Tereza Horáček, 'Woodland Path'

Tereza Horáček studied painting at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London (2016–2020).  Recent exhibitions include ‘Afterlight', Irving Gallery, Oxford, March-April 2026; 'Small Plates', Magdalen Road Studios, Oxford, September 2025; 'Back To My Trees' curated by Kate Shooter, Terrace Gallery, London, August–September 2025; Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2025, London; and the Irving Open 2025, March–April 2025. She lives and works in Oxford, UK.

Characterised by a combination of evocative colours, textured brushstrokes, fluorescent-orange backgrounds and loose washes, Horáček reworks and layers paint to combine painting techniques reminiscent of the Old Masters with gestural brushstrokes. Her pastoral scenes draw inspiration from Dutch seventeenth-century paintings and English eighteenth-century landscape painting. Broad meadows, swaying trees and expansive skies are recurring motifs within her work.

‘I look at paintings by Dutch seventeenth-century and English eighteenth-century landscape painters. These paintings, that I visit in galleries or view in books and online, act as a starting point in the making of my own paintings. I might be drawn to a particular leaning tree, lively clouds, a field. I then rework, layer and scratch into the paint, working on top of a fluorescent orange ground. When I paint, I am often thinking about Jacob van Ruisdael’s trees: moody, modest, grand, oppressive and hopeful. I am painting imagined landscapes that are familiar, yet timeless.’