September 2018 - February 2019
Andrew Palmer MA (RCA) is a contemporary artist living and working in Cornwall, UK. His dramatic, emotionally charged paintings skillfully capture the light and atmosphere of the wild Cornish coast. Andrew Palmer. Artists Statement. April 2012. “I am very influenced by the sea and have always been fascinated by its power and ever changing moods. I immerse myself in the dramatic land and seascapes that surround me in Cornwall and initially make studies,in oil on canvas or board, painting quickly using bold and vigorous brushstrokes to express my subjective response to the location. In the studio I work from these studies on larger paintings which are often more abstract and expressive, while still conveying the atmosphere and specific sense of place of the original subject.”
Inspired by the Sussex landscape and coastline, Faye’s paintings capture those fleeting moments of light, movement and feelings. Faye mark makes by using objects found during beach-combing adventures, from fisherman’s knots and driftwood to feathers and bottle tops. These tactile objects are used as tools, to make brushes or pens to print and scratch the paintings. Together with the layering of paint and ink, charcoal and pencil the technique produces contemporary sea and landscape. The paintings are timeless and conjure distant memories.
Born in Manchester, 1996, I have recently graduated from the University of Brighton after studying Fine Art Painting BA . My practice explores how artificial intelligence can assist in the creative process. By pairing hard edged and gestural styles, questions about the authenticity and loaded nature of the brushstroke are asked within the context of my paintings.
Jemma lives in Brighton UK with her husband and two children.
She has a BA in Fine Art:Painting from University of Brighton and Art PGCE from Goldsmiths College, University of London. Jemma’s work has been featured in Tatler and Homes and Gardens.
Jemma creates ephemeral, atmospheric, playful paintings,
She uses gestural mark making which is a response to her life and her environment.
Loraine Hayes studied Fine Art Painting BA (Hons) at St Martins School of Art in London under Gillian Ayres and Ian Tyson and exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts as a New Contemporary.
These are semi abstract paintings that describe the rolling hills of the South Downs just outside Brighton, creating images that reflect a relationship with the landscape which is both joyous and personal.
I am passionate about creativity, productivity, presence and flow.
I work with individuals and small groups to help them get unstuck, grow their capacity and make more time for what they really, really want to be doing.
As an artist and a person who loves to get things done, I’ve discovered the need for both a right brain and a left brain approach. I adore being wildly creative and as such I am a proliferator – I generate masses of ideas and images – but I have found that without structure it all gets messy and out of control. So, as well as creating art and ideas, over the years, I’ve learned tools and strategies to get organised, keep motivated, and get stuff done.
I coach, teach, educate and train. I’ve worked with creative entrepreneurs, academics, digital agencies, councils, media corporations and universities.
Jane Bohane is a materials-led, experimental artist that works predominately with glass in a most unusual & unique way.
Working from within a rural studio in The Surrey Hills, the changing light can not help but influence her work.
Whilst studying drawing at Camberwell College of Art, work evolved when challenged to “put the pencil aside” & look at drawing in a different way.. so began a love of sculpture. Glass quickly became the preferred material & on graduating her work evolved into medium & large sculptures, designed for outdoor spaces.
Pieces are often constructed within precise rigid Corten & mirrored Stainless Steel frames enclosing an individual combination of glass shards or splinters. The glass is all hand-cut by Jane & the edge kept raw, exploiting its jagged beauty.
Suzanne Hennegrave is a semi-abstract, contemporary landscape painter and a teacher. She is inspired by the land, sea and big skies. She paints in oils and mixed-media from memory and experience and her work is developed using artistic intuition.
Her greatest loves are atmospheric weather and fleeting light and this she tries to capture in her work, through her own emotional response. She hopes that her paintings will encourage viewers to foster a greater appreciation of their natural surroundings also.
Suzanne Hennegrave holds the prestigious position of Head of Art at Ashdown House, previously held by Harold Mockford.
It all started over 15 years ago when I was on holiday in Croatia and someone I met through a mutual friend needed help in turning over a large glass panel. When I saw it, it was love at first sight. I returned to my native Hungary, did a course and set up my business. I worked with interior designers and architects on larger commissions, such as bank branches, solicitors’ offices, health clinics and private residences.
In 2008 I moved to the United Kingdom, the country of fascinating hedges, chimneys and stained glass art. I’ve been lucky to be able to continue working with glass – I’d like to help preserve this country’s traditional glass art and I also hope to make my own modest contribution to British contemporary glass art. I work in a studio in a wonderful and inspiring garden in Buckland, Surrey. I do not have opening hours in my studio, so please contact me to make an appointment.
January 2018 - May 2018
‘Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past’ – 1984, George Orwell, Secker and Warburg, 1949
‘History is more or less bunk’ – Chicago Tribune, Henry Ford, 1916
I find the way that historic events, stories and legends are presented through art, fascinating. Or misleading. Or slanted to a purpose. Or insightful.
Linking a host of past and current records, pictures and books allows me to re-imagine narratives and explore the connection between historical matters and the events of today. I work diligently at re-defining these with my own prejudices by adding my own personal view. I do not claim that this provides any definition of truth. But it may make the observer think a little, who knows?
A recent project ‘The History of The World in Six Pictures’ came about using old and new records and a medium based on a photographic outcome. Each piece emerged through a hand-made construction process, cutting and mixing appropriated photography, my own images with photomontage, text and drawing. As a final step the completed work was photographed for display.
Unique Metal Sculpture
My creative exploration began in my childhood, making fantastical hybrid creatures using old toys and a tube of glue. Today I make animals and creatures from mostly found and recycled metal; transforming every day objects into detailed, sculptural artworks.
My commissions include sculpture, architectural installations and furniture. And many of my public artworks are on display in several locations throughout England.
Ann Burnham trained at Harrow School of Art and worked as a graphic designer for some years before becoming a full time printmaker. She exhibits regularly and has work in private collections in this country and abroad, and permanently on display at Greenwich Printmakers Gallery and Southbank Printmakers Gallery. She has exhibited at Bankside RE open, Society of Woman Artists at the Mall Galleries, Affordable Art Fair Battersea and Hampstead, as well as being prizewinner in the ‘Inspired by’ competition at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Her prints are inspired by a fascination with the textures and patterns found in both the natural and man-made landscape around us, as well as a sense of mystery about where things may lead and where they may have originated.
Gail Astbury was born in Lancashire England and is an artist and educator. She trained as a painter at Wimbledon School of Art in the 1990’s, and has furthered her studies recently, gaining an MA in Contemporary Arts Practices at Goldsmiths University and Tate Modern London in 2014.
Gail makes series of paintings and drawings in her studios in London and La Péruse, south west France. She works on collaborative visual arts projects that revitalise spaces and communities for private, public and corporate clients. Her work explores ‘position’ and place within any group or society to make room for ‘re-positioning’, vitality and decision-making from participants and new audiences.
I am an artist, editor and writer living in London, and my art practice is focused on painting.
My paintings are explorations of the language of space-making. They are inspired by light and colour, memories, places, and by the qualities of paint itself. An underlying geometry, experimentation with process, and the materiality of the paint surface are recurring themes; colour is an animating force. The paintings evolve on the canvas through a process of building, adding and removing elements, and through alternating layers of saturated and muted colours.
Joshua Vaughan is a skilled artist, working in a variety of media, including steel, wood-working, silver and various other process oriented materials. He works both on commissions, on his own practice and as a technician for various art events throughout London.
I am a painter and printmaker in love with colour, having attained a BA in Painting and an MA in Printmaking. I very much enjoy the activity of making my artwork, seeing and responding to the previous mark or colour I have created. The process can then become very much part of the creative journey.
My subject matter has two strands. The first is responding to the visual impact of exotic places (and some closer to home) that I have visited. These include Morocco, Vietnam, Bali, Israel, Iceland and more recently, Nepal. The patterns, colour and shapes excite me, and through drawings and photographs I create memories for myself so that I can produce work which evokes the visual impressions of my travels have made one me. As a painter I use mixed media, and I work in screenprint and relief printing such as linocut, always trying to exploit textures, shapes and above all colour, the most important aspect.
The second type of subject matter is objects. I gather objects which are sometimes quirky, sometimes exotic and sometimes just colourful in shapes which inspire me. I compose the ‘still lives’ on the paper or canvas, so that I can play with the interaction of geometric shapes, the objects themselves and again, colour.
The nature of the lines, clean or scumbled, lyrical or direct, together with varied colour and facture characterise my visual language. I use contours to distinguish expressive relationships, juxtaposing colours, their chroma and value, thus distorting the perceived depth of the work.
I have explored primitive and surrealist mark-making in the structuring of my work. The two-dimensionality of abstract expressionist colour field painting also informs my investigation of space. Scale is a key feature, influencing the reading of the work; with a large painting the audience navigates the nuanced surface, simultaneously consumed by the holistic presence of the piece.
In 2009 I started working from a Newspaper image of a Polar Bear, the corresponding article was about global warming. In my sculpture I have tried to express both the image and some of the environmental issues. My print making developed out of the sculptural images.
All my recent prints are wood cuts many of them are reduction prints, using more than one colour. As in my sculpture I continue to experiment with both the medium and the subject.
“My work is image based expressing in the physicality of the material an essential quality of the idea. The tactile quality of my work, the process of its making, being evident is important, I would like my work to be seen as if the sensation of touch can be experienced visually.”
Stella Whalley is a multidisciplinary Fine Artist living and working in London, her work has been disseminated through exhibitions, lectures and publications, leading to heightened public awareness of the debates and developments in the expanded field of digital processes in printmaking, site-specific installation, painting, video and sound installations. Her National and International exposure of artistic practice and engagement with public and professionals, delivering many talks in public galleries and museums, including exhibitions ‘Bad Witches’ is shown in the EMPIRE 11 exhibition at the 57th Venice Biennale 2017, Site-specific installation ‘The CRASH’ Q Park London Freize art week 2017, multi media group exhibition in association with Geoffrey Leong Foundation. ‘Cinematic series’ of prints at the 3rd Global Print 2017 and Douro Biennial 2018 Portugal, the Nakanojo Biennale Japan 2015, the Wilson Gallery Cheltenham 2014.’Digital Responses’ the Victoria & Albert Museum London, and a book launch of ‘Tokyo Tales’ at the Whitechapel Gallery. She has successfully received funding for International residencies and exhibitions in Japan and Italy.
Yvonne Roberts deconstructs and reconstructs images of personal significance to create abstract paintings and collages, recognised for their strong sense of colour and form. Shapes and marks overlap and converge, as if in conversation with one another – each piece serving as a form of visual poetry, for both artist and viewer alike. Much like Albert Irvin and Howard Hodgkin, she has adopted a gestural approach, turning representative motifs into dynamic, rhythmical compositions, and though any indication of subject is removed, an emotive and immersive narrative remains.
May 2018 - October 2018
Clare May Martin studied Fine Art Painting at Chelsea. Given paint and an empty space, the course gave Clare ultimate freedom to grow and develop her own style.
During the 3 year course her work evolved towards strong composition structures without any pictorial reference. Encouraged by her lecturers, who included Chris Ofili, she pursued the passion she was discovering for abstract work and theory, leaning towards the style of Abstract Expressionist and Colour Field Artists. Love of painting and paint itself drives the ambition to create
Despite a love of painting and a strong desire to create, her art practice unfortunately became a part–time pursuit due to the the realities of making a living.
In April 2017, after a successful career in International Fashion Sales, Clare made the decision to devote her time once again fully to her art. Now, looking to expand both her studio practice and theoretical studies, Clare couldn’t be happier.
“The work is a personal experience. Emotion and reference are restrained allowing freedom for the viewer to create their own images, rarely they are the same. Made with quick action emotive mark making, and pursuing a strong composition, the journey with the emerging painting becomes the end painting. Abstract image becomes a vehicle for the viewers’ mind, playing with recognisable imagery that is not there, evoking a blurred memory that they resonate with; the painting pulling from their sub conscious an emotional connection which belongs only to the viewer themselves.”
Sculptor Dick Budden is also a leading TV propmaker who has worked on everything from Absolutely Fabulous to Basil Brush.
“I’m just an old filmie,” says Budden from the kitchen of his Berkshire home. “I have always made things on the side for myself but never did much of it – I didn’t have time. But now people seem to have developed an appetite for my work.”
Born in Jersey in 1940, Budden trained at Bournemouth Art College, moving to London in the early 60s to a dingy basement flat on the Uxbridge Road and a job making polystyrene props for the BBC.
“This was right at the beginning of colour TV,” says Budden, “when the cameras were too big to go outside. We made anything they needed – Greek temples, cliffs, caves and houses. The whole thing was cheap and cheerful and we were even cheaper.”
Only when Budden and his wife Mary moved near to Maidenhead in the 70s did he rent studio space to create his own pieces: wooden dancers for his garden, abstract Moore-like bronzes and, of course, his trademark oversized fruit, first for the Henley Festival and later for private clients including Alan Titchmarsh, who recently snapped up one of Budden’s pears.
What differentiates one of his props from a work of art? “There’s no difference,” says Budden. “It is all down to the art mob who want things boxed and labelled. I just make stuff. It’s all I’ve ever done.”
And, he is still at it. Recent film jobs includes Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow, The Phantom of the Opera and Sport Relief.But does Budden yearn to be a household name? He replies: “It would be great to hear people say: ‘Let’s meet by the pear.’ But I don’t believe you can engineer these things. I have always waited for them to come to me.”
I am an artist and illustrator living and working in Kent, South East England.
I have always been irresistibly drawn to the heartstopping beauty of the natural world – exploring the colours, patterns and intricate forms through paint and sculpture.
My current body of work explores the emotional and intellectual responses to, and interactions with, the landscapes we experience. We all have our own perceptions of beauty in our environment, and I am looking at the elements that make a traditionally beautiful scene really sing for me, in the context of unlikely places such as my immediate, city environment, and at how these two meet, and/or veer apart.
I am especially interested in my, and the audience’s, part in that process: how my interpretation and depiction of a landscape can create another world, which in turn is further changed by people’s reactions – stirring memories, evoking emotions, until the lines between real and imagined, past and present, become blurred and reality shifts.
Gill Is a fine art Sculptor creating abstract, animal and female cast bronze sculptures.
Gill Brown was born and brought up in Liverpool, where she studied sculpture at the Liverpool College of Art for five years. After teaching art and pottery in the North, she went to America where she worked as a freelance artist.
She spent five years in Kenya where local carvings and jewellery added a new dimension to her work. On returning to the North of England she taught sculpture and pottery whilst producing work for exhibitions.
For the last twenty years she has lived in Tunbridge Wells. Her work is both figurative, wildlife and abstract and includes animals, birds and figures, from small maquettes to life-size pieces. All her work is cast in bronze using the lost wax method, at the Livingstone Art Founders.
The gallery contains both figurative bronze sculptures, wildlife and abstract sculptures. All sculptures are cast in bronze using the lost wax method.
I am a self taught artist and printmaker.
After moving from Twickenham to Sussex in 2006 I trained in print making with the Sussex Art and Printmaking Studios. My focus was predominetly in etching.I started foraging for plants to study, which became an obsession and brought me closer to nature. I have a camera with me at all times and as a result have started to combine my work by using impressions of digital imagery along with traditional techniques.
I encourage people to stand still and simply observe nature. My work has been greatly influenced by Arthur Rackham who captured the Sussex scenes through his beautiful illustrated fairytales in the late 1800s. I aim to give a child like perspective of the plants and butterflies where Rackham once trod.
In keeping with a more holistic ethos I use vegetable based inks as much as possible and have been experimenting with making dyes and powders from the plants and land of the Sussex Downs.
Works are sold as limited editions, due to the hand inking process and the individual way in which I like to work, most art works are unique in themselves and are sold as varied editions. Using the same zine plate or glicee print but varied hand finished techniques including gold leaf.
Kristy Campbell is an Artist and Writer based in Norwich, UK. Since graduating with an MA in Fine Art from Norwich University of the Arts in 2014, she has gone on to exhibit throughout the UK and internationally; venues of note include Somerset House (London, UK) and King’s College (London, UK) in 2018, and EXPO Chicago (Chicago, USA) in 2014, amongst others. While her practice situates itself in the realms of typography and minimalist design, and the likes of a familiar recognisable language, through abstract compositions Campbell looks to convey the fluid ambiguity of meaning.
Linda has a display and design background – she has worked as a freelance exhibition and window display artist for over forty years mostly in the South East and central London.
She has also taught exercise to music:- as a child and teenager she was a latin and ballroom competition dancer.
Her art practice draws on her love of dance, music and textiles.
She interprets the rhythm and beat of the music – sometimes adding the choreography. Her work is about the negative shape, the connections between the shapes and how they make a rhythm – she thinks of it as visual music. She also makes work that is inspired by poetry and novels, interpreting the text in the same way as she interprets music. The text gives the work another dimension.
In 2001 she gained a fine arts degree from Central St Martins.
She has her studio in Kent where she lives.
Artist and Designer Marie-Louise Miller has always been obsessed with drawing. After completing her Foundation Diploma at St Martin’s School of Art & Design in 1991 a place on the Fashion Promotion & Illustration course at Epsom School of Art & Design offered Marie-Louise the opportunity to extend her drawing practice and her interest in the human form and psyche. Later in 1996, she attended The Roehampton Institute to study Public Art and shifted her focus to human spaces rather than human bodies.
After fifteen years creating bespoke designs for the world’s premier interiors Marie-Louise returned to full time fine-art studio practice and now works from her studio The Old Chemist, which she shares with her cinematic husband Mauricio Vincenzi and which is fast becoming a must visit creative space in the quirky seaside town of St Leonard’s on Sea. The Old Chemist is home to Endwell Productions and hosts Super8, cinematic, drawing; fashion and performance pop ups, happenings and workshops. When not on the south coast of England, Marie-Louise can be found in Niteroi the city opposite Rio de Janeiro, Brazil boasting a fabulous view of that iconic skyline.
Marie-Louise was raised in South London and deepest rural France. She leads a drawing research group from The Old Chemist and is a Visiting Lecturer on the Fashion FDA at Sussex Coast College, Hastings. In 2015 she launched WEAR ART the digital extension of her fine art practice in ready to wear form.
October 2017 - January 2018
Claudia De Grandi’s work is a distillation of meticulous study and controlled thought inspired by music and meditation. The canvases Claudia calls moving mediations are to her a private performance of art – acts of body and spirit. When she’s ready, Claudia invites people into her personal space to view her large paintings -active contemplations on abstraction and transparency are expressions of the air we breathe and the nature of transmission through space and time.
In another dimension to her work she also welcomes audiences to be right here, right now, to witness her art as an actual performance -ready to alter their states of mind to look and listen to ‘Visual Sounds’ which are improvisations by Claudia and electronic musician Joshua Tennent.
Music, or ‘arte superior’ as Claudia describes it, is the basis for her art. She was classically trained at the piano at a São Paolo conservatoire where she first realised that music could be an abstraction. She carried these ideas with her when she studied fine art at University of Greenwich and gained a Masters in Transnational Art at the University of the Arts London,the latter, recognised as the main centre study of culture from the post colonial world to its development in a globalised world.
Her large canvases are a process of application and removal, colour on colour, mark making and minimalism. “I might start a painting with a very thin dark layer like black, I will brush it away until it is transparent, and I carry on removing until there’s nothing, then I apply a blue. Applying and removing. I want the viewer to see the colours. At first sight the paintings might seem minimal, but there is a lot going on. There are colours that merge and there are many colours beneath the darkness.” By definition large canvases require movement by the artist, so each work is an act of physicality.
Claudia’s work addresses the universal with her gestural brushstrokes and improvised calligraphy. “It’s about subtlety and being delicate. The human body takes up space. The mind takes up time. How do you paint space? How do you paint time?”
Having grown up in Margate, the unceasing movement of sea and sky have been a constant presence in my life. Their ever changing relationships form scenes and worlds into which my imagination can travel. I explore these elements in oil, varnish and resin.
My paintings always express my interest in the immediacy and emotional expression of colour and brush strokes.. I enjoy spontaneity and the emergence of the unexpected. A recent trip to China and a painting Fellowship next to the Great Wall of China has led to a deepening interest in calligraphy which I am exploring through a series of ink paintings. Many of my ink paintings were inspired by the Great Wall and the ideas from this ongoing series have influenced my paintings on canvas. I like the directness of starting with some fluid brushstrokes and colours and allowing the painting to suggest a place.
There is often an underlying reference to landscapes, cityscapes, and the female form. In particular, mountains have always inspired me and reflect my idea of my paintings being a journey through paint. But often I will start from a memory, word, phrase, or the painting evolves organically into its own world.
“Like the picture surface, colour has an inherent life of its own. A picture comes into existence on the basis of the interplay of this dual life. In the act of predominance and assimilation, colours love or hate each other, thereby helping to make the creative intention of the artist possible.”
(Hans Hofmann)
Botanics (2016-17) is a new series of paintings and drawings from Georgina. The work is inspired by many visits to the glasshouses of the Botanic Gardens in Glasgow. A variety of materials – oil, pastel, pen, crayon, pencil and acrylic – are used to explore the multiple layers and textures of the Gardens. The work considers the juxtaposition between geometric and organic form, converting light and space into a tangible form.
Georgina is a graduate of Edinburgh College of Art and currently lives and paints in Edinburgh.
Art is not just for galleries and museums. Art can bring meaning and a sense of place to any public area – transforming that space and becoming a symbolic point of reference in the minds of all.
As an artist, I believe in the simple definition that art is an expression of creative skill and imagination. However, it’s the meaning that it has to the viewer, which is most important. That, along with the accessibility of art in _the public domain is the reason I choose to make art for public spaces.
With over 25 years of experience in producing art in the public domain, I have established a proven track record of managing budgets and deadlines to deliver high quality, site-specific sculpture and functional artwork.
My material of choice is the durable and versatile medium of steel. My motifs are inspired by the inherent beauty of natural forms, which, I create through combining precision laser cut elements with hand forged blacksmithing techniques. Traditional and modern, nature and technology are fused into a space-defining structure designed to become the cherished focal point of a community.
All work is fabricated in my South London studio by myself and a small team of skilled professional makers. When necessary, I can draw on the additional resources of other trusted workshops and suppliers with whom I have developed a close working relationship over many years.
Community engagement has often been the starting point for commissions. I feel it offers the element of chance – inspiring the work through creative collaboration and allowing for questions of reason and role during the process.
Community participation through workshops is an ideal environment in which to attract the influence of wider historical, cultural and social factors.
I find it imperative to research the needs of every project on a case-by-case basis to achieve the best outcome.
A huge source of inspiration in India for me was the Pushkar camel fair, where camel traders gather from all parts of India to trade and sell over 11,000 camels and cattle. Camel traders walk for days to congregate at the loud, colourful, frenetic festival, with the sun beating down and drums booming from the stadiums. Camels are trimmed, beautified and dressed to be sold and take part in shows and tournaments.
Recycling has always featured strongly in my work and I have strived to replicate the camels’ fur by using second hand materials; jumpers, blankets and even a onesie!
All of the decorations were hand selected and carted back from Pushkar. My aim for this project was to show my playful side, and essentially create something which people can engage with and enjoy.
British artist Shauna Richardson has received much critical acclaim. Her work has been exhibited internationally and at many prestigious galleries such as Saatchi Gallery, and museums including The Natural History and Victoria & Albert London.
Shauna invented the term Crochetdermy® to describe her realistic life-size animal sculpture created using crochet.
Pieces include ‘Bojo’ Mayor of London Boris Johnson depicted as a blond gorilla. Commissions include a portrait of HRH Prince Harry as ginger baboon and The Lionheart Project – a flagship project for the London 2012 Olympic Games for which over a period of two years she single-handedly crocheted three 25ft lions that toured the UK in a mobile glass vehicle.
I am a London based artist and did my BA in Fine Art at Camberwell School of Art in 1978-1982 where I studied painting and printmaking.
My still lives are based upon photographs taken with a macro lens. I use natural light to create dramatic shadows, therefore exploring my main interests of space, colour and texture. I am influenced by 16th/ 17th century Spanish still life artists.
I work in layers building up the image with varying thickness of paint, allowing each layer to dry before continuing, and finally finishing with glazing. The glazing makes a big difference to the painting as a whole, really bringing out the colour and depth to the finished image.
I also enjoy working in different scales. My work in monotypes which I sometimes use to inform my paintings, creates unexpected textures and marks which are difficult to achieve with oil on canvas. Monotypes are a kind of one-off print and I think of them as small, unique paintings.
Rachel McDonnell is a painter whose preoccupations include light, and our experiences of it, paying homage to the minutiae/neglected things in life through the medium of painting, optical trickery and pattern. Beyond that she had interests in philosophy and politics, feminism and the environment, amongst other things, all of which feed into her work. She tries to amalgamate thoughts and ideas about art and the world into something which draws the viewer in, and might lead them both to appreciate the work as an object in itself, and also to think about both the work and its subject.
Rachel studied for her Foundation Course in Fine Art at City and Guilds art school, before going on to study Politics, Philosophy and Economics at St. Anne’s College, Oxford, where she won a scholarship. The ideas encountered during this time continue to inform her work, specifically in terms of the links between politics, philosophy and art.
June 2017 - October 2017
Jeannette Unite’s installation of mineral strata paintings were produced 200 years after the publishing of William Smith’s geological map of England and Wales. The paintings incorporate embedded text from Smith’s archives at Oxford University and include the very minerals that Smith described in his pioneering strata map. William STRATA Smith, is as important to Geology as Darwin is to Natural History.
This body of work was shown at Exeter University 2015 -2016 and Museum Ostwall, Dortmund, Germany.
These artworks follow Jeannette Unite artistic process of visiting mines, industrial sites and quarries from which she collects material from slimes dams and mine dumps that include sedimentary layers of chalk, sand, clay and coal and the platinum, gold mine dust, titanium copper particles and other metal oxides.
Unite has collected chalk from Dover and material from Wales, the ROyal FOrest of Dean, COrnwall, and various samples from the strata of England and Wales with the help of Owen Green from Oxford University Department of Earth Science. It was the dark arteries of coal veined throughout the world, and formed some 300 million years ago from ancient equatorial plants and trees, fuelled the industrial revolution that changed the way humans interact with Earth and nature.
While coal powered the Industrial Revolution, it too had a significant impact on the history of South Africa. The economic foundation for South Africa’s rich and contentious mining history was laid due to the proximity of the Witbank’s coal reserves to the Witwatersrand gold deposits. This caused the emergence of South Africa’s Mineral-Energy-Labour Complex.
Jeannette Unite’s interest in mining extends from her own family’s history and involvement in the industry. From studying engineering, working in the steel and metal industries, as well as part-owning a mine, Unite’s Grandparents and Great Grandparents had rich ties to the history of mining and industrial heritage in South Africa and abroad.
Ed Burnand is a London born artist living and working in the city. Ed’s work is predominately Painting based but not exclusively, covering a wide range of subject matters. Sculpture, screen printing and photography also feature in his practice. Since graduating from Camberwell College of Art He has contributed to a number of group shows in London and The South of England including Gallery shows at The To and For Pop Up Gallery, Lingwood Samuel Gallery, Surrey and for ‘Miscellaneous Debris’ at The Century Gallery (London). More recently Ed has been exhibiting along side his partner Bella Vernon at The Other Art Fair in London and sells through a number of online Galleries including Saatchi Art, Artbridge and Art Republic.
Photo series C-Type
Photo series C-Type metallic photographs explore the nature of spray paint build up on a microscopic scale; then enlarged via high resolution scans to expose the innermost workings. The colours are bright and bold, rich in their layers/texture, taking on elemental properties.
Artists Statement
My practice has developed over the years to establish deeply personal ways of making marks on canvas. The aim is to create proto-narratives, each open to their own interpretation, but all informed by a theme or set of boundaries. The common technical thread is a multi-stage process of experiment and refinement, application and removal that build back, middle and foreground enabling the integration of natural, mechanical and architectural features.
I am a conceptual sculpture, installation, music and occasional video artist, taking inspiration from past personal experiences in combination with art, culture and retro music.
A recurrent theme in my practice is a curious urge to find balance between the organized and the chaotic, using as an example, the melting effect to represent chaos and with straight lines, borders, frames and grids representing order.
I see my work as an effort to balance the more chaotic left side of my brain with the orderly right side, where the paintings are a snapshot of the process.
Artists who has influenced me range from painters to sculptors to installation artists; Anselm Kiefer, Claes Oldenburg, Gerhard Richter and Gabriel Orozco to mention a few.
Lucy was born on the Isle of Wight and now lives in Hampshire. She has exhibited widely and her work is held in many private collections.
Lucy’s paintings have recently evolved from traditional landscapes to a more abstracted style that alludes to a metaphor of scenery but that still draws on the surroundings that she loves in Hampshire, Cornwall and the Isle of Wight.
Lucy’s work belies its simplicity, challenging the viewer to reassess ideas of form and traditional relationships. The artist is wary of deconstructing images and would like the paintings to speak for themselves, evoking ‘feelings and memories’ whilst reflecting on the traditions of painting and modernism and the reputations of her illustrious forbears, notably Lanyon and Hitchens.
The spaces left between the paint strokes are as important as the marks themselves as they allow the viewer to engage with the work whilst always remembering that they are merely looking at a few brush marks on a canvas but that allow the viewer an emotional engagement.
Many people when they look at their holiday photographs are disappointed because the images fail to represent how they felt and what they saw at the time of the shot.
Coming as he does from an IT background, Clive is particularly fascinated by how a subject can be invigorated by the camera, rather than diminished and he tries to capture the essence of the location he is in, so that the photo shows the “soul,” of the place.
This exhibition is a culmination of several trips to both Iceland and Greenland, locations he adores and by the way, is happy to arrange group workshop to.
The photo’s below show that reaching the extreme landscapes that he so loves, is rather more than a walk in the park, but he believes it well worth the effort. Clive hopes that this exhibition will encourage people to appreciate these threatened landscapes and give them the respect and protection they deserve.
As an artist, George Antoni is primarily self taught. Although he studied art at West Ham College of Further Education, he also had an interest in drama and a three year course at E15 Acting School lead to a thirty year career in film, TV and theatre.
It was only when he left London and moved to Brighton that he took up painting again, initially inspired by the expansive skies and dramatic seascapes. Although the work is ever changing, the influence of coastal life is still evident in his current works.
George taps into his unconscious. He starts a painting with only a loose intention, taking the piece through numerous generations whilst drawing on multiple inspirations simultaneously. Much is left to chance as he plays with the balance of chaos and order. He wants the painting to end with the idea rather than start with it and the viewer is invited to bring their own interpretation to the finished piece.
Working from sketch book studies and direct observation Ann creates vibrantly coloured paintings and prints using stencil based printmaking processes. Subject matter includes ponds,gardens, aquariums, textiles and recent travels to India and the Far East.
Formerly based in Ruthin in North Wales, Ann has moved her studio to Otford, near Sevenoaks, in Kent. She is a member of the Royal Cambrian Academy and is represented in North Wales by Ffin y Parc Gallery in Llanwrst.
From 1995-1999 she studied at Yale College and Glyndwr University (The North Wales College of Art and Design) obtaining First Class Honours in Design. She specialized in Illustration through drawing and printmaking.
For two years Ann worked as Artist in Residence at Chester Zoo, making works based on the Aquarium, the Twilight Zone (bats) and the gardens. Residencies continue to form an important part of her practice along with commissioned work for corporate and private collections.
Her work is exhibited nationally and internationally in group and solo shows. The charity Paintings in Hospitals hold a number of works in their loan collection.
Making the sculptures has enabled me to give new value to natural things and has brought me closer to our creator. The process of making the sculptures has a meditative effect, ‘listening’ to the pieces of wood and experimenting to find which combination would create best harmony. A large variety of materials in different sizes and textures is necessary.
Over time, driftwood develops a velvet-like surface where the wood fibres have been bleached by the sun and salt, and lifted through frost and rain. The combination of the wood with other organic or found materials and the absolute minimum of change, leads to the formation of new ‘relationships’.
Harmony plays a big role in my work. The hardness of the stone – albeit in the softness of its shape, contrasts with the soft texture of the driftwood. Conversely, the rounded shapes of the pebbles contrast with the rugged or more textured parts of the wood. My training in textiles, art and design all come together to help choose the ‘right’ technique.
Each of the sculptures demands a fresh approach and I treat it as a challenge. Newly found materials often influence the choice, inspiring fresh combinations.Every pebble has to be special in shape, colour, texture and size, and has been collected by hand. It requires travelling to many different coastlines in Britain, ranging from Cornwall to the Highlands of Scotland in order to find these gems.
Movement plays an important part and I have been fascinated by the sculptures of Calder since my childhood. The interdependence of size, weight and distance creates wonderful tension and interesting dynamics. The slightest airflow can often make the sculpture swing and come alive. Due to this many sculptures have adjustable elements which you can change to suit your mood or the sculptures’ environment. Equally, Barbara Hepworth’s work has had a great impact on me with her use of curves, circles, openings and convex and concave shapes.
It is my mission to show the beauty and harmony of our wonderful natural world and its creator. By lifting the materials out of their usual contexts and combining them in unusual ways they take on a renewed vigour of expression. We have a chance to wake up and see the often surprisingly precious effects. We can remember the value of the natural world to us humans and hopefully act protectively towards nature in future.
I work intuitively on paper, canvas, board, and sometimes metal, to produce a mix of figurative and abstract imagery. One recent cache of work, inspired by the pattern of cracks in a flagstone, focused on the range of feelings conveyed by just a few lines. These cracks, when drawn, appeared variously as a landscape, a section of torso, or an embracing couple which, in turn, switched from representing trust, care and comfort to something more menacing.
Based in Brighton, though raised and educated in London, since retiring from academia I have been able to work almost full time as an artist. As a teenager I had the benefit of Saturday morning classes with Richard Robbins at Camberwell School of Art and latterly the good will and encouragement of Ron Cavedaschi, John Skinner and Jane Fordham.
January 2017 - June 2017
I am an artist of scale, creating works that gather impact from their often larger-than-life size. My images are observed from nature, particularly trees and woodland, giving an escape into the open without leaving the room. I began to explore the potential of my work for medical & office environments early on in my career and have since worked with numerous private companies, hospitals and hospices to the effort of positively transforming their space.
The act of nature is central to the philosophy of my work. I seek to ignite the fundamental connectedness between our all-consuming race and the natural environment that has born us. Whilst searching for meaning in existence and ancestry, I uncovered a living bridge to our origins in the form of Trees. The distinct and prehistoric form of a tree provides a tie between ourselves and our earthly origins; dating back hundreds of millions of years, each has borne witness to our evolution, our life and perhaps finally our demise.
Trees are the foundations of the habitat: they are the lungs of the earth; they recycle our water and store our carbon; they are the raw material of both construction and fuel; & they are symbols of our relationship and weight on the earth. Sheer scale of time and proportion are key elements of my practice, with works gathering impact from their larger-than-life size – growing so to reflect and transcend time. Confronting the viewer with a continuing ancient beauty, my images provide an obvious escape, as well as an invitation to explore our own ephemeral relationship with our natural, yet ultimately changing, world. I aim to reveal the wonder and harmony of the natural world, producing images that emanate the very presence of nature, reminding us of its forceful past and present. By picking out every exquisite detail of form and atmosphere, my images are designed to envelop the viewer: providing a window in which to gaze and empowering an expression of their existence within the magnitude of creation.
After gaining a BA in Fine Art at the University of Leeds in 2010 I settled in London. Based at Wimbledon Art Studio’s in South West London I work to create bold explorations in movement, colour and texture. Working in oil, acrylic, ink, pastel and charcoal I consider myself a mixed media artist, bringing to the forefront visual observations of colour and configurations of the world around us.
Figurative study has played a big part in my art school training as well as explorations into print and mark marking. Although hinting at flora, fauna and still life I believe the medium itself has become the main protagonist of my work. These ‘portraits of paint, charcoal and ink’ give a life to the medium as the subject; they have weight and physicality, form and shape built up with texture and viscosity, examining the relationship between the background and foreground. It is what I put onto my canvas/paper/ board that remains my constant muse and takes superior precedence in my artistic process.
The memories I have collected over my life since I was a child, standing on a beach and watching the tide, or playing by the White Horse in Uffington, have stayed with me and now, when I see children doing the same, I feel comforted by the familiar landscape.
When I paint, I capture the calm feeling of looking at the sea, or the exhilaration of looking up at ‘The White Horse,’ filtered over many years with memories of visiting these places.
I’m not concerned with getting the view exactly right as I want to show the emotion and dreamlike memory of each place, with all the energy of untamed nature and Britain’s ancient past.
I try to reach out to the viewer so that he or she may feel the eternity of time.I have a degree in Art and a PGCE.I have taught for 20 years and I exhibit in galleries , when I have spoken to people they say they feel happy and uplifted by my work. I also take commissions.
British born figurative painter. Mainly work in oils.
Studied in London and Brighton.
Living and working in Leeds.
Merit at Camberwell College of the Arts, London
1st Class Honours for BA (Hons) Fine Art: Painting, Brighton
Awarded The Edward Baden Fine Art Prize 2016 for my degree show
Awarded an Honourable Mention by Nagoya University for my degree show.
“Being a practicing artist is vital to me as it is an expression and an exploration into what makes us human and what it is to be alive. To be authentic to oneself is paramount and is essential to secure meaning, value, vitality and purpose into existence. I am a multi-sensory artist who questions how conscious thought is constructed and the implications of the unconscious, how we live in and experience time and reality. I aim to express my research on existential phenomenology and embodied experience in a visual form, in order to deepen my understanding of these complex ideas in order to make sense of the world we live in. Art allows me space and time to breathe, feel, touch, see, experience and think visually.”
‘Science tells us we are merely beasts, but we don’t feel like that. We feel like angels trapped inside the bodies of beasts, forever craving transcendence.’ (Ramachandran, 2012, p291)
My practice as research has become an interrogation of authenticity, identity and consciousness informed by Heidegger’s ideas on Dasein’s mode of being-in-the-world. The paintings I make are an ordinary history of experience, aiming to encompass time, not in a linear way but in the temporal way we exist; in a past, present and future that inter-twine. I aim to catch a sense of time, space and movement that embodies physical and experiential modes of human consciousness, encapsulating these ideas in a visual form.
Deborah attained a Fine Art Masters Degree with merit at University of Chichester in September 2015.
Ptolemy was born in the south of England but grew up in the north. He studied art and design to degree level at Bradford and Illkley Community College in the mid eighties. He has travelled extensively and has worked at a variety of jobs. These have included theatre set design and construction, stage design and construction, assorted large scale community art sculptural projects and all whilst pursuing his own artistic agenda.
Within his work he concentrates on creating sculpture of natural forms from found and re-cycled materials. At the moment he is working with a variety of materials including shopping trolleys, scrap metal and car wheel trims which he re-shapes into a variety of life forms.
Past clients include DEFRA (formerly MAFF), The Eden Project, Kenwood, the R.S.P.B., The Environment Agency, WWF, Essex County Council, Brighton County Council, Ronseal, Anglian Water, East Coast Trains and Ecover.
TV appearances include Richard and Judy, Blue Peter, Smart and Art Attack and Collectors Lot.
Printed media appearances include The Times, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail, The Sun, FHM, The Observer and numerous local papers as well as many international magazines and papers.
He has exhibited several times in London, also in Brighton, Haslemere, Rutland, Salisbury, Scotland and also in Barcelona, Spain and Athens, Greece.
He currently lives and works in Brighton.
I make paintings that depict landscapes of an expansive, man-made world. I’m not sure which I find more exciting – the abstract constructions around us, or the figures that inhabit them. It’s the relationship between the person and the structure that makes the image come alive. I am interested in the massive structures of architecture and machinery around us, and the way man relates to them.
Amongst these domineering structures, human figures negotiate their everyday lives. They are part of the scene rather than the focus of it. Sometimes they are purposefully vulnerable. Mostly, they are purposefully insignificant. My protagonists are down-at-heel, but I hope their presence transcends into something more significant. The people in the images are waiting to move on. I hope they can share that moment of contemplation with the viewer.
My paintings reference a painting tradition of depicting people living and working in the town and its suburbs. The ambivalence of this relationship between the city and her inhabitants seems as relevant as ever. The still image, be it through painting or photography can capture this instant, giving weight to a moment and sense of place.
I keep returning to certain scenes in my work – fountains, building sites, places of work, allotments. For me, these are place of transition, alluding to the life-long journey and the destination that is always just out of sight. Nightscapes transform familiar places, throwing ordinary settings into strange new colours and heighten the impact of our responses. They echo the projection of our own emotions onto our everyday surroundings.
Karl best describes himself as a designer maker. His workshop is situated in the heart of the South Downs National Park and within view of his home town of Lewes.
He draws his inspiration from all of the natural elements he can see and feel around him whether from his travels or locally from his beloved Sussex Downs.
All Karl’s work is crafted by hand making each unique piece. Karl enjoys the process of collaboration with clients to create individual heirloom pieces.
Born in London 1946. Spent majority of working life in the design industry – on retail based projects. Now have more time to get back to oils on canvas. Inspiration comes from many sources but primarily people and places. Its the special quality of light for landscapes and ephemeral moods of people, that become the desire to capture.
I see the making of work as an alchemical process where each part takes the work to a possible Fixation. I constantly change processes mediums and materials that best suit the particular tale and/or the particular environment; evolving, adapting and clarifying ideas through constant flux to arrive eventually on firm ground. ‘Creating a path whilst walking’. Through each critical step from idea to reality, the work is re formed, transformed, displaying simplicity and intricacy side by side, a palimpsest of time and possible meanings.
?In these paintings I use the paint like any other material, more to obtain a surface, a texture, a sculptural quality which describes the meaning behind the making. where the method of mark. Often a dragged nail or other sharp object is used to create a surface that captures light and causes shifts in depth and colour from different perspective.
Art creates change and to change anything one must create a reaction: As Jung stated: The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed. I want to create such a reaction with these works. I am interested in the meeting of different mediums, surfaces and textures and the way their react to each other and the viewer to them….a point where light jars, jolts or confuses the senses. For this reason I also like to work on different materials that perhaps evoke a particular feeling, association, or thought, such as velvet, silk, rubber, vinyl, as well as canvas.
I use a limited but symbolic pallet to act as a cipher to an underlying meaning but also to draw attention to the more complex parts of the works. Colour is a siren that attracts the eye, it is the complexity, the intrigue that keeps the eye enchanted.
Inspiration comes from myths, philosophy, science, words and experiences. Bloom, Enso and Ouroboros were inspired by my recent long term travel in South East Asia. I hope to make more of these works in different colours and different surfaces therefore variants on these paintings are open to commission.
Out There is a reflection on my life long fascination with all things way up there! In particular for this painting, the recent reports from the Kepler Space craft discovering thousands of new worlds on it’s galactic mission past the edge of all we understand.
I remain fascinated and inspired in the human condition and our day to day attempts to come to terms with being a minuscule, but perhaps intrinsic part of a mostly unknown, unknowable, immeasurable, silent multi verse…… and the complex feelings of awe, wonder, fascination, frustration, fear, indifference, resignation and hope that it inspires.
My work draws upon journeys, on the interplay between the experience and memory of places with a hidden history. The initial stage of my creative process is to make video-walks, I then base my painting s and prints on the videos – seemingly abstract, but with a basis in the seen world. My goal is that my pieces transcend particular places and become spaces in which to lose oneself. They explore the importance of quiet contemplation in a chaotic world.
Salina Somalya, though born in the UK, spent her formative years in Africa, living in Zambia and Botswana. She spent her teenage years in London and studied her way across the North of England; finally settling in Lancaster, Lancashire. Her multi-cultural heritage has shaped her as an individual and in essence,n artistically. Her artistic flair was evident from an early age, inspired by the varied Asian and African cultures and arts around her. Whilst studying for her degree in Architectural Engineering, Salina serendipitously undertook a course in metal arts, which inspired her to change her career focus following the completion of her Masters degree, to pursue an arts based path instead. The synthesis of art and engineering underpins the stylised and contemporary artworks that Salina creates. Her works are robust yet delicate in presence, structured yet creative in form, dynamic in colour, meticulously designed and invariably compelling in their individuality.
Salina’s artwork encompasses a variety of metals from anodised aluminium to steels, together with other complimentary materials to accent the metals. All her artworks are individual and predominantly inspired by nature, natural forms and architecture. In her work she aims to draw out the essence of her subject and re-interpret it into her own stylised design. Salina is particularly well known for her use of anodised aluminium in creating beautiful distinguished artworks for interiors and exteriors. Anodised aluminium provides the perfect canvas for creating distinctive patterns and visual texture with a palette of subtle and striking colours. Combined with the versatility of the metal, anodised aluminium enables Salina to combine art, design and sculpture in creating a variety intricately designed artworks. Her work with anodised aluminium focuses on the intuitive nature of this medium, which enables an array of artistic expressions. The process of anodising results in a microscopic surface layer that is receptive to specific dyes and inks.
When colour is applied to the metal it is drawn into the surface layer, which upon sealing becomes embedded into the metal. Unlike patinas or paints (on metal), the anodised surface mirrors the original finish of the metal and can evenlook like it has been enamelled. At the other end of the spectrum Salina works with steels and non-ferrous metals, designing and creating a variety of artworks that incorporate the principles of design with engineering; from alluring engineered dragonflies to commemorative sculptures for various institutions. Salina’s practice includes the production of numerous artworks created for public and private collections, including artworks spanning hospital corridors,entrance features for private and corporate environments, and custom made pieces for private collections.
I am a contemporary landscape painter. I work in oils on handmade linen boards. My focus is often London, particularly the nature to be found in an urban setting.
January 2017: I am currently creating two pieces for the exhibition ‘Views’ which is to be held in March to launch the redevelopment of the Star and Garter building in Richmond, London.
Carving wood is the basis for my sculptural practice. I use found wood to explore the relationship between complimentary opposites. The external form of the wood is always visible whilst an internal structure is carved using techniques such as drilled holes as the means of investigation. Destruction and construction are consistent forces throughout the production of the works. The initial stages of piercing the wood are energetic, destructive and violent. This is followed by a gradual evolution to restoration. Chaos is replaced by a sense or order and in places perfection through sanding and polishing. The natural grain and knots in the wood are carefully accented. Making is used as a form of thinking and thus the final outcome is always a result of the process of production. This process led approach allows the material to guide the outcome alongside preparatory intentions.
Despite the attention to detail, the works are symbolic of imperfection, impermanence and incompleteness. Some areas are left relatively rough whilst other areas are sanded and polished. The forces applied to the material often result in delayed appearance of cracks as the wood expands and retracts in response to the process of carving.
The embroidered works continue these themes through re-presenting the sculptures in a two dimensional format. These work are embroidered on denim or are just the threads themselves. The surface of the work gently undulates as a result of the tension of the thread. The embroidery removes the tactility of the sculpted materials and replaces this with the repetition of stitches. The result is a further focus on the internal and external structures and shapes. These works also impart a further sense of fragility through the medium.
November 2016 - January 2017
Soulange Leon
…is a Scottish born Chilean artist living and working in Sussex, often outdoors and in unforgiving conditions. Her training as an architect strongly influences her work and her passion for drawing. She feel the liveliness of her work helps weave the complexity of the movement of both subject and space, capturing the distinct feel of a place. Her dedication and loyalty to her subjects is evident in each intense mark on the paper. Incorporatiing atmosphere, line and technical skill, her works are immediately recognizable and found in public and private collections. ‘Palatable’ is a study of ethics, aesthetics and food. She has recently been working in London, where you are likely to find her by the river, nose in air.
Richard Baronio has been making sculpture since 1962. Although he has worked in many different materials including wood, plastic and non-ferrous metals, since 2003 he has been working exclusively in welded stainless steel. He works directly in the medium, without preliminary drawings or models, welding together small pieces of steel rod to build up the large forms. The resulting permanent dark surface is oxidation from the welding process.
Baronio’s pieces all consist of organic forms. Whether these forms are “identifiable” or not, he considers all his pieces to be, in the broadest sense, self-portraits. Richard lives in Brooklyn, New York and has taught at the University of Illinois in Chicago, Kenyon College in Ohio, and Parsons School of Design in New York. In England, he has been a visiting lecturer at Sheffield Polytechnic and Central St Martins.
I’ve been drawn by the beauty of fine arts and the design since childhood.Having an extensive career as a lighting designer and director of photography I took part in hundreds architectural, music, dance, theatre and film projects. Worked with colours and shadows behind the scenes where I had to capture and highlight images of reality or transform them and create exciting sceneries and virtual environments.
Born in Greece, it was inevitable and determined for my work to be affected from the hard bright sunlight, the dazzling reflection of the rocks and the unique deep blue color of the sky and the sea. I am fascinated with Einstein’s theory of general relativity that gravity can bend time and i feel that we are living in a four-dimensional space-time and i am trying even for a while to create escape paths from reality. Additional to this my passion for speed and flight, both offered me some totally different perceptions of the space and dimensions we are moving in.
I had the opportunity to travel and work around the world and through this exploration I filled my mind and soul with unlimited precious experiences and pictures.After two years in Central Africa i am convinced that art always been essential to us but nowadays could also make a positive impact in the world in a more practical way and i am exploring actions about this.
I moved to London in 2015 and I am working on an ongoing collection of highly expressive and lyrical artworks combining modern technology with traditional techniques. My artworks are affected from my long experience in color combination, light dynamics and composition.
Trough the interaction of familiar shapes, textures, colors and materials that surround us, new unknown elements are created. They do not exist in reality but our universal consciousness can recognize and decode them.
I am not afraid to mix extremely rough brushes with fine detailed lines and vivid bright colors with blur and dark tones. I can respect the perspective and at the same time ignore this rule of human perception.
While painting using digital tools my artwork often conveys the same complex layered effects possible with brushes and knives on multi-textured paintings. Experimenting with the latest fine-art print techniques and the variety of new materials I am seeking the constant evolution in this emerging art form.
Early modernism and especially Matisse, has been a huge influence in the process of my current work. As a formalist and colourist, shapes, colour and their relationship to one another have become the focus of my painting, creating depth and space without the use of perspective. As a synesthete, I can taste and smell colour as well as feel it emotionally, days and weeks have shapes and therefore colour and shape are central to my experience of the world and in the making of the painting.
In our current daily lives, we are surrounded and bombarded with colourful images, objects and packaging designed to draw our attention. These colours are synthetic as they do not pertain to a natural object, but are placed on a manufactured object/image. I am interested in how these colours impact our experience of nature, two worlds that are now intrinsically woven together. The landscape is littered with food wrappers, plastic and bright road signs. Nature also has its local colours, these paintings blend the two.
The subject of the work is an exploration of the shapes within the landscape and domestic objects, internal and external environments. These paintings bring together the shapes of nature and the domestic merged with the unnatural colours of the world of the consumer, a snapshot of our world today. A fusion of nature and culture.
My work is currently based around sensation and physical exploration of painting though organic form, archetypal landscape and mark making including the geometric and gestural. Combining different mediated images from sources such as the national geographic magazine predominantly landscape and organic matter, flock wallpaper prints, to Eastern prints old and new. Exploring the idea of combining Decorative and Eastern painting. The works are mainly aesthetically driven, and play with the idea of beauty exploring mark making and the value each gestural mark has within a composition using a range of mediums, layering and density of paint.
I am exploring the idea of beauty and its relationship to the decorative. There has always been a troubled relationship between modernism and decorative arts, my work asks questions about where the value of beauty sits in contemporary painting through using different sources, sampling and quoting from different legacy’s bringing them together. For me, I gather images because there is a quality in them that I find beautiful. It’s a personal attachment to these images; it isn’t simply one dimension of aesthetic characteristics.
I’m attempting to use the genre of landscape painting that are settings to develop a abstract painting language. A moon, or segment of a moon features in many of the paintings, it acts for the shifting in light, I’m interested in the afterglow it gives to a landscape and the appearance of organic forms in twilight. This use of lighting plays a big part in places natural and synthetic colours together. The moon as a motif has appeared in many historical periods of art and I wish to use it to question its value in signs and signifiers in art.
Regarding the materiality; the nature of the surface is key, the aim for a smooth surface the canvas must be prepared in a way to give the smooth qualities involving layers of acrylic gesso and sanding. Working on a very smooth surface allows me to develop a range of marks and gestures; these are integral to the facture which prevalent in the paintings.
The works borrow elements from modernist movements such as colour field painting, pattern and decoration and elements that reflect to the legacy of organic and mechanical abstraction. Using quotation and appropriation to build a visual language, this defines the strategies that I employ in the research and finished paintings.
Gemma Leanne’s work involves the enigmatic dialogue between the tangible world around us and artistic expression. Leanne uses layers of paint and abstract forms to build a range of evocative atmospheres. The minimalized landscapes dreamily spur soporific rivers or twist viewers through woeful storms. Impetuous splatters and sculptural layers of paint invite viewers to soak in these melancholic emotive and ethereal surroundings. Bewitching use of colour lends realistic renditions of seascape qualities whilst whimsical abstraction creates a subtle, suggestive landscape. The evanescence of memory seems to whisper through these pieces, revealing hidden depths of artist’s own experience.
Having studied painting and fine art for many years, it was during a Silversmithing and Metalwork degree at Camberwell Art College that Julie was introduced to (and found an instant love for) metalwork and blacksmithing. After graduating, Julie travelled to work and learn the trade from various blacksmiths in England, Ireland and North America. Julie returned to England to set up her own business, which she started near Ironbridge, Shropshire, before moving back down to the south of the country to Oxfordshire.
Working from her forge near Wallingford, Julie undertakes a wide range of sculptural and functional commissions in a range of materials for the garden, home and special occasions.
‘Forging is a process that enables mild steel to become malleable. It gives the freedom to allow a form to evolve whilst being hammered and shaped on the anvil, where, although there are some limitations, the material can be pushed and pulled into any desired finish.
I thrive on creating works of art that have an instant impact and a powerful essence. Each piece has been carried through a hand made journey from it’s beginning to it’s end and no two are identical.’
Klaudia is an internationally renowned artist. Her works have been shown in her native Germany and across Europe.
This series of work is based on pavement marks found on her travels and the photographic images are then printed and mounted on aluminium.
I live and work in the seaside city of Brighton & Hove. Its a fun and creative place full of interesting people. I live a short walk to a very pebbly beach. My sculptures reflect the scenery found along the shoreline, inspired by the textures, patterns and plant life. This combined with the movement of the water and changes in the weather allow a rich resource for ideas. I like to work in clay as its wonderfully flexible and can combine simple smooth lines with an endless use of texture and pattern which I love. I have a fascination with creating curves and simple pleasing familiar shapes. I’m also obsessed with texture and pattern which I feel brings my sculptures to life. Once the sculptures have been finished its over to the moulding and casting stage.
The process of cold cast bronze is a skilled and labor intensive one. Most of my sculptures have a bronze finish, however recently I cast one in iron and treated it to become rusty. When it rains on the sculpture the rusted patination continues to change, its wonderful.
Karen Munck was trained at Croydon Art School and completed a post graduate fellowship at the School of Advanced Studies in Manchester before embarking on a career as a highly successful international designer.
Painting and illustration has always been part of her life and her sketchbooks accompany her wherever she travels.
She draws her inspiration from the countryside and from natural objects, in nature and in the studio.
During the past 10 years Karen has returned to her original training as a printmaker and has been concentrating on exploring and understanding new and different modern techniques.
My watercolours are large and bold. There are no sketches or fixed ideas. Subjects range from floral interpretation, to abstracts and still life, with colour the motivator. I have not been influenced by any one particular painter, but I am drawn to artists known for their use of colour like Howard Hodgkin.
Painting in a fluid, free style, I respond to the paint and follow where it leads, often changing direction in response to a pleasing mark, or an area of paint.
Colour is vibrantly layered to create depth and mystery, using whatever is available. My paintings are created with passion, which is hopefully conveyed by the finished work.
My work has been exhibited at the Royal Institute of Watercolour Painters at the Mall Galleries in London, at
the Royal Watercolour Society at the Bankside, and the Llewelyn Alexander gallery in London. It has also been selected for an exhibition of prints in Holborn, London, sponsored by Art in Business magazine and Canon printers.
I am currently studying for an MA in Fine Art.
Paula has a degree in fine art and teaches art.
Paula loves the light of the South Coast but she mostly gets inspiration from her garden and from Great Dixter gardens near Rye. This was Christopher Lloyds garden and it retains his brave use of colour and life.
June 2016 - September 2016
Oxford educated, I worked as a book illustrator for many years before returning to painting.
My work is created by the liberal application and removal of paint in horizontal and vertical planes. Each successive stroke draws a veil across the previous layer of paint like a curtain, playing with the notion of presence and absence. I delight in the pure randomness produced by the effects of repeated application of paint.
I begin with an idea of the look and feel of the finished canvas; however this can change with each application of paint. I can consider the painting finished at any point in this process as I instinctively know when I have achieved the look and mood I want.
Each canvas is my work from start to finish; from assembling the frame to the careful packaging of the completed work. I am happy to personally deliver any painting purchased for installation in the UK.
I am excited to currently be in discussion with The Gallery, Yr Oriel, Newport, Pembrokeshire, Wales to produce an exclusive collection of paintings for them.
My paintings can be purchased via the following websites: saatchiart.com, artfinder.com, art2arts.co.uk or directly from myself.
Graduating in 1993 with a BA (Hons) in Art Education Studies from The University of Wales, Melissa embarked on a successful full time career working with her chosen medium of sculpture made predominantly using traditional forging techniques. In 2007 Melissa was awarded a prestigious ‘Bronze Medal’ from The Worshipful Company of Blacksmiths in recognition of the blacksmithing skills seen in her public and private work and the successful forging-in-schools projects. This makes Melissa a Fellow of The Worshipful Company of Blacksmiths and she is now regarded as a Master Blacksmith.
Trained as a traditional blacksmith by her father Hector Cole MBE FWCB, Melissa started making bespoke domestic iron work for private homes and hotels; curtain poles, window furniture, lighting, gates and railings are still made to order.
Following the success of Chippenham Community Art Project which Melissa devised and raised funds for, she was commissioned by Dolby Laboratories Inc. to create a large projecting wall sculpture for their European H.Q. in Wootton Bassett. This important commission enabled Melissa to develop her sculpture
Specializing in giving young people the opportunity to create their own work on the forge, she has visited over 35 school and community groups across the south of England. Various projects that Melissa has worked on have been funded by Arts Council England including equipment funding. Schools projects funded by The National Lottery, Barclays New Futures, The Ironmongers Company and The Golsoncott Foundation.
Moving to her forge on the edge of Savernake Forest near Marlborough in 2001, Melissa was awarded a Setting Up Grant from ACE Southern Arts. Subsequently she developed the Puthall Park Sculpture Show a major event for anyone wishing to experience or buy contemporary outdoor sculpture. Featuring a wide range of large-scale sculptures and installations in an outdoor setting, the exhibition includes over 100 pieces by 40 professional and developing artists working in a variety of media
Rebecca Cole-Coker has designed for the international textile industry since 1987. A talented artist in her own right, Rebecca Cole-Coker has developed a design portfolio which has led to commissions from prestigious clients worldwide including: Sanderson, Laura Ashley, Marks and Spencer, John Lewis, Imperial Wallcoverings, Ralph Lauren and Sheridan.
As design director of Rebecca Cole International Ltd, Rebecca developed a successful portfolio of freelance designers, and has worked on numerous projects throughout the home furnishing industry, in trend and market research, design and colour forecasting and design development. Since 2006 Rebecca has based her creative life between London and France where she has successfully established her reputation as a fine artist specialising in plant forms.
Rebecca is available to commission for both textile designs and drawings
Born in England in 1973, he studied painting at Kingston University from 1994 to 1997.
Adam has exhibited regularly in London, the South East, as well as Asia.
He was included in The Royal Academy, Summer Exhibition 2005 and has shown yearly at the Battersea Affordable Art Fair since 2007. In 2011 he won Surrey Artist of the Year and in 2012 and 2013 he exhibited at The Korean International Art Fair in Seoul where he was one of the highest selling artists. In London he has also exhibited at Sheridan Russell Gallery, Medici Gallery and more recently at Flowers Gallery, Cork St in their yearly show ‘Small is Beautiful’.
“Painting is something that rules my everyday existence. An inescapably compulsive urge to work results in the marrying of the mundane and the domestic with dreams and images of the unattainable and the beautiful. Meditative detail-work lies on layers of thrown and trickled paint – a first chaos which is drawn into a cohesion by time-eked care and precision, hopefully resulting in a faint hum of both tension and mutual harmony between the two.
The overall result is a minutely hand-crafted pop art infused with a mysticism that works across planes, layers and unexpected depths and axes. Often, the familiar and the domestic verge on becoming objects of unknown power and meaning, with work that revels in processes and thrives on unthinking at itself and its audience”.
My watercolours are large and bold. There are no sketches or fixed ideas. Subjects range from floral interpretation, to abstracts and still life, with colour the motivator. I have not been influenced by any one particular painter, but I am drawn to artists known for their use of colour like Howard Hodgkin.
Painting in a fluid, free style, I respond to the paint and follow where it leads, often changing direction in response to a pleasing mark, or an area of paint.
Colour is vibrantly layered to create depth and mystery, using whatever is available. My paintings are created with passion, which is hopefully conveyed by the finished work.
My work has been exhibited at the Royal Institute of Watercolour Painters at the Mall Galleries in London, at
the Royal Watercolour Society at the Bankside, and the Llewelyn Alexander gallery in London. It has also been selected for an exhibition of prints in Holborn, London, sponsored by Art in Business magazine and Canon printers.
I have exhibited at the Open Houses at Brighton, and throughout Sussex. I have also held several solo exhibitions in Almancil, Algarve, Portugal.
I am currently studying for an MA in Fine Art.
I have been a painter for 20 years, and throughout this period my paintings have been inspired by landscape and a sense of place. Landscape is integral to the subject matter of my work, and it also provides me with the means to explore connotations about the painting process. To me, painting is a similar awe-inspiring parallel pursuit to setting out on a walk and exploring new places. In the studio lots of things intrigue me; colour, spatial depth, mark making, composition, accident, layering, scale inversion and the physicality of paint. It is not my intention to replicate nature; I want to evoke a sense of it. I want the viewer to search in my paintings as I have within the landscape.
My paintings are about ‘looking’. Modern society bombards us with screen and photographic images and we become immune to them. Painting offers me the opportunity to create an individual response to the world and in particular, places, through colour, texture and the sheer materiality of paint.
The way I invite you to look more closely is through the use of ‘push and pull’, repetition and ‘difference’.
· Push and Pull
“To synthesize two or three dimensionality, Hofmann formulated a dialectical process of painting, what he called the technique of “push and pull”, an improvisational orchestration of areas of vivid colours conceived of as opposing forces, each force answered by a counter force.”
Irving Sandler
· Repetition:
“Repetition changes nothing in the object repeated, but does change something in the mind which contemplates it”
Gilles Deleuze
· Difference
“Difference lies between two repetitions”
Gilles Deleuze
Daniel Griffiths trained and worked as a blacksmith before studying sculpture at Norwich School of Art. He now uses that blend of skills to create beautiful animals out of steel. Based in the lovely surroundings of Stanmer Park in the South Downs, Daniels work reflects a love of nature and a deep respect for traditional craftsmanship.
Here on Shoreham Beach, between the sea and the river, tides rise and fall, light changes,rocks and groynes are slowly weathered.
Down by the river, in my garden hideway, I play to my heart’s content with shiny coloured glass,cutting, grinding, fusing & polishing. I set the finshed pieces into greenheart, the tough tropical hardwood that serves as sea defenses along the coast. The elements have shaped the wood and in turn shape my designs. Sunlight illuminates the glass,c a s t i n g colours where it falls.
My sculptures find homes in gardens large and small,and in a wide variety of settings, including interiors.They are best placed where light can shine through them, eithernatural light by day or artificial at night.
Sculptures are constructed from materials that are designed to withstand all weathers. Almost all are made from recycled greeheart timber; glass pieces are traditionally leaded and soldered and fixed with a glue that withstands extreme temperatures. They can be placed in open ground with steel rods fixed into the base or on circular steel stands for hard surfaces.
My work is greatly inspired by nature – its forms and processes, which I regard as metaphors for human life. I’m interested in movement and change, as some of the essentials of the natural world, as well as in its sensual qualities – textures, light and space.
Strongly linked with dance and music, my works are are being created mainly through intuitive improvisations: I follow physical and emotional impulses evoked by music and the painting process itself. My own experience of playing music and dancing let me experience the links between music/sound, movement and painting.
Often during the creative process, I reach the point where all the senses unite into one, the sense of self disappears, allowing me to discover new worlds – surprising yet recognizable: traces of the natural forms that impressed me deeply and imprinted themselves in my mind and body; emotional and sensual impressions.
I started my training at Westminster University in 1987, where I achieved a HND in Ceramics. From there I joined Middlesex University – achieving a degree in 3D design. At Middlesex I found that working with metal was my medium, as ceramics was just not up to making my crazy futuristic inventions…
A good example of this was my surreal fully functional abstract telephone – which stood 1.5 metres high (which I managed to sell before it was finished)… This piece of sculpture grabbed the imagination of the media at The New Designers Show and featured in The Times, The Evening Standard and even The Financial Times. The piece also featured on Des-Res and was chosen to be in an interior for the William Blake exhibition (the one in his old house in south Moulton Street)
After leaving university I set up my first studio and started up a stall at Camden Market selling my plasma cut, metal fish candleholders by the pound. Soon I was discovered by the BBC and went on to create the iconic Newsnight Globe for their title sequence…
My reputation grew and I soon became known for window displays including a collaboration with Alexander McQueen – incorporating giant metal insects for the all 12 of Harvey Nichols windows.
My more recent work has been making animal and figurative sculptures, developing a portfolio of pieces for public art and private commissions.
I welcome any challenge big or small…
Paula has a degree in fine art and teaches art.
Paula loves the light of the South Coast but she mostly gets inspiration from her garden and from Great Dixter gardens near Rye. This was Christopher Lloyds garden and although he is now dead it retains his brave use of colour and life.
The work of Pauline Smith is centered on making paintings that originate from a personal experience of place, space, scene, and visual event, mediating a diverse range of simultaneous sensations. The paintings become improvised unfoldings of shifting possibility, where the sensory experience is the subject – how something is as opposed to what it is. The translation into paint of these often conflicting stimuli is the key question that the artist returns to in her creative practice.
Pauline Smith also works in a variety of other media that include sound, music, and performance.
I have been painting for the last 8 years and printing for 3 years, after a professional life as a graphic designer.
No matter how my subject matter changes, I always return to land and seascapes and particularly the spaces where they meet – the edge of things.The images develop from sketches done in situ, photos, found objects and the memories of those experiences. The images are often quite heavily textured – the layering of the paint echoing the layering of the land, the history and what lies beneath.
February 2016 - June 2016
I’m exploring the idea of journeying through the landscape using traditional painting methods alongside working from video and photographs. I want to express my sense of freedom about my frequent trips to West Cornwall from my studio on an industrial estate in London.
I am interested in the interaction between the moving image and my own recorded personal image using mark making as the vehicle. The importance of the authenticity of each brush stroke or line helps to take the viewer with me on a journey in mapping the internal landscape. The exploration and play with different media shows a continuing element of search.
I have just completed a year long mentoring scheme at Newlyn School of Art where I have pushed my practice beyond my usual boundaries.
I also work from the figure using charcoal and inks, as well as on my iPad to create images capturing energy and immediacy.
As far as back as i can remember i either painted, drew or played with colour and mixed media. Most of my subjects were on our farm in Sweden; the landscape, farm buildings and our animals.
I stopped painting for a while when I was pursuing a career in Hospitality and got to travel and work in Europe, Caribbean and USA.
The past 12 years I have been settled in Lewes, East Sussex, UK, and now enjoy a rich surrounding of the beautiful Sussex Downs landscape, coastline and our vibrant market town, which gives me daily inspiration. I also visit my home country Sweden regularly, where i draw inspiration from the mountains, forests and snowy landscape in the north.
I’m a figurative painter and frequently come back to my favourite subjects of people and animals going about their business, or landscapes in different seasons.
I like to experiment and take my subjects semi-abstract, and play with colour, shape and different mark making. As well as traditional brushes and palette knife, I often use simple tools at hand such as a wooden stick, part of plants or my bare hands.
Studied Fashion and Textiles at Nottingham College of Art, Followed by Post Graduate Theatre Design.
The work on show is about incidents and experiences prompted by travel.
People like to know the thought process that creates a story.
The mind is a strange place, one thing leads to another, the two may not be obviously connected at first, but a third idea joins them up. It is a patchwork of all those different thoughts that hopefully build into an interesting whole.
In a painting I often relive an experience, and like all the best memories it gets improved, exaggerated, embroidered. Some things are accentuated, others take a back seat. Most people firstly react to colour, it brings them in and delights, but colour is not only personal it is prone to fashion. Energy is, as any painter will tell you, is also very important, keeping the work fresh and lively.
For me painting comes in bursts. Some days it just flows, other days it is slow and frusrtrating. I spend hours and achieve nothing, sometimes it is even worse as the work goes backwards. But on the rare days that it works, there is no better feeling. Then you must turn it to the wall and not fiddle with it, but I usually do.
This body of work entitled the Origins series flips the idea of destruction in favour of creation. My interest in space was transformed by trips to rural France and Northern California – the unpolluted sky offering the naked eye a glimpse of the Milky Way. Further research was directed to the cosmic imagery evidenced by the Hubble Telescope, the myriad densities of dust and gas, offering a diaphanous spectrum of colours, gestures and marks courtesy of this orbiting voyeur. With reference to Daniel Altschuler’s statement,‘Look at your hand. It is made of atoms. These atoms did not always exist; they were produced inside stars’, the paintings explore the notion of cosmic atoms as building blocks for our very existence, the evocation of forces and spaces larger than the individual, of the enveloping vastness that dwarfs us, our origins rendered through atoms of oil paint and medium, thereby allowing me to reengage with the notion of the sublime.
With a nod to post-war Abstract Expressionism and its European counterpart Tachisme, the paintings start on the floor with loose applications of thinned medium applied with plant sprayers to commence the journey. Directly copying an image would disturb the intuitive connections with the medium, therefore new celestial images reveal themselves in the painting process. To quote Hughie O’Donoghue, painting is about ‘taking risks with the picture in an effort to achieve candour and authenticity’ The paintings can often by backed into a corner- too much meddling can kill a work, too little can leave it unresolved. Obliterating a painting is often a key part of the process to open up new destinations. The quest for pictorial equilibrium ensues with smaller brushes to tune the image into place, like tuning into a radio station from the background noise of radio waves which were themselves created from the Big Bang. The initial noise of paint transformed during the symbiotic process between artist and canvas as the stars in denser drops of pigment vie for my attention, echoing the processes found in star formation – matter fuses, pigments coalesce, the density glows.
Karl Smith
Karl best describes himself as a designer maker. His workshop is situated in the heart of the South Downs National Park and within view of his home town of Lewes.
He draws his inspiration from all of the natural elements he can see and feel around him whether from his travels or locally from his beloved Sussex Downs.
All Karl’s work is crafted by hand making each unique piece. Karl enjoys the process of collaboration with clients to create individual heirloom pieces.
Commissions welcomed.
Having discovered the world of the chainsaw artist in 2011, I decided to put my hand to the art myself, producing my very first piece, carved initials for my sister’s wedding.
Encouraged by my success, I developed my ideas and produced a range of simple carvings, including mushrooms, small benches and chairs.As my confidence and ability improved, I attempted more intricate designs, such as bears and other small animals.
Since these early days, I have extended my repertoire of designs, and have exhibited my carvings in a range of settings, from small local fairs, to larger art exhibitions. In 2012, I had a selection of pieces displayed as part of the Arundel Gallery Trail. These sculptures included a 7 foot high mushroom carved from solid oak and cherry. Following on from this exhibition, I was commissioned to create a full two-piece suite of sofas and coffee table.
2013 brought new ideas and concepts, and in my enthusiasm for personal development, I started to challenge myself with more technical and intricate designs. These involved a new range of sculptures based around the human form. Detail, I found, was key in the observation and carving of proportions, especially in facial expressions, which up till this point, I had limited to my bear sculptures.
During 2014, I had the opportunity to develop this skill, when I was commissioned to create a life-sized World War One soldier, for a four-year-long placement in Rustington town centre. This project was designed to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the start of the First World War. In addition to the soldier, I also felt it important to remember the sacrifice of the brave animals who served alongside their human counterparts. For this reason, I decided to carve a horses head, to stand next to the soldier.
“In real life a person can really only go down one path but the imagination can venture down all possible paths.
A particular area of the South Downs in Sussex inspires Deborah’s paintings which relate to her walks and reflect her pattern of thinking.
The reference to maps help her to ‘assemble’ a landscape but in a way which does not exclude the immediacy of perceived moments. When she thinks of a walk she has made, she also locates it in her mind on a map.
The latest series of paintings have been inspired by Jorge Luis Borges’s book “Labyrinths”. In the story “The Garden of Forking Paths”, an imaginary maze serves the purpose of giving the reader a perspective on real life. The text gives the reader a fresh way of looking at life by showing that sometimes in life paths cross one another.
Therefore, a person may take one path and end at the same place another path would have ended. The imaginary maze represents the numerous paths that one can travel and all of the possible outcomes of these paths.
The story also offers many viewpoints all at the same time.
Deborah sees maps, paths and symbols as a metaphor for her journey in life and colour is used in an expressive way to emphasise life as a celebration.
Whether I am painting landscapes or from life it is the essence of the subject that I seek to capture.
Living on the edge of the South Downs, I am constantly inspired by the natural beauty that surrounds me; its atmosphere and most importantly the light.
My work documents my surroundings and the seasons. Winter light through trees, the sky before snow, and the seed heads of wild flowers.
The process of painting feels very spiritual to me and has become a source of great pleasure.
I am fascinated by the work of painters past and present including Gustav Klimt, Franz Marc, Anne Blockley, Cecil Rice and Brian Smith.
Art history is fascinating to me as it seems artists tend to lead such interesting and un-conventional lives
I grew up in North London in the postwar years, when colour was muted and science was riding high. I was good at drawing at school but also at lots of other subjects, and following parental advice instead of going to art school I became a research scientist. I’d like to say it was planned, but in truth I just drifted. I did, however, paint in my spare time and over the years I taught myself the basics. My cv includes: one first prize in the Brook Bond primary school competition for a painting of “teatime”, one painting on Adrian Hill’s Sketch Club on BBC tv and one painting in the Woman’s Hour/Radio Times “Summertime” exhibition at the Tate!
My current landscapes are based on the world around me, although they don’t always contain much realistic imagery. Not entirely abstract but with a lot of the detail replaced by “shorthand” symbols: for example, a generic leaf shape to represent lots of different leaves, a vertical line for a tree, a scratch for a twig. I sometimes use collaged paper to provide texture that might be a stand-in for water, or some other substance. I find myself wondering about the order behind the complexity of nature, which may explain why straight lines and patterns sometimes appear in my work. But above all though I revel in paint, charcoal, pen and pencil and what brushes, sticks, fingers and other implements can do with it.
Brigitte Evill is a British-born sculptor, working in various metals – steel, bronze – and other materials. She works from her art studio outside Rye in East Sussex, England.
She was a Creative Director at various international advertising and design agencies in London, Paris and Hong Kong, where she won awards for her creative work for international clients such as IBM.
In 2000, she made a major career switch so that she could concentrate her creative energies on works in metal–initially making jewellery in silver and gold and then creating large scale sculptures in steel and bronze.
In 2006, she won the Victoria & Albert Museum’s Inspired by…sculpture prize for her piece, Ascent.
Brigitte studied graphic design at Canterbury and Birmingham and sculpture at Morley College
“I like showing my work because, in the end, it’s about sharing ideas and feelings with other people. What they make of the work is down to them and I can’t control that but I can suggest and point. In the end, I think that’s what art does.” Brigitte Evil
Sculptor Dick Budden is also a leading TV propmaker who has worked on everything from Absolutely Fabulous to Basil Brush.
“I’m just an old filmie,” says Budden from the kitchen of his Berkshire home. “I have always made things on the side for myself but never did much of it – I didn’t have time. But now people seem to have developed an appetite for my work.”
Born in Jersey in 1940, Budden trained at Bournemouth Art College, moving to London in the early 60s to a dingy basement flat on the Uxbridge Road and a job making polystyrene props for the BBC.
“This was right at the beginning of colour TV,” says Budden, “when the cameras were too big to go outside. We made anything they needed – Greek temples, cliffs, caves and houses. The whole thing was cheap and cheerful and we were even cheaper.”
Only when Budden and his wife Mary moved near to Maidenhead in the 70s did he rent studio space to create his own pieces: wooden dancers for his garden, abstract Moore-like bronzes and, of course, his trademark oversized fruit, first for the Henley Festival and later for private clients including Alan Titchmarsh, who recently snapped up one of Budden’s pears.
What differentiates one of his props from a work of art? “There’s no difference,” says Budden. “It is all down to the art mob who want things boxed and labelled. I just make stuff. It’s all I’ve ever done.”
And, at 67, he is still at it. Recent film jobs includes Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow, The Phantom of the Opera and Sport Relief.But does Budden yearn to be a household name? He replies: “It would be great to hear people say: ‘Let’s meet by the pear.’ But I don’t believe you can engineer these things. I have always waited for them to come to me.”
I live in Whitstable In Kent by the sea.
I have three children and by day im a stay at home dad and in the evening I create sculptural archetypes of birds out of paper.
Why Birds? There’s nothing, I feel, which is freer than flight! Its something that mankind has only grasped within the last 150 years, by inventing a machine! Birds are truly masters.
Their elegance in the air has been a fascination for mankind for countless centuries. but the most destructive thing mankind can do is capture exsotic birdsand place them in a cage.
Art has been an influence since I was young, making model kits, painting and drawing was all I wanted to do, it gave me skills which would be beneficial in my adult life; for example problem solving skills.
In my adult life I trained as an Architect, but after four years in I wanted to do something for myself and as my wife was on a better career than I was I stayed at home raising the kids!
This inspired me and opened my eyes to the forgotten world of childhood, the challenges, the tantrums, Oh the tantrums! But time, time to see where and what I can do with children and to have an interest in something which is child friendly.
As I live on the north coast of Kent there is an abundance of wildlife from Black Headed Gulls and Shell Ducks to Rooks, Crows, Kites & Kestrels. I look at how they move how they interact with their surroundings I gather as much information about the particular bird that im going to create.
I am not going to intentionally make an exact copy just basing it upon its archetype, what it does in nature. ie an owl is characteristically a night hunter whose speed and silence is crucial
I use a range of traditional and contemporary photographic and post-production techniques to enhance the images including: Filters, Bracketing, HDR, Lightroom and Photoshop.
As well as an artist/photographer I am a Course Leader for a pre-degree art course in Chichester, teaching creative individuals of the future. Originally trained as a Fine Artist specialising in painting and printmaking in Exeter under the guidance of John Virtue and Ray Smith, I have exhibited both nationally and internationally including work in the Saatchi gallery. I have continued my love of all things artistic by producing original prints and now contemporary photos inspired by the local landscape.
September 2015 - January 2016
From her Waterloo studio Sarah portrays the stunning vistas of London in two very unique and distinctive styles. Her ‘lights’ series are painterly with deep rivulets of colour splashed on to the canvas to create an explosion of light and atmosphere. Her ‘reflections’ series are instantly recognisable with their vibrant colours and naïve simplicity yet complex and sophisticated composition. This style has been referred to as ‘deconstructed divisionism’.
Sarah also paints in the South of France on visits to her mother who lives and works as an artist in the region. The countryscapes she creates there share the same bold use of colour and sensual childlike expressiveness as her ‘reflections’ work.
A bold palette, energy and atmosphere are central to all of Sarah’s works. Her major influences are expressionism and neo-impressionism and most of all Fauvism, particularly Derain and Matisse
Rebecca Youssefi was born in London, studied fine art at Hastings College of Arts and Technology and then University of Westminster.
As well as being a figurative painter working in mixed media on canvas, Youssefi also does aerial acrobatic circus performance. Major Arcana, her solo show last December at The Underdog Gallery, London, featured an opening show with 10 performers from Hastings Guerrilla Circus.
‘Youssefi’s works are rich and eye-catching. Her gaze feels sometimes outward and sometimes firmly embedded in meditative hermeticism. We live in a world where clock time and local time are collapsing into digital time, global network time, image time, so the question of where the lived self actually is, where embodied reality is taking place is a contentious one. Within the transformational processes of embodiment and consciousness, what are the limits of the self? Which possibilities become apparent when we encounter reality in a vivid whole body awareness, not through a submissive split body-mind, a brain-washed subjectivity or a colonised imagination.’ – Sarah Lloyd
‘What seems impossible initially becomes a living reality through focus and practise, and so this element of the magic of transforming limitations is inspiring to me. It’s helped me realise that very often I am capable of much more than my conditioned fear causes me to believe I am. I work simply with what I can work with, my own experiences and personal history, from the inside out.’ – Rebecca Youssefi
I studied art at foundation and degree level at Camberwell and Wimbledon Colleges of Art respectively. I designed acouple of theatre productions for fringe theatre but quicklyreturned to my first love: paint! I painted scenery for West End theatre productions, wide screen cinema, TV and music videos for the next seven years, until my two sons were born. Then I began teaching art to various groups from young offenders to professionals.
Art has run through my veins ever since I was old enough to hold a pencil and draw. Mum used to say I never copied anyone: I was only ever on a mission to get out what wasinside me. She often would have to harry me to bed or I would have drawn through the night!
The paintings I call narrative as they tell endless stories. I say endless because a painting’s story can change from one day to the next, as our mood changes and as we grow, so doe our observed emphasis, and our translations. I call myself a method painter, as I tap into intuitive mark making in order to transfer an image more thoroughly: flight, movement, softness for example become the method of painting that particular part. The nature of oil paint is perfect for every possibility of illusion, depth or robustness, when I discovered it I felt like I had found what it was like to paint with velvet, true luxury.
My work centres around themes of sustainability, reuse and the nature of value.
I specialise in creating forms in nature using discarded plastics such as car hubcaps and bumpers. I also work with scrap metal.
The types of material that I choose that would normally end up in landfill instead become works that entertain the concept: it might be possible to redesign products so that they have a further application once their original use is concluded.
I carefully select elements within the materials in order to utilise their shape and character and as I work the predesigned and used pieces add a life that is very different from a totally controlled medium.
These particular plastics were intended to last for a very long time. I hope my work outlasts the factory processes that originally created it’s material.
Colour, light and texture are major elements in the work of Jude Evans. She paints landscapes and sea pieces in an impressionist way, using heightened colour and lively brushwork to create mood and convey emotion. Her aim is to bring something fresh to familiar subjects, to express her passion for the natural world and to share her personal vision. Jude studied at Chelsea College of Art. She describes herself as a Romantic Impressionist, and her paintings reflect her passion for Turner, Monet and Whistler, whose works have been major influences on her art practice. Her latest work is Sunlight on the Sea: Variations on a Theme, inspired by views of the sea near her home on the Sussex coast.
I find myself driven by a desire to exploit, to document and display the natural behaviours of oil paint.
It’s hugely satisfying creating shiny, youthful skins of paint; the surface created is smooth and rich with colour, supple and fresh.
As time passes and with some intervention from me, the paint skin undergoes unique behavioural processes, sometimes resulting in a heavily wrinkled, scarred and puckered surface that even years after conception continues to take on its final form.
The ability to imbue the paint with some of the characteristics of ageing makes it an addictive process!
My collage works are created to be consciously decorative; I work by appropriating ephemera to form surreal scenes with the intention of starting conversations, invoking memories, dreams and shared experiences. I am perplexed by what it means to be ‘feminine’; by where that term originates from and by how it has been interpreted by society throughout history, I enjoy exploring this theme within my practice. Some of these works are based on my own inaccurate preconceptions of femininity, collected, adapted, then sealed and captured within a crystalline shell.
They at times illustrate my own personal conflicts within my art practice and life as I try to maintain the spinning plates of Mother, Lover, Artist and Woman.
Contrasting the artist’s previous work, this series is a pure documentation of an American road trip the artist embarked on in September 2014. Furthering the immediate beauty of the landscapes captured in the images, the artist portrays a sense of peace and freedom to relay the emotion of this part of her trip; for other than the occasional indexical, there is no sign of human life present in the scenes.
Katie Rhona’s work has continued to be influenced by cinema and as the first time the artist had visited America, strong links can be seen in parts of this series, particularly of the diner in Williams and the black and white 35mm scan of Yosemite National Park.
Having previously explored installation in her work, Rhona encourages interaction, in this series the small and intimate framed prints juxtaposing the larger invites you to step close and discover the details and step back to admire the greater landscape in which each narrative is held.
The inspiration for my work comes from animals frequently associated with myths and stories.
I trained at the Skelton Studio in Streat, Sussex and now have my own studio nearby.
I have been stone carving for ten years and I started working in clay as a way of making marquettes for my stone work. It became evident that people liked these so I now make them to sell.
I have an interest in mythology and old stories and the inspiration for my first hare came from the story of St Melangell, the patron saint of Hares. St Melangell was a 7th Century saint who is said to have hidden a hare in the folds of her cloak to save it from the hounds of Prince Brochwel of Powys. The hounds it is presumed were aware of Melangell’s sanctity radiating from her and they cowered and refused to go near the hare. Though the Prince encouraged his hounds to give chase they would not go near the saint or the hare and when the huntsman blew his horn it stuck to his lips as Melangell remained in prayer. Brochwel was so impressed by her beauty and courage that he gave her land in his valley where her church still stands. This land was to offer sanctuary to any animal (or human) seeking it.
This story made an impression on me and I have made a number of hares since then as well as other animals. I am now seeking a story to inspire by next collection of work.
My fascination with details of shape and structure of plant and rock forms provides the inspiration behind my abstract paintings. I use a form of mark-making and blending with oil paint on very smoothly primed canvas to create subtle 3-dimensional illusory paintings.
Since graduating from Central Saint Martins in 1996 my work has been exhibited in the UK and USA and has been selected for regional and national art exhibitions and competitions.
My work explores experience of surface, and perception of form and mark making. I am fascinated by the beauty of forms that arise in nature. My paintings are live surfaces, upon which gesture evolves into organic forms. These are both concealed and emphasized through layers of paint, perceived by the viewer with the spontaneity with which they were painted. I highlight the beauty and wonder akin to natural phenomena in nuances of luminous colour. I want to give the viewer a varied experience of space, becoming lost within and distanced from the painting simultaneously. I view my surfaces as living, breathing spaces where paint can exist in a constant state of evolution
Once 130ft high trees over 5ft in diameter, pinnacles are formed by centuries of erosion in ancient flooded valleys. The trees, eaten by mussels and sculpted by the natural currents of the water they inhabit are a great natural wonder. A process that can take up to 12,000 years.
Craig enhances their natural beauty by encasing them in bold resins creating stunning individual sculptures.
Craig is a unique craftsman who enjoys a highly successful and established film career. Since the early 90′s he has worked in many areas of the film industry including special effects, prop-making, painting, sculpting & construction. His extensive and varied skills have seen him working on several major films over the years including Harry Potter, Batman, Starwars.
More recently he has been concentrating all his efforts into producing a collection of extraordinary art based furniture works. Using techniques, skills and specialized technologies acquired throughout his film career, Craig has managed to bring his own grand dynamic to the world of sculpture.
I collect recycled fabric, paper and ephemera using collage, stitch, photographic and print processes to create a range of work, most of which is framed. My inspirations are travel, memory and vintage imagery from a variety of sources. These have been described as ‘small worlds’ and my current layered mixed media work started life as mainly botanical in subject matter before developing into larger more narrative works. Often it can be a small scrap or remnant of fabric that inspires a whole piece and I’m inspired by naïve and folk art. Collaborations are an important aspect of my work and I enjoy working with other artists. I also produce commissions for private and public individuals – examples of these ‘collages in cloth’, based on special places, people and spaces can be found on my website. I teach a range of levels of ability at many venues in the UK and abroad.
My first co-written book for Batsford was published in September 2013 called ‘Connected Cloth’ and I am currently writing solo ‘Textile Nature’ about the many links between textile art and the natural world, due out in 2016.
The pair behind One Off Chairs
“We cannot bear waste, and abhor our current ‘throw–away’ society,” says the founders of One Off Chairs, Chico and Lee.
An Eastbourne man, with a background in engineering and sales, Chico relocated back to the town when his mother was unwell. Visiting the hospice every day he soon became aware that donations of house contents to the hospice often resulted in fabulous furniture being discarded, as it was not fire retardant. Chico decided to start buying some of this furniture from the hospice and this was the start of One Off Chairs. Now breathing a fabulous new life into furniture that has decades of history is his passion and luckily for him, his job.
“Every chair has a history and a story to tell, some of them were are person’s favourite chair, some chairs I have found relics of times gone by.” In one chair he found old pennies and cleverly incorporated these into the newly refurbished chair on the armrests.
The range of fabrics and finishes that he used are endless and he is currently working with artists from around the UK to transfer their art onto fabric to be used for various chairs. The tales behind some of the chairs are fascinating and all are individual and unique – hence the
name: ‘One off Chairs’.
More recently their work has been picked for inclusion in the world famous interiors book Art Without Waste – that features 500 upcycled and Earth-friendly designs from cutting-edge designers, illustrators and artists around the world. Published by Rockport Publishers.
An exhibition of paintings by Paula MacArthur, Tom Banks, Gary Goodman and Tim Fawcett, drawing by Ian Hodgson and sculptures by Hubcap creatures.
May 2015 - September 2015
Alice Steffen is a young British conceptual artist emerging on the London art scene.
Her work embodies the exploration of language, pop culture, stereotypes, gender, class and identity. These themes are taken from her experience as a young woman, exploring class based social systems, and comparisons of class. These subjects are interwoven into her work, which becomes a dialogue with the viewer. The art is autobiographical, reflecting the multiple facets that define her personhood.
Steffen erases the original labels of the objects she uses to create her sculptures, changing the dynamics of the objects in the presentation, which conveys materialistic messages which can be awkward or uncomfortable for the viewer.
Steffen was born in Cambridge, England in 1989, her home being in a small rural Essex village. She studied Sculpture and Environmental Art at The Glasgow School of Art, The School of The Art Institute of Chicago and The London City and Guilds Art School.
The themes explored in Alice’s’ practice are based upon how people interact with each other with regard to gender, stereotyping , prejudice, discrimination, class, culture and language. Her observation of these themes provides the core subject matter of her work.
‘The Scotsman’ in June 2011, reviewing her work exhibited in her degree show wrote:
“If American artist Jeff Koon’s is the king of kitsch, then Alice Essex (real name Alice Steffen) is its potential queen.”
The skill of drawing has always been the foundation to Gledhill’s work. Under the tuition of artists such as John Lessore while studying at the Royal Academy Schools the importance of drawing set a precedent for life. Using either charcoal or pencil, Gledhill draws from the subject and works from the drawings back at the studio to develop his paintings. The subject can often be a London street scene but Gledhill’s focus will also be on the people who pass through that street, commuting to and from work.
Aware that the physical rigour and the rigour of skill demanded in drawing from life requires continual mastering and constant practice, Gledhill draws weekly from the model at the R.A. schools Life Drawing Room in Piccadilly.
Autumn 2013 Gledhill began a series of portraits in his studio .The model sits on a raised platform eyes resting on the wall ahead where hangs ‘New Birth in the City’ (2013) Gledhill’s most recent painting in black and white depicting the Thames flanked with cityscapes of London’s glass monumental skyscrapers.
Jenny Eadon is an abstract artist working in oil on canvas. The paintings show the impressions associated with places visited when travelling or visual images evoked by reading poetry. After many years living in Cambridge, her studio practice and home are now in a village near Banbury in North Oxfordshire.
1994/95 Postgraduate Diploma, Anglia Ruskin University
1978/82 BA Hons. Fine Art, University of Reading
1977/78 Amersham College of Art, Buckinghamshire
1976/77 Berkshire College of Art, Maidenhead
Advanced Abstract Painting MA, Academy of Art, San Francisco, I semester
Painting used for cover of book of poems by Patricia Clark, Michigan University Press
Founder of Cambridge Artworks Studios, artist run studios, gallery/workshop
Organiser of monthly slide and lecture series at Cambridge Artworks
Henry Moore Sculpture Studio, London, sculpture course
Public Art Training programme run by Commissions East Eastern Arts
Participant in NVQ seminar for Arts & Entertainment Training Council
Travel and study visits to Paris, Turkey, Canada, USA, India, Morocco, Peru, Australia and China.
Mark Stonestreet work has developed from his days working as an industrial welder on the hop farms of the south east of England to the works shown here, His works can be found in private and public collections in Europe and Asia.
‘DO re me far so’, granite, 3.2mtr, 2013His work varies from the monumental abstract granite forms of the symposiums, to far more delicate work with lettering and relief panels.
Frankie DetailAn organizer/participant of the emerging Pallava Sculpture Symposium, director of Stanmer Stone Works Sculpture Studio, and currently in the process of forming partnerships with studios around the world, enabling cultural and professional exchanges for students and practicing artists alike.
The UK studio is set in the beautiful grounds of Stanmer Park.
“Susan Evans is well known for her highly accomplished virtuoso oil paintings of clouds, inspired by her walks around UK and especially the South Downs. She creates paintings of immense calm, but with great emotional depth. In 2000 she won the prestigious national Peterborough First Open prize and has shown widely in England, Europe and the USA since leaving the Chelsea College of Art in London.
Susan has had solo art exhibitions in London, Bath and Brighton and taken part in many high quality art fairs. Her work is collected internationally by institutions such as Exeter College in Oxford, the Peterborough Museum and Live Wire in California.”
Enid Lawson Gallery
“I use the medium of photography freely and instinctively, at times beyond its conventional role, form and expectations.
Constantly experimenting: with textures, surfaces, movement, reflections, light, angles.
Discovering new ways of expression, new meanings. Attempting to move imaginations.
From sharp, colourful geometric shots to soft and calming landscapes. From minimalist to complex.
Looking for beauty and poetry in the mundane. Hunting for treasures”.
Whether walking the coast line or countryside I absorb my surroundings obsessively, constantly exploring the relationship between land and sea, from rocky craggy cliffs to soft velvet green rolling landscapes. Sometimes sketching, sometimes just observing.
In my studio paintings take place with an intuitive response to what memory allows. I always paint in oils with glazes that allow me to build the painting over several months, the composition coming together in a process that evolves; selecting and eliminating forms and texture, until the final image presents itself.
From 1976 to 1979 I studied an Art Foundation Diploma in Buckinghamshire. Following that I went on to travel and to raise a family, moving to Brighton in 1990.
In 1991 I took a second Foundation at Brighton and then went to Brighton University where I gained a B.A. in Fine Art.
Ros Lymer’s work explores the thousands of tiny details that we encounter every day, from the labels in clothes, bus timetables, shopping lists, teaspoons and lockless keys, to the weeds in her neglected garden. She explores weathered surfaces, boxes of old photos and tins of once treasured nick-knacks found at car boot sales.
Ros completed a degree in Fine Art Painting in Manchester in 1990, where her work involved large scale assemblages combining objects, paint and textural media; she was interested in creating a balance and a tension between these elements.
Since then her interest has grown in linking separate and often unrelated fragments, moving them around as if working out a jigsaw puzzle, until she feels they ‘fit’ or belong.
Ros started to explore textile media after a trip to Finland where she was able to explore weaving, felt-making and screen printing. Trips to India and Thailand inspired her to use bold and even discordant colours together. The marks created by the sewing machine added a new drawing and joining tool to her toolbox.
I was born and raised in West Yorkshire, brought up on a farm nestled in Chew Valley. A valley of waterways and reservoirs over looked by the moors and grit stone crags of the Peak District. These rock strewn hillsides, rivers and springs became my rocky guardians and enlivened the landscape of my childhood and have remained in my inner life ever since. The potentiality of nature to suggest censure or succour informs my artistic practise to this day.
I work primarily as a painter and sculptor. In my drawing and painting I explore the suggestive nature of colour and form and the substance of paint and ground. For me painting has a hidden potential. As a search for meaning and authenticity, it becomes an essential expression of individuality and spirit. Each artwork is a statement arrived at through a long process accomplished by means of opaque and transparent layering. Absences and removals build tensions and a wealth of texture and meaning as one state supersedes another. The finished piece offers a new vantage point, a new “countenance” in the world, unique and radiant.
Currently I am working in Acrylics, and oils, with brush and squeegee. In heavier mediums I develop a dynamic between liquid and body, the transparent and opaque qualities in the paints, attempting to lose the materiality of paint, saturating the colours a they flow into the canvases, and building layers of colour with direct painting and glazing.
I have travelled widely and the landscapes and cityscapes I know and have visited appear again and again in my work. This elemental mood of place appears, often before I recognise it. I engage with music, literature and poetry to unlock my imagination, seeing them as keys to spaces beyond the everyday.
In painting and sculpture I work at different speeds, working in intense bursts of creativity, but also developing major pieces and series of work over months and years.
Kaidy was a student at St.Albans City school of art and design. She then went on to secure a place to study at Chelsea College of Art.
After the birth of her second child the artist received portrait commissions and took up art professionally. In addition to her distinct and expressive portraits, she makes intuitive and colourful paintings.
Recently she shared her knowledge of product design and art therapy in her role as Project Manager for Canterbury Oast Trust.
A passionate advocate for personal growth through art and action she also teaches, creativity workshops for adults in Godinton House, near Ashford, Kent. The next course starts on the 11th September 2015.
Kaidy is a member of The Pilgrims Way Artists in Kent. The artist won best portrait at the Lenham show in 2013 and 2014.
The Kings Hill Art initiative, now in its sixth year, provides a professionally curated rolling art exhibition in office buildings across the Kings Hill business park, curated by artist June Frickleton and supported by Arts & Business. To celebrate the 20th exhibition, the new Cultural Centre in the recently refurbished Control Tower, Liberty Square, is the venue for an exhibition of past and present artists who have generously loaned their artworks to the Kings Hill Art initiative.
A former Kings Hill Art exhibitor, Alan Rankle, is showing a selection of paintings including the stunning centrepiece, ‘Untitled painting XII (Herne)’, which features a resplendent stag in a threatening landscape.
Showing alongside these magnificent paintings are textile pieces by Anne Kelly, sculptures by Clive Soord, Krystina Lowicz and Lorraine Kelly and paintings by Barbara Burns, David Armitage and June Frickleton, who curated the exhibition.
Anyone interested in buying a painting should contact curator, June Fricketon on 07946 457285 or info@frickletonfineart.co.uk.
This is the work place ,where the copper leaves and sculptures are formed using blacksmithing and coppersmithing skills.
leaFSmith ltd is a small personal company producing Garden Artwork features using Traditional Copperwork and Blacksmithing handcrafts. Primary works are large scale copper leaves.
Maybe One Autumnal day you pick up a dry curled up leaf and stop to admire its beautiful form and think how it got that way…Thats how I started.
Its a natural thing to see these craft objects in the best Gallery of all ..your Garden, in the changing seasons , through sunshine snow, frost, and rain. They are Unique handcrafted and adaptable.
January 2015 - May 2015
Chris Gilbert was born in 1947. He studied Graphic Design at Plymouth College of Art and typography at the London College of Printing. He worked for Heals as publicity designer and also for Harrods. After five years working in a design group in Sevenoaks, he moved back to London. He worked freelance for several major publishers, designing books and book covers, using photography and illustration. He was also commissioned to produce documentary photographs for publishers, and local government.
In the late 1990s he undertook a major change in direction. After a period of studying life drawing he developed his interest in pastel painting, specialising in life drawing and landscape painting. In 2000/2001 he spent a year travelling and painting in Mexico. On his return to the U.K. he studied printmaking at Morley college. In 2002 he moved to Germany where he continued to work on etching and aquatint. His work has featured in The Artist’s and Illustrators Magazine and he continued to exhibit in Germany
Chris has recently returned to the U.K. and has settled in rural Sussex. He is continuing with landscape painting and he has recently set up a printmaking studio. Has exibited in the Bite Exhibition, Mall Galleries, and is now exhibiting at the summer exhibition 2012 at The Biscuit Factory in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Coastal Hortisculpture
Living by the coast is Sharon’s inspiration for her work. Beach combing is her passion and she regularly forages for source materials that the sea offers; driftwood, sea worn glass and all kinds of flotsam and jetsam.
Sharon, born in Maidstone in 1963, trained as a Printed Textile Designer at Middlesex Polytechnic graduating in 1985. After gaining her PGCE from Brighton Polytechnic in 1990 she taught Art and Design in schools. Later she left teaching to pursue her career as an artist and now produces paintings, sculpture, and reliefs in driftwood and cast plaster. She is also a community artist in Whitstable, teaching local art workshops which give adults and children the opportunity to learn new skills based on her own experience as an artist and designer.
Helen Applegarth, born in County Durham in 1963, is a trained sculptor and garden designer with degrees in Fine Art (1985) and Garden Design (2008). She is also a horticulturalist with 28 years of professional garden management, development and design. Her work as a garden designer is very much from the position of garden design as fine art and the sculpture of a space.
Her sculpture work began figuratively, directly from observation, in clay, cast plaster, direct plaster, wax cast into bronze, stone then semi abstracted figures in heavy ceramic constructions.
Now she is working collaboratively with fellow artist Sharon Cavalier on Coastal Hortisculpture.
Hiroko Lewis, born in Tokyo, Japan in 1962, works in the mediums of oil and tempera. After winning a scholarship to Kanazawa College of Art, where she graduated with a BA degree in Oil Painting, she started a career with Noritake Ltd, creating surface designs for bone china. Returning to oil painting, she exhibited at the National Art Centre in Tokyo between 2008 and 2010 with one of Japan’s oldest and most prestigious art societies, Shunyoukai. During that time, she developed a technique for integrating oil and tempera, which continues to influence her current work. Since moving to Brighton in 2011, she has been adapting her style to match the new environment.
‘My work focusses on the integration of representational image and abstraction. Starting with the hint of something remembered or observed, often derived from nature, my work travels to expand these fragments into a new world using a process of repeated construction, destruction, and reconstruction, in search of another sensory reality.
By using a combination of tempera and oil paint, I aim to create a fusion between my academic training in the classic method and the more modern environment which now surrounds me.
Sometimes many pictures hide under the surface of a single canvas, the result of this long battle of exploration.’
Originally trained in graphic design, Whitstable textile artist Jan Lewis has been creating unique colourful collections of ‘wearable art’ as well as mixed media embroidered wall pieces for over 20 years.
Inspired by nature antiques and poetry, her eclectic and contemporary take on traditional craft, combined beauty with functionality, to create objects that are unique and collectable.
Jan is a member of the International Felt Makers Association, Crafts Council register of Designer Makers and the Canterbury embroiderers guild.
Jan has exhibited and sold nationwide, including commissions by the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Her work has been published in books and magazines and appeared on TV.
She runs workshops from her own ‘Raspberry Studio’. Raspberry Studio can be found on Facebook, and on line on her Etsy Raspberry Studio Designs shop.
Janine Kilroe has created images for the last 30 years, initially as an Editorial Advertising Photographer commissioned by many international blue chip companies and for the past 9 years she has focused on creating a truly unique one off style of hand painted fine art photography, drypoint etchings and linocut prints. Janine’s work is available in galleries throughout the UK.
Exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and The Saatchi Gallery, London 2013
“Photography and printing enables me to express my life experiences, feelings and thoughts when words are simply not enough. My aim and prayer is that others will feel and see what I see and that this will bring great pleasure and blessings to others. “
Janine is inspired by what makes Britain. Its nature, its landscapes and coastal environments all of which she loves to explore. Janine’s view of the world, that’s hidden from our eyes, an unseen layer peeled back. Hand painting her photographs, Drypoint Etchings and Linocuts using a variety of mediums; pastels, watercolour pencils, washes and acrylic inks. All printed on British archival watercolour papers enabling her to subtlety select her interpretation of the original scene.
The feeling of movement and ethereal atmosphere is often achieved, using and hand developing experimental black and white films. Working with classic film cameras and lens such as a 1952 Leica M3, Wista 4 X 5 Field camera, Pinhole and digital cameras. Film creates an organic look and feel plus a wonderful tonal range for each subject. Janine’s images are intentionally timeless, therefore enabling a possible memory trigger for the viewer.
Janine’s craft conveys a captured unique moment in time. This captured moment in time can never be repeated. This fact fascinates Janine. To ensure the best workflow and consistent quality control all of Janine’s work is kept in-house from the pre visualisation of ideas to the final print. Janine uses British papers and materials whenever possible, PH neutral tapes, mounts and backing boards. This personal attention to detail and quality control throughout the creative process produces exceptional archival quality (out of direct sunlight 100 years plus) and finished craftsmanship.
Julie Caves is a contemporary artist who uses painting and sculpture to explore ideas of surface and colour. Her artists’ books often contain lists. She has exhibited in the US, Spain, Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Norway and the UK. She has artists’ books and original prints in a number of public collections including the Tate Britain Gallery Special Collection. Her paintings are in numerous private collections.
‘I paint imaginary scenes and mysterious objects that are equal parts attractive and repellent. I am interested in surface and colour. I use ambiguity and oppositions. I know a painting is nearing completion when it starts talking back to me. I am trying to figure out what painting is for.’
Julie Caves lives and works in East London and Margate.
Wildlife and Portrait Artist and Sculptor, specialist in found wood Sculptures..
Selected for and exhibited at the “Mall Galleries” in London for the Royal Society of British Artists, also selected for the first round of the Thread needle Prize in London.
My sculptures and artwork can also be seen, and are for sale at many wood fairs garden shows and art trails throughout the year.
My sculptures appeared in the “Wood Carvers” magazine in 2011, and various newspaper articles
Artwork has always been a huge part of my life and I am very passionate about my creations.
I spend many hours deeply absorbed in sculpturing, painting and drawing. Only when I am happy that I have completely captured the likeness of my subjects do I feel my creation is complete.
The pair behind One Off Chairs
“We cannot bear waste, and abhor our current ‘throw–away’ society,” says the founders of One Off Chairs, Chico and Lee.
An Eastbourne man, with a background in engineering and sales, Chico relocated back to the town when his mother was unwell. Visiting the hospice every day he soon became aware that donations of house contents to the hospice often resulted in fabulous furniture being discarded, as it was not fire retardant. Chico decided to start buying some of this furniture from the hospice and this was the start of One Off Chairs. Now breathing a fabulous new life into furniture that has decades of history is his passion and luckily for him, his job.
“Every chair has a history and a story to tell, some of them were are person’s favourite chair, some chairs I have found relics of times gone by.” In one chair he found old pennies and cleverly incorporated these into the newly refurbished chair on the armrests.
The range of fabrics and finishes that he used are endless and he is currently working with artists from around the UK to transfer their art onto fabric to be used for various chairs. The tales behind some of the chairs are fascinating and all are individual and unique – hence the
name: ‘One off Chairs’.
More recently their work has been picked for inclusion in the world famous interiors book Art Without Waste – that features 500 upcycled and Earth-friendly designs from cutting-edge designers, illustrators and artists around the world. Published by Rockport Publishers.
It was John Firth who taught Selina to look and observe; to feel and learn the qualities of colour, light, form and composition from an early age.
Selina went on to study Fine Art Foundation in Yorkshire, silkscreen printing at the London College of Printing, and Trained in Fine Art Painting and Printmaking at the Central School of Art, London WC1.
Recently, Selina has fulfilled her life’s wish to establish herself in the two occupations she loves above all others: as a Fine Art Painter and a holistic Bowen Therapist.
Selina finds inspiration from the ‘interrelated connectivity of all life’ and derives joy in each day’s dawning of fresh possibilities and growth.
“I want to capture the characters of buildings: shape, air, relationship, space; the joy of living here: the evenings, the mornings, afternoons – all within the context of this uniquely beautiful town. My aim is to give as much attention to the spaces and nature as to the built form – an interrelationship which constitutes ‘my Whitstable’.”
Selina’s new work, entitled ‘The Air and Feel of Here’ is a series of pieces distilled from walking, exploring and absorbing the lanes and alleyways of old Whitstable
Award Winning Artist
Oil paintings have been inspired by the wonders of nature around East Sussex, and of her travels worldwide, she aims to portray a sense of tranquillity and an air of mystery showing the wonders of life.
Serena won the title of Brighton Artist of the year in 2005; the selected top 10 finalists had 1 painting displayed at the ‘art at five gallery’, which was chosen by a public vote for the winner. The winning artwork Woodlands Walk was also chosen for the front cover of the debut album for the band ‘The LoveGods’.
Twice she has painted on the BBC. 2006 She was also selected from 3000 people to recreate Holbein’s Henry VIII together with 107 other artists as part of ‘The Big Event’, which was broadcast live from Trafalgar Square, London.
Also selected to take part and paint a picture in a day with other artists, to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee 2012at Waterloo Arches, London, a pop up art exhibition was set up for 3 days and 3,000 visitors came every day to view the artist’s works.
November 2008, ‘Autumn Walk Landscape’ was selected by IKEA store as a limited edition print on canvas. It was sold for 2 years worldwide in their stores.
My work is inspired by many factors; nature – macro and micro, architecture – manmade and natural, imagination – mine and others. I enjoy making pieces that follow variations on a theme and the resulting journey it takes me on and when exploring the world of creativity.
I started painting when in my 40s, obtaining an A level in Art at evening classes. While continuing to attend various courses, I have gradually developed my own style of representation.
My BA (Hons) is in the History of Art and Design from Kingston-on-Thames University where I studied when in my 50s.
I continue to experiment and explore various media and ideas, generally based on landscape.
My linocuts reflect the Kent countryside and are more formal than my paintings but still aim to bring some abstraction to the image. Every linocut is an individual print.
September 2014 - January 2015
Playful & Theatrical Collage Artist, Illustrator and Designer inspired by a love of history be it a narrative, a piece of architecture or an intricate pattern.
Agatha, a life of ladders and snakes
Originally the collection was made up of nine collages which retold the story of crime writer Agatha Christie. A new piece, Daydreaming was added to the series for a tour of USA and another two pieces for an exhibition at Burgh Island Hotel, Devon. The Announcement and Sunworshipper were inspired by the crime writer’s novels which were based on the island and indeed written in the hotel.
My current work is nearly all made from copper. The starting point for the form is almost always organic. And in the case of Gum fruit, a Portuguese Eucalyptus seed was the inspiration. Whimsical undertones crept in and a distinct relationship emerged between the pair. I have been seduced by the surface textures, colours and malleability of this material and am always trying to learn more techniques to expand my language of making.
A recent commission for a piece involving water at Rockingham castle has given me the opportunity to see the effects of both the form on the water and of water on the colour of the copper. I would like to work more in this area.
Recent large scale commissions
2014/15 “Riverbed “.A water sculpture for the redesigned Rose Gardens at Rockingham castle, Northamptonshire.
Dawn Mead is a photographer living in Hassocks, West Sussex.
Although Dawn’s photography skills are largely self-taught, the arts have always featured prominently in Dawn’s educational and professional life.
Brought up in Stoke Newington, London, by her grandmother, Dawn was always fascinated by the old photographs she found at home, imagining the scenes and stories behind each one. She studied Art and History of Art at school, Film at university, and Fashion at St Martin’s College in London.
Dawn then became a fashion stylist working for several national magazine publications, TV shows and commercial assignments. During her time as a fashion stylist, Dawn worked very closely with photographers on the composition and layout of the shoots, and quickly reignited that passion for photography she had in her childhood.
Dawn now specialises in natural and available light photography, placing a heavy emphasis on composition, and does not digitally edit or photoshop her work. Her work is mainly still life, inspired by the old Dutch Master painters such as Vermeer, van Aelst and Heda. However the composition of Dawn’s photography is simpler than that of these old masters, allowing light to draw out the natural beauty and intricacy of the subject matter to the viewer.
Something that is simple is often hardest to explain. This is the root of my interest in arts which provide us with the bare essence of the artist’s explored idea or subject, yet may still evoke the most complex experience for the viewer.
Always initiating a work without any preconceived ideas, I prefer to allow the respective environment to stimulate me in a way that I can respond through drawing or painting to discover the final image as a reaction to the whole experience rather than just the visual stimulus.
Originally from Bolton in the North West of England, just a short distance from the Lake District, but has lived in Kent and East Sussex for the past 22 years.
He is a self taught photographer who works only with film.
After using many formats he now specialises in large format photography, using either a Linhof Technorama 617 S III or a 5×4 Linhof Technicarden. He uses exclusively Fuji Velvia film as he finds this to be the only film to capture correctly the amazing diversity of light and colour of the image before him at the time of taking.
Everything you see in the photographs was as it was at the time of taking; nothing has been added by the use of filters or a computer. All the pictures you see here are produced using the traditional chemical process and are limited to 150 prints in the edition, then the transparency will be destroyed ensuring no further copioes can be made and therefore increasing the value of the prints that are left.
It all started over ten years ago when I was on holiday in Croatia and someone I met through a mutual friend needed help in turning over a large glass panel. When I saw it, it was love at first sight. I returned to my native Hungary, did a course and set up my business. I have worked a lot with interior designers and architects on larger commissions, such as bank branches, solicitors’ offices, health clinics and private residences. My decorative glass objects have been exhibited and available for sale at art galleries. Please click on Links, etc. to find out about forthcoming events and exhibitions, further details of galleries and websites where my work is listed.
In 2008 I moved to the United Kingdom, the country of fascinating hedges, chimneys and stained glass art. I intend to continue working with glass, preserving this country’s traditional glass art and, also, hoping to make my own modest contribution to British contemporary glass art. I work in a workshop in Reigate.
“Inspired by the sea at her Whitstable home Liz Shedden paints semi abstract canvases with thick buttery paint. Windy seascapes, cups, jugs, flowers and hearts are recurring themes which appeal to young and old alike.
Liz has exhibited in many group and solo shows in Kent and her work is bought by clients keen to make a collection. As well as being suited to the domestic setting Liz’s work also lends itself to the corporate sector.
Liz’s work has been featured on Channel 5’s ‘Selling Homes’ and in ‘Coast’ magazine. She has recently opened her own gallery and shop in Whitstable.
Janice Thurston is a painter working with oil and acrylic paints plus a variety of fine art printmaking techniques. Her recent work focuses mainly on the South Downs – an area of ancient histories, wildness and human traces fashioned by agriculture. Her personal interpretation of the landscape captures the shifting light, patterns and colours that are relentlessly changing as the seasons advance.
Janice was born and raised in Sussex where she still lives with her family. She loves the area which is sandwiched between the sea on one side and the rolling South Downs on the other. Taking up painting later in life after a change of job ignited her interest in the arts; this inspiration led her to achieve an honours degree in Fine Art Painting. On completion she was awarded the Degree Show painting prize. Janice has exhibited in Sussex, Kent and Cornwall and has been a member of the Chalk Gallery, Lewes since 2011.
Started his training at Westminster University in 1987, where he achieved his HND in Ceramics, he then joined Middlesex University achieving a degree in 3D design. This is where he found working with metal was his medium of choice. His futuristic inventions started with a surreal fully functional telephone standing 1.5 metres high, this piece of sculpture propelled Paul into the media and this extended when he created his television using a jet engine!
Paul started up on a stall at Camden Market selling his metal fish. He was then discovered by the BBC and went on to create the iconic Newsnight Globe for the title sequence. From here his reputation grew and soon became known for his window displays for the likes of Selfridges & Fortnum & Mason, Pauls most prestigious commission was his collaboration with Alexander McQueen incorporating giant insects for the Harvey Nichols windows.
Pauls work diversifies from the Trendy Bars & Restaurants in London to the refurbishment of The Ministry of Sound.
His latest works include a horse standing 18hands high, a stainless steel life size ballerina and for Barratt Homes Ltd two 3meter Stainless Steel Swans.
Last year Paul and his partner opened a gallery in Haywards Heath, The Orchards Shopping Centre. It is here he has developed a range of work in his unique style from classic candleholders to grand chandeliers, stainless steel & copper Indian Running Ducks, Herons and many more animals and wildlife.
Paul welcomes commissions both small and large to suit any budget.
I develop my work through writing, drawings and photographic images of the subjects/themes that interest me – sometimes being interested by the shape, colour, relationship etc of a particular subject’s physical sculptural form, presence and space. Sometimes more involved with conveying emptiness, spaciousness and being less concerned with form.
Other times there will be more of a conceptual idea or feeling forming the basis/theme of a piece of work; though always there’s a personal story or narrative of some sort connected with and running alongside all my work.
Technically, I trained as a printmaker and enjoyed using photographic silkscreen and etching printmaking processes in previous and degree show work, perhaps now reflected in my natural painting style – where I lean towards stylized and simplified – preferring to layer thin glazes of paint for a light and subtle linear graphic effect, rather than the use of more heavy paint effects.
These recent paintings explore the colour, form and magic I have found in the places that I have lived or visited frequently in SW Scotland, Cumbria, Spain and Brighton.
The healing nature of art-making interests me ~ in my work I explore my relationship to, or what’s drawing my attention to, a particular subject or theme and let the meaning unfold during the creative process of engagement and exploration ~ providing original artwork, prints and commissions.
Victoria Claire is a Kent based visually impaired artist, specialising in contemporary sculpture carved in wood, she has been sculpting for 21 years.
She has a degenerative eye condition called Retinitis Pigmentosa. This, unfortunately, is claiming her eye sight, however, despite her visual impairment she continues to sculpt in her studio which has been adapted for her specific needs.
Born in 1975, Victoria Claire always showed much promise as an artist. After studying for her GCSEs and A levels she continued her education at art college studying Graphic design, however, she found a passion for sculpture before going to art college. She committed herself to the graphic design course and successfully graduated. After which she carried on her studies at Staffordshire University studying figurative sculpture. This was an extremely prestigious course as there were only 28 places in Europe.
Due to Victoria’s loss of vision her artistic life has not been an easy one. She had to leave university as she wasn’t coping with her visual challenges, however, after much support from her family and Kent Association for the Blind, Victoria began to sculpt again. Those earliest years in her 20’s were some of the hardest of her life, having to give up her dream of becoming a university lecturer of contemporary sculpture was extremely hard, but after a few years she began to see that sculpture could still be part of her life.
She now lives with her husband and their westie in a bungalow and creates her work in her studio at the bottom of the garden.
Victoria is thankful for every day that she can continue creating her sculptures and will continue doing so for as long as she can.
For me, the creative process is about developing a conversation with nature and her forces, and starting to listen to her with my heart. Although my sculpture is non-representational it is strongly related to human questions of encounter, relationship, the space in between, the centre and the inner life.
I am inspired by stone, especially the slate of North Wales with its dark, deep purple/black tones and soft forms. I also enjoy using found materials, often wood, which has already been worked by nature to which I add further transformation (sometimes a lot, sometime a little) to enhance its beauty and give it meaning. Often I use mixed materials to create a dialogue between the various components of the form and so add a higher level of complexity to the work.
Since 2000 I have been a member of Surrey Sculpture Society and exhibited with them at many prestigious venues. I also exhibit regularly with the South East Open Studios programme and at other venues in SE England.
My work can be found in many private and company collections.
I am a co-director and tutor at the Hoathly Hill Sculpture Studios, West Sussex. I am also a state registered Art Therapist (STRATh) with a private practice and using the healing properties of sculpture and painting.
May 2014 - September 2014
Alasdair Craig started chainsaw carving in 2011. Prior to that he had trained and worked as a stone setter and gold smith completing a 5 year apprenticeship at Cellini Pearls in Cambridge. Whilst there, he was nominated and won the edge young practical learner of the year award In 2006. As a goldsmith, Alasdair developed a love of bold flowing lines and tries to incorporate them into his woodwork alongside classical and contemporary designs. Alasdair’s work has been on display in public parks in Hayward Heath and Crawley, as well as many schools around Sussex and Reading.
I am a woodcut printmaker based in Sussex. Here on my website you will find a selection of my latest works, most are from the South Downs, as this is my home and a great love, I do have pieces from further afield, and am also open to commissions.
I draw directly from the landscape onto wooden blocks, I then carve into the blocks and print from them. All of my work is handmade and each one of my pieces is given individual life though chine colle (paper overlay) and hand tinting, just as the mood of a scene shifts with light, time and experience.
I spend time in the places my work depicts, returning to them. My prints are imbued with the emotion of place. Working outdoors enables me to connect with the spirit of the place, capturing the line and fluidity of scenes and localities
Following a B.A. in Fine Art at Portsmouth, Brian was awarded a travel scholarship to the USA, where he gained his Masters Degree at the University of Eastern Illinois.
On his return to England, he lived in London where he painted and exhibited. He has had many exhibitions and his paintings are in collections as far afield as New Zealand and the U.S.A. He now lives and works by the sea in Kent.
Brian has said ‘My paintings are very much influenced and affected by my love of painting, particularly Post War British Abstraction. I start a painting by applying paint at random. Initially the painting itself dictates its own direction, until form is found and a painting is ‘born’, often, but not always, of an image remembered, it might be a landscape, an interior or a still-life. As I paint, I try to reduce and simplify the image to capture and convey the mood or atmosphere it created.’
The vigorous compositions of colour and light that result create a very real sense of space. Brian’s paintings can be seen as celebrations of colour which are both decorative and sensual. Colours glow and sing with a vibrancy and sensuality that become expressions of the joy of life.
The work on show was taken from an exhibition entitled ‘I’m a Photographer get me out of here’, where Doug showed with another photographer, Richard Chambury, whose work can be seen in 6 Alexander Grove.
With 40 years of experience photographing the world’s fame junkies, from A to Z listers, miles upon miles of red carpet, screaming fans, royal weddings, funerals and babies, “ I’m A Photographer Get Me Out Of Here” was always going to be the call from photographers Doug Peters and Richard Chambury, as they felt the need to escape the utter madness of Planet Celebrity and reconnect with what made them want to pick up a camera in the first place.
Friends and colleagues for more than 20 years, they share the same need to create images far removed from what they are required to capture on a daily basis. The images brought together in this joint exhibition show just how far they have gone to exorcise their showbiz demons.
Doug takes us as far away from the life he knows, often ending up in a much quieter landscape, spending hours waiting for the weather to work its magic with the landscape he has chosen to photograph. These are not the picture postcard places you see in a brochure, but more interesting sparse land and seascapes, where a visit to the supermarket is done monthly in a truck, because it’s a 300 mile round trip.
Richard’s photographs take a sideways and often amusing look at the world around us, concentrating on the people he comes across often on journeys up and down the country. With great changes to the photographic industry and the introduction of digital, he has embraced all the new technology, shooting reportage images with medium format film, plastic lomography cameras, dSLR and lately the Apple iPhone.
The work on show was taken from an exhibition entitled ‘I’m a Photographer get me out of here’, where Richard showed with another photographer, Doug Peters, whose work can be seen in39 Kings Hill Ave.
With 40 years of experience photographing the world’s fame junkies, from A to Z listers, miles upon miles of red carpet, screaming fans, royal weddings, funerals and babies, “ I’m A Photographer Get Me Out Of Here” was always going to be the call from photographers Doug Peters and Richard Chambury, as they felt the need to escape the utter madness of Planet Celebrity and reconnect with what made them want to pick up a camera in the first place.
Friends and colleagues for more than 20 years, they share the same need to create images far removed from what they are required to capture on a daily basis. The images brought together in this joint exhibition show just how far they have gone to exorcise their showbiz demons.
Richard’s photographs take a sideways and often amusing look at the world around us, concentrating on the people he comes across often on journeys up and down the country. With great changes to the photographic industry and the introduction of digital, he has embraced all the new technology, shooting reportage images with medium format film, plastic lomography cameras, dSLR and lately the Apple iPhone.
Doug takes us as far away from the life he knows, often ending up in a much quieter landscape, spending hours waiting for the weather to work its magic with the landscape he has chosen to photograph. These are not the picture postcard places you see in a brochure, but more interesting sparse land and seascapes, where a visit to the supermarket is done monthly in a truck, because it’s a 300 mile round trip
Yvonne Lyons is a Scottish artist and illustrator based on the North Kent coast. She is self-taught and finds inspiration through nature and poetry, finding wonder in the everyday, so that each of her paintings has a unique character in its own right.
Yvonne grew up in Scotland and has gone from the rough, wild mountains of Scotland to London’s rich variations and busy streets to beautifully manicured Kent with its chocolate-box oast houses, duck ponds and candy-coloured beach huts.
This is reflected in the rich colour and quick movement in her paintings, giving a spontaneous yet slightly melancholy edge to her work.
My work focuses on the formal elements of visual language and the act of looking and responding to our world. Working in acrylics and oils I explore shape and colour juxtapositions, together with repetition, creating pieces that evoke pictorial realities of stability and instability.
The act of producing an art piece is wholly absorbed in the process of creating stability from an unstable situation. Only when the piece is ‘completed’ does there appear a resolution to the striving. I am endlessly searching for stability – responding to visual and personal experiences – the tenuous nature of reality as seen through psychology, geology etc and hopefully fixing something, that in life would only be appreciable for a moment.
The placement of shape and colour and the decision making involved is basically a demonstration of an understanding of magnetic forces – the push and pull of juxtapositions of hue – the opticality of colour and how colour behaves – their shifting relative weights and tensions. The range of hues, tones and shapes have a magnetic relationship of attraction or repulsion, which creates movement in one direction or another. I, as the painter, is acting like a composer of a symphony or a pop song. This means that sometimes, in order to understand the character of one hue and the next, one might have to transfer meaning from one to another. This is a difficult and organic process because to really discover what the colour and shapes want to do, one might have to go against what they at first appear to want to do, and then they start to resist and you have to use other forces to see what they are really feeling. One is dealing with something that is chronically volatile, like lava, except that there is the age old issue of illusion of space, weight, form and the physical reality of paint applied to a surface. The resultant paintings are comprised of increasing complex interconnected shapes, precariously balancing or pressing down upon other forms.
Landscape and in particular the geology) of the South West Coast of England (and light of Cornwall in particular) is an inspiration and forms the stimulus for initial sketches and recordings, but the work is not about landscape in the traditional sense. Instead, they are more like landscapes of the psyche – intuitive constructs that focus on creating irregular rhythms that enable the viewer’s eye to navigate around the surface plain of a square or rectangle. Other sources of inspiration come from contemporary classical music, aspects of chaos theory and the patterns and hidden rhythms of our lives; lives that are interconnected through road systems, flight patterns and electrical circuits.
The Only Child
Menacing yet playful, strange yet familiar, the animal figures form a narrative that is enigmatic, and asks their audience to create an interpretation of their own.
Questionable poses with unusual props ask many questions.
Stillness
A dusty tableau open to conjecture perhaps hints at the air of a disbanded carnival. These lost members of a troupe seem anxious and frozen in time; perhaps turned to stone by the pathos of an earlier pomp and flamboyance.
Their aura evokes nebulous memories of the darker side of human experience, and harks back to characters of imaginary animal companions of childhood whose role was to sweep you away into a lovelier, imaginary place.
Perhaps animal expression appears dignified because of its innate lack of self awareness. Could this make us feel uncomfortable by offering a window into our own human self consciousness?
Metal, paper and plaster, provide a rawness and simplicity that allows for an unfinished quality. Drawing attention to the materiality helps the artist to focus on the emotional element of the work by allowing the figures to grow rapidly, with a serendipitous quality that feels like a magical power.
Paula MacArthur is a painter. Her work has become increasingly painterly, with bold use of colour and experimentation with scale and gesture. Working quickly and instinctively she places colour onto the canvas working with wet on wet glazes, merging oily translucent layers with the brush and dropping colour, allowing it to bleed and grow into the surface.
MacArthur is currently working on a series of large scale canvases based on gemstones photographed in the Natural History Museum. Enlarged a thousand times these jewels transform into cosmic bodies; we can get lost in this other-worldly space finding imagined pareidolia. Interest in this subject was born from entirely sentimental feelings, but these ideas quickly grew and jewels came to represent the excesses and obsessions which we all encounter, day to day, both personally and politically. The subject became a vehicle for extending her painting process and she experiments, pushing the medium towards the extremes of it’s capabilities. Working with thick impasto beside pools of barely tinted oil and turps and using exaggerated intense colour has in turn led to explorations towards abstraction. From a distance brushmarks and the trails of running paint are invisible, the paintings appear cohesive and photographic. However the images deteriorate as the viewer approaches to analyse them; the focus moves from the subject to the physicality of the process of making and echoes the elusive ideals these minute treasures symbolise.
February 2014 - May 2014
Katie Sollohub is a Sussex based artist who is interested in documenting and recording the places she lives and works in through drawings, paintings, performance, photography and poetry.
Her work explores the narrative components surrounding objects, memories, interior and exterior spaces, brought to life with her spectacular use of colour and detail.
Katie is also an inspirational teacher, using her own experiences and processes to help motivate others. She aims to live life as a Creative Journey, and generously takes others along for the ride.
The medium that I use is primarily oil paint, however along the creative process I use a variety of tools and materials. When gathering imagery to work from I like to use my own photography when able, but I delve into all forms of the media, confronting and analyzing it through drawing techniques that are more graphic and unlike the final painting. The drawings enable me to grasp the composition, texture and forms that ultimately allow me to paint from an emotional response, leaving myself room to explore the colour and paint application freely.
This current body of work is based on my attachments and experiences of many walking trips to North Wales since I was a child. It is an area that was introduced to me by my father, and having recently lost him in 2012 I find myself being drawn to North Wales more than ever. The landscape of North Wales had a profound influence on my father, an influence that has been handed down to me. The mountainous landscape has an intensity of freedom and insignificance that enables you to make any negativity bearable, and this emotional attachment is the feeling I’m currently exploring within my paintings.
My work for many years has consisted of a variety of experiments with utilitarian materials and found or used objects … usually in series’ and using intentionally basic low tech hands on construction methods.
My involvement is with ideas related to development /change transition and transformation… I worked as a psychotherapist with adults for several years in parallel with my art activities… some pieces deriving directly or indirectly from concepts inherent in this work…. particularly those regarding play as the fundamental root of creativity.
The six year long plastic toy series began in response to a moment in the studio spent staring into a box of outgrown and discarded toys that were there by chance. Initially I was caught by their random juxtapositions in the box, the intensity of their colours and the considerable variety of their forms.
It occurred to me that no other found objects that I had come across before (or since) referenced so many aspects of human activity and existence…. and that probably no other objects had been loved so much by their owners. I also enjoyed the fact that each toy/mini sculpture had been carefully designed by artists that remained and remain unknown and un-credited.
I felt therefore that there was great potential for imbuing such objects with new life new content/contexts… and via these considerations and processes therefore… new meanings.
After several unsuccessful experiments with construction methods I found that screwing and gluing the toys into simple wooden frames provided the most flexibility and strength to the new forms regardless of their scale and often their content.
I recognize that these works sometimes perch on the edge of being regarded as rubbish and/or kitsch and can potentially be seen as unserious or ‘not really art’ … none of such possible criticisms distress me ..
In some ways the pieces can be considered as historical ‘collections. …. that reflect and document the fads and fashions of their time.
The exposure and concealment of vulnerability is central to my practice. I am particularly interested in suppressed emotions and the anxiety and tension this evokes.
My paintings often contain figurative elements, but don’t aim to illustrate reality. Instead they are a response to veiled, obscured and disguised feelings. As we grow we learn to mask disquiet and external signs of vulnerability and to promote a tougher less permeable exterior. A protective layer can develop into one of constraint, inhibiting true interaction and honesty. As a painter I want to look within myself and see if I can reach, expose and embrace this hidden place.
I paint primarily in enamel and gloss, often poured on to the canvas which is then tilted to create sinuous shapes. Forms emerge and are contrasted with bold solid areas of colour. Paint is layered to create a lustrous shine and intensity of colour. Surface is important varying from an impenetrable flat sheen to sags, wrinkles and furrows.
Strong bold colours and a high gloss finish are the antithesis of the fragile vulnerability which is central to the paintings. However, they reflect the confident veneer in which we cloak our innermost feelings. Containing, but allowing glimpses to the unsaid, the hidden and the awkward.
Kirsty Kennedy works as a full time practicing artist over the mediums of children’s books, film and painting and is based at Wimbledon Art Studios.
“Her painting technique is self-taught and possibly quite unique: each layer is built up with dabs of colour until the overall impression is created. Although her work carries the hallmarks of an impressionist, she combines an interest in naive art and works predominately from her imagination in order to enhance the overall effect.”
This selection of recent paintings ostensibly suggests abstract images. But they are made in response to recalling walks along coastlines, sometimes in Sussex but most often in Cornwall. On these walks it is essential to draw spontaneously in a sketchbook to make images to refer to later, in the studio.
However, in making these paintings, I am also relating decisions to memories, both visual and in feeling. Intuitive decisions and chance play their part too. The image will develop its own persona and, on a good day, memories of the sea and skies, the time of day, weather conditions, sounds and atmospheres will contribute to the making of the paintings.
So, paintings that one might label as ‘abstract’, and suggest a disconnection from the ‘real’, are rooted in lived experience. Of course, paintings in any visual language should be made to be experienced meaningfully by an audience and I trust that some connection with the work will be made and will resonate with the viewer.
Stephanie creates lively and colourful depictions of interiors, sometimes painted from observation and other times totally fictional, defined by colour, line or pattern. Her various influences have been artists such as Matisse, Japanese woodblock prints and both traditional and contemporary textiles.
Born in Brazil, where both nature and urban landscapes contain colour in abundance, Stephanie uses colour confidently in her paintings and other designs, which include jewellery, cards and ceramics. She began her Fine Art training while living overseas again in Jakarta, then continued at Richmond Adult College and Wimbledon School of Art. She currently works in a studio in Teddington, SW London and exhibits and leads workshops regularly. She is also a current member of the Lloyds Art Group at Lloyds of London.
Born in 1964, he graduated from West Surrey College of Art and Design, taught by Bob Russell one of Henry Moore’s technicians. After graduating he taught for 17 years in Further and Higher Education, retiring in 2009 to concentrate more on his own work.
He is an Associate Member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors. He has exhibited widely in London, across the UK and has had two exhibitions in Europe. He has been commissioned to produce three large public art sculptures.
In his work he uses a number of materials, generally the starting point is clay, which is then cast into resin and occasionally bronze. The figure is often the inspiration, by way of analytical drawing in clay, which then inspires the formalised components. His use of welded steel is becoming more prevalent, both with other materials and in its own right.
The purely abstract work although dispensing with the figure is formally linked to the figurative sculptures. They explore enclosing space through planar construction or taking a line for a walk through space.
All the sculptures are thematic, investigating topics such as Greco-Roman mythology, the mandorla, the passage through liminal spaces, labyrinths and the systematisation of knowledge.
The incremental approach and production of closely related works means that innovations appear gradual. Therefore experimental innovations are generally the product of extended research.
The etchings reflect his interest in architecture and are grounded in the tradition of observational drawing. The process of drypoint etching, working directly into the plate with no margin for error, fascinates him. They often show historic buildings, sometimes with figures but always drawn with strong chiaroscuro. The effects of strong light are important to him as it makes form and texture more evident. The etchings are printed in small editions of no more than six.
Born in London 1946. Spent majority of working life in the design industry – on retail based projects. Now have more time to get back to oils on canvas. Inspiration comes from many sources but primarily people and places. Its the special quality of light for landscapes and ephemeral moods of people, that become the desire to capture.
Tess is an abstract painter who lives and works in London. She is currently completing a Masters Degree in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins.
For Tess abstract painting is a liberation from the mundane images of everyday life. An escape from the screen based imagery that we are consumed by in the modern world. It’s an invitation to a different language that frees the mind from the busyness of specific associations of images and words. It is possible to slow the mind down and offer an opportunity to take another direction.
As in life, in her painting practice she is constantly building on previous decisions and movements. This pathway of actions and choices simulate our lives in many ways, further adding to the notion that a painting is a journey, evident to both the artist and the viewer. This is precisely why it is important for Tess to create gestural paintings, to show the process, including the imperfections and errors. In life there is order and chaos, synonymous with her painting.
Tess chooses to make large paintings, mainly on canvases that are bigger than herself so that she feels encompassed. The size affects the sense of her own body whilst she paints. The scale and size of the work impacts her response to the canvas, giving a sense of freedom in her mark making, allowing her whole body to move as she works.
Alan Williams is a metal artist and sculptor creating work from mostly found and reclaimed metal. Saw blades, cutlery, Bicycle and motorbike parts, skips, and all manner of unlikely items are used in his works of art and transformed into wild and mythical beasts, each one with it’s own personality and character.
Alan lives in Sussex and makes his work in an old dairy farm on the South Downs. Since graduating from Brighton University in 2001 he has exhibited work in the UK and overseas, created several public and community projects, auctioned pieces in association with Sotheby’s as well as for charities, and has recently created several public artworks and architectural installations in the South East.
The three works being shown have just returned from Moscow where they were exhibited at the Russian Academy of Arts (in conjunction with the Moscow Museum of Modern Art) as part of a very successful solo exhibition of Jonathan’s work which was entitled Blue Silence, which ran between 12th September and 14th October 2013. The exhibition comprised 54 pieces which included 31 paintings and 23 limited edition multimedia works, images of which can be viewed on the artist’s website.
The title Blue Silence was selected from a definition by Professor Colum Kenny who described it as “the silence that is found out of doors, sometimes during simple services on shipboard, faraway at sea… For this deep blue is the creative silence in the world of thought”.
Jonathan’s work is though in some respects also a study of colour, texture and shape. The colour may be loosely drawn from landscapes, from townscapes, but in reality is the result of carefully mixing colours out of tubes of paint and utilising their different qualities. Fundamental to this process is laying colours adjacent to each other to create harmonic and balanced forms, out of something which initially may seem random. The texture comes from the canvas, paint and layering. The layers are usually made up of paint, which are both added and then partially removed (sometimes as crudely as using an electric sander), but also digital images for the multimedia work. As observed by Sasha Burkhanova who curated the exhibition in Moscow “somewhere amid the layers of paint, between the surfaces of photo and glass, Jonathan Luke leaves the space for his viewer to enter the artwork. Not to observe it, but to enter, to participate.”
October 2013 - January 2014
Magical paintings on reclaimed boards by Andrew James Hofmeyr featuring everyone’s favourite furry friend, the urban fox.
Hofmeyr was born in Johannesburg in 1978 and in 2000 moved from the suburbs to Johannesburg Central Business District and fell in love with the shape and prominence of the skyline. He moved to Taiwan in 2003 and continued his love affair with the skyline.
After moving to Brighton in 2007, he became fascinated by the ubiquitous urban fox. The series of paintings on show create a sense of the magical, a naive fascination with the foxes larger than life space within public perception and psyche. The gorgeous creatures pop up all over the streets of Hofmeyr’s urban landscapes and are sometimes joined by magpies, cats and seagulls.
As Hofmeyr says: “When I’m painting I enter a world where my subject matter becomes real, to the extent that when I go into the world the giant foxes go with me and loiter behind buildings and hide in parks. My intention when being creative is to bring joy to people. My favourite thing is to see people smile at my paintings and know that something has touched a chord”
I was born and raised north of the Polar Circle in Norway where the winters are long and dark and the summers are short but intense.
I recall one of my happy childhood memories when we children would try to make the northern light come after us by waving something white at it. We were convinced that the long, electric arms of the northern light were right at our heels, and we’d scream with excitement as we ran away to hide.
Another happy memory was when the horizon beyond the mountains lightened up more and more every day at the end of January, and finally the sun became visible in all its red and orange intensity between the mountain peaks, after two months of absence. We celebrated with a school holiday!
My work at this exhibition is a reflection on these memories and how much it means to me. If only every child in the world today could feel just as carefree and happy as I did as a child! Unfortunately, that is not the case for millions of children who are victims of abuse, violence or starvation. Or children growing up, worried about the effect of global warming. And yet; our blue planet is so beautiful, so precious, and so fertile. If only we could make it right for everyone.
I moved to England in 2006 to take a BA in Fine Art, Painting at Northbrook College Sussex, which I completed in 2009. I now live and work in West Sussex.
Born in Kingston, Surrey, I originally studied Fashion at Epsom School of Art and Design and worked for many years as a freelance designer and illustrator whilst raising a family in London. Later I went on to study at Chelsea College of Art, graduating in 2002 gaining a BA honours in The Practice and Theory of Fine Art.
After moving from London to the South Coast, I now paint full-time from my garden studio at home.
Living a stone’s throw from the sea is a constant source of inspiration. The ever-changing light reflected onto the sea and the rich and varied textures of the coastline are an important influence on my work.
Although I draw constantly I prefer to paint intuitively, working directly onto the canvas, allowing the paintings to emerge from a frenzied and chaotic fusion of line, colour and shapes. The process continues with erasing, scratching and gestural mark making until the desired composition and balance is achieved.
I have exhibited in London, various places in the UK and France.
Lucy Brennan-Shiel is an Irish artist based in Hastings She studied for her BA in Fine Art at Wolverhampton University where she received funding to visit Moscow. She was awarded a bursary from the London Institute for her MA studies at Camberwell College of Art and completed her MA in 1995, with a Distinction in Printmaking.
Lucy has been a studio based artist since 1995. She was artist-in-residence in East London, at St John on Bethnal Green from 2000 until 2005 and at St Paul’s Bow Common Lane in 2008 and 2009. She is currently based in her studio in Hastings.
Her work is centred around the themes of science, spirituality and the Irish landscape that she grew up in. She uses paint, printmaking, paper, fabric and sewn elements in creating her art and continues to develop her artistic practice and exhibit.
Lucy is also engaged in various art projects and educational activities working with both adults and children.
The long history of prints made by the hands of the artist using the traditional methods of etching, relief prints, screenprints and lithography has been made redundant by the introduction of computer technology and laser printing. The cast iron presses of the Victorian era, Columbian and Albion presses requiring manual labour in hauling on levers and winding of wheels have been tossed out of the art schools, so that old skills are being lost to today’s generation of young artists.
Those of us who have spent a lifetime hand drawing every colour separation of a screenprint and hand cutting every block of lino or wood, who have hand mixed colours, sometimes grinding the raw pigment with copper plate oil to make the inks and hand rolled it onto the blocks before printing one colour at a time – are a dying breed. Our work has a tactile quality, each linoprint is unique with minute changes in colour and pressure, importantly it lacks the bland sameness of computer printing.
Artist made prints are literally a labour of love, both physically and mentally demanding , requiring concentration and accuracy in repetition over the number of works in an edition. By virtue of the above, prints made by the traditional methods will become increasingly rare and more valuable as time passes.
My speciality in printmaking is in linocuts, or linocuts and hand made relief blocks, cardboard with PVA seeds, grasses and other applied textures, which are inked up and printed in the same way as the lino . Printed on hand made papers either white or coloured, from Nepal, India and Japan. Or screenprints made with a master printer in their studios in London and Melbourne. Both types of print made with non fading, oil based inks.
My inspiration comes from wilderness areas in Australia, Kenya and Brazil, the landscapes, wide horizons, strong colours and shapes, together with the local flora and fauna particularly birds and fish.
Born in New York, Edith obtained a BA in Fine Art at Long Island University. After graduating and taking courses in Illustration and Graphic Design at the School of Visual Arts, Manhattan, she went on to California State University to study welding, metal forging, weaving, leather crafting and quiliting whilst teaching Art in High School to underprivilidged teenagers.
I walked softly through Petworth House, silently, listening to the whispering walls, wondering what secrets the rooms were holding. Down dim corridors past the studded door, this was the trigger that inspired my paintings. The door was studded so that the servants could feel their way in the dark.
These paintings are about feeling one’s way in the dark through unknown passages, playful openings, floating past shifting shapes, disturbing atmospheres and movement, embodying a sense of wonder, joy and.mystery
I want to make the world seem strange again, to de-familiarize it so it can be re-seen with fresh, curious eyes. My current paintings, drawings and sculptures look at animals and how we manipulate their natures and behaviours, especially through childrens’ entertainment. These anthropomorphisms become a tool to blur the visual and emotional boundaries between humans and animals, adulthood and childhood, examining the wonder and fun of nonsense
Janine has been a full time practising artist for 30 years. She trained in Fine Art at Newcastle upon Tyne and subsequently gained a Masters Degree in Public Art from Chelsea School of Art. She has sculptures in public sites at Guildford, Crawley, Oxford, and Horsham, and has shown in many commercial and non-commercial galleries in Britain and abroad including the Mall Galleries and Cadogan Contemporary Art, Knightsbridge, London.
The strongest inspiration I get is from travelling. Influences have come from temple carving in India, monumental stone carvings in Egypt, and Buddha images from Sri Lanka, Thailand and Cambodia. The strong stylised designs of the mischievous gothic misericord carvings of England and France have also been in my mind for a long time. Each sculptural piece is tactile in pattern and texture but has a strong recognisable overall form. The heads can be bizarre or contemplative, but each is intended to hold an ambiguous but hypnotic atmosphere in a space. Features may be borrowed from the drawings I make of specific people but the final head sculptures have no relationship to portraiture.
I am a sculptor living and working from a studio in Hertfordshire, creating figurative sculpture ranging from traditional and lifelike poses to representational ergonomic shapes of the human form combining the negative and the positive. I had a more unusual education, being home tutored due to severe dyslexia, consequently art became a major passion and a love of wood and tactile materials encouraged me towards sculpture which became an area of achievment away from academia. I then decided not to have a formal education but to gain knowledge and experience from working with professional sculptors gaining fist hand experience. I am inspired by the natural elegance of the human form finding the connection between the concept of people in various figurative positions and the emotions that they portray, captivating. Drawing is a major part of my inspration, creating shapes and shadows to represent the complexity of the human figure. I now work from a studio within the Digswell Arts Trust in Hertfordshire.
Croatian born Vinka Dekovic-Knight is a sculptor living and working in Broadstairs.
Vinka studied sculpture in Camberwell School of Art and Byam Shaw School of Art.
Vinka uses a variety of materials available, such as wood, bronze, concrete, plaster, recycled materials, etc. also working with non-conventional materials like chipboard; carved and incorporating with pigments, sand and cement.
“My work celebrates the material I use; it is about form and texture, a fascination with layers and about the process of creation – using my intuition to create a specific work.
I start with a loose idea by letting images develop. My work changes as I discover new areas. I am interested in adventure, the journey on which the work is going to take me. My interest is in the subconscious and how I form the images without an outlined preconception, primarily it is an ongoing adventure into the unknown…”
Vinka has exhibited in the UK and Croatia, and many of her works are in private collections.
Heather is a new member of the Chichester based group of artists called ‘ARTEL’ and she is based at The Unity Studios, St.James Industrial Estate, Chichester, West Sussex. Continuing to explore her underlying interest in contemporary figurative and landscape painting she employs mixed media, oil and watercolour mediums. Heather’s interest in our human attributes and spirituality underpins the work and their benefits and consequences in culture are observed. In both the ‘Activating Rain’ and ‘Exploration’ bodies of work, investigation is made into the two environments that we now occupy, that of real landscape and virtual space. The beautiful and the sublime of each environment are examined. The metaphorical use of trees as theme is recurring.
Primarily, the process of making along with the surface properties and colour are regarded as intrinsic components, equal to content in affording the visual experience. This encourages continuous experimentation, enthusiastically reaching for new ways of working.