Teresa Lawler is a British artist whose distinctive paintings are informed by a longstanding career in television and theatre production design. She studied Fine Art at Northumbria University before undertaking postgraduate study at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London.

Following her studies, Teresa joined the BBC Design Department, where she worked until 1993. She subsequently developed an extensive career in production design for television and theatre, working as a designer and art director on productions including the BBC dramas Jonathan Creek and The Cazalets, as well as theatre productions in Australia. Alongside her professional design work, she maintained a studio practice encompassing painting, drawing, printmaking and light-based installations.

Teresa also pursued an academic career in production design, teaching in Singapore before joining Kingston University, where she was Course Director of the MA Production Design for Film and Television from 1999 to 2013.

Painting has increasingly become the central focus of Teresa’s practice. Her experience as a set designer continues to play an important role, particularly in her use of architecture, constructed spaces, dramatic lighting and intense colour. Her paintings often place stylised houses within imagined landscapes, creating atmospheric and cinematic worlds that exist somewhere between memory, place and invention.

Working primarily in watercolour, gouache and ink, as well as oil, Teresa builds her paintings through layers of colour and mark. The resulting works combine a strong sense of structure with an imaginative, dreamlike quality, while allowing traces of the painting process to remain visible.

Teresa was elected a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours (RI) in 2021 and, in the same year, was awarded the Winsor & Newton Award for a group of paintings exhibited at the RI’s 209th Exhibition. She was also awarded the Debra Manifold RI Memorial Award in 2022.

Her work has been exhibited widely, including at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, the Pastel Society, the Royal Watercolour Society, the Derwent Art Prize and the New Light Art Prize. Her work has also been exhibited internationally, including through the British Council in Singapore.