

SOLD

 

Available unframed. 

Price on request. Please email us at artvark@iafrica.com

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Tessa Wessels

Rivier ( Delicious Monster ) 
Digital painting    

Enhanced Matt Giclee

97 x 57.5 cm

R 9500

Available unframed upon request. 

Price on request. Please email us at artvark@iafrica.com

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Tessa Wessels

Deepwater

Digital painting    

Enhanced Matt Giclee

Framed in Kiaat

96 x 56 cm

Framed & unframed available.

Price on request. Please email us at artvark@iafrica.com

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Tessa Wessels

Darkroom Light #1
Digital painting  

Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Archival

Framed in Kiaat  
66.5 x 49 cm


Framed and unframed available.

Price on request. Please email us at artvark@iafrica.com

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Tessa Wessels

Beach Road
Oil on canvas.

Framed in Kiaat  
38 x 28cm

SOLD

'FACES ON A TRAIN' & 'MAFIA'.

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Examples of a few of Tessa's prints.

30 x 18cm

R75 each.

CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE

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