Friday is my day: ColoursandTextures

This week we're going to the UK, where Tessa of ColoursandTextures.etsy.com will show us what her day looks like. Enjoy her Friday and don't forget to go see more of her beautiful work in her shop!

Pink Lilies, Limited Edition print from an original silk painting
ColoursandTextures

Hi, I am Tessa. I live on the edge of South London. From here it’s quick to get into London or out into the Surrey countryside. I paint and love textiles, painting on silk combines both.

I teach watercolour and silk painting to small groups of adults as well as write for art magazines.

My Etsy shop is coloursandtextures.etsy.com and my blog is colours-textures.blogspot.com.

My day starts around 6.30am with a big leisurely cup of tea ( or 2) made by Mr Colours.

Breakfast is banana, orange, natural yoghurt and fruit and nut muesli. That keeps me going till lunch.

My laptop usually goes on about 9 o’clock. I check for emails and look at google analytics. During the day I look in on my etsy shop and pop in on my team threads.

Today I went to my studio next to choose and prepare some work for submitting to an exhibition. (my studio is a hijacked ex dining room)

It is tidier than usual on a Friday as I teach a class in there on a Thursday afternoon. It can very easily get like this!

I searched on my laptop through some images of my work to decide which to use for prints.


Making the prints took longer than expected as I have a new printer to get my head around and boy was it complicated. I got 3 done, then mounted them, attached labels and packed them in cello sleeves.

When I looked up at my clock I saw that it was already past 12.30 and time to go for a swim.

It takes about 10 minutes to drive to the swimming pool. It’s nice to have a change of activity. I swam for about half an hour then went to relax in the steam room, bliss!

Back home at about 2.15 I had a quick lunch. Mr C and Stella were out for a walk. He makes home made bread with our bread machine. I usually have it with soup or make a sandwich or a toastie. The soup in the photo is lentil, carrot and chicken left from a bigger batch that I made.


When Stella got back in I took her in the garden to play with her ball. She’s ready now to take it to her bed.

Then it was back to studio to get the paintings together. I had to choose five. One of them needed framing. The others were already framed but needed checking for labels d-rings etc. One of them had acquired some specks under the glass and in trying to dislodge them the glass broke so I chose another painting to take instead.

I prefer days when I am painting or out gathering ideas as sketches or photos.

At about 5.30pm I started to get the meal together. Mackerel fillets with a homemade salsa, potatoes and peas and a glass of red wine. I enjoy cooking and making up my own recipes.

We ate at 6.15pm. Stella watched patiently and got a bit of fish skin and a plate to lick.

We had a quiet evening. I watched a TV programme called Extraordinary Dogs, wrote a post for my food blog and chatted to Mr C.

An eagerly awaited parcel arrived on the doorstep. Three new designs of cards had been printed from jpegs I sent to a local printer earlier in the week. I am really pleased with them and will package them up over the weekend and take some of them with me when I submit the paintings on Monday. The exhibition will be from April to September at Pashley Manor, an Elizabethan house and gardens in Sussex.

10.30 Bedtime