Tess Jaray

PG: You’ve spoken in many interviews about your love for Piero della Francesca, whose wall paintings and also panel paintings have a chalky, pastel-like and matte quality. Are differences between mattness and gloss in your paintings important to you?

TJ: Yes. But there aren’t any rules, so I can’t tell you, ‘this kind of image requires this kind of surface’. That’s something that emerges as you paint. But Piero’s surfaces ... well, we always come back to Piero, but he probably knew what he was doing the moment he was born.