A selection of our artists...
Jackie Stonehouse
Jackie is a visual artist based in County Durham, working in all mediums from painting to pottery. Jackie is an integral part of the art community within Bishop Auckland and has worked closely with Tom on the Pineapple Gallery.
Karen Baron
Based in Nidderdale, North Yorkshire, Karen uses the stunning views of the surrounding area as inspiration for her work. Karen aims to capture the colours, shapes and textures that are formed in landscapes through changing light and shade or differing weather conditions.
Amberlea McNaught
Amberlea is a ceramicist who has used her diverse training to hone her skills on the wheel, finding a unique and communicative visual language by intricately hand cutting patterns directly in her pots. Having trained internationally, Amberlea now works from her studio in Sheffield.
Fiona Mazza
Fiona is a Yorkshire based ceramic artist who uses nature to form the basis of her work. With a particular interest in butterflies, Fiona uses various techniques to capture the beauty of this insect, with Raku being the main technical process to create subtle effects to enhance the delicate forms.
Michael Atkin
Michael is an artist-printmaker who creates limited edition etchings, lino prints, fine art books and wood engravings from his home based workshop and Bracken Press. His works are figurative, narrative and located in the Yorkshire countryside.
Brian Holland
Brian has honed an ability to express his physical, tactile and spacial experiences by responding to the capabilities of clay. Be it sculpture or vessels, Brian’s work is inspired by the overall feeling of life and is responsive to the surroundings that bring life to the fore.
Gloriana Morehead
Gloriana is a keen walker and experienced sailor. They have cruised extensively in the North Sea, Channel and Western Isles of Scotland in their boat French Melody. Gloriana usually had a pocket camera with her and decided to take up photography, completing a series of courses at Darlington College and now mainly concentrates on outdoor photography. She is drawn to the colours, textures and shapes of the natural world and captures images of plants and wildlife.
Rough Robots
Mark Clough and Warren Dunn are art teachers near Manchester, Mark now retired. In addition to producing digital drawings, Mark and Warren got together to design rough robots, initially from cardboard, beachcombings and streetfinds, now from clay. What is universal across all their media is the recycling and incorporation into their images materials that have been jettisoned from a previous use. Robots are “a modern archetypal form that can withstand all sorts of liberties of interpretation, but which can still be recognised.” Among there influences they speak of “the Japanese notion of flawed beauty (‘wabi sabi’), the Golem legend, brutalism, industrial plant, tanks, aeroplanes, armour and Ned Kelly.”
Jane Charles
Newcastle glass artist began as a ceramicist studying ceramics at N.Staffs Polytechnic in 1980, but became interested in the technique and comparative speed of working with glass rather then clay. She then worked her ‘apprenticeship’ for three years in Dudley, near Stourbridge, the heartland of glass and around the country. Jane first went solo with the Jane Charles Studio in Edinburgh in 1987 but completed her move to Newcastle in 1966, where she is now based.
Charlotte Morrison
I'm a ceramicist from Masham in the Yorkshire Dales. I make hand-built ceramics using porcelain & stoneware clays, to create both functional & decorative items.
My work constantly reflects the past in some form; as i'm an avid collector of vintage items and has a fascination in researching times past. Recent work is decorated with symbolic pattern, mapping ancient roads, places & the surrounding Yorkshire landscape.
Nathan Pendlebury
Born in Chester in 1973. Nathan grew up in various places across the North West, including Salford, Greater Manchester and Warrington. Nathan studied Fine Art at Liverpool John Moores University from 1993 to 1996 specialising in painting. He later stayed in Liverpool and is still based there today and currently has his studio with Dot-Art in Burlington House, Waterloo (just outside Liverpool town centre.
There is a fundamental need for me to create a bridge for which words can not be found. There is a compulsion to make, and for me making paintings somehow seems the way forward.
My subject is 'life'. I am interested in colour, and I want my paintings to be confident, positive and vibrant. I prefer to produce more abstract work but the marks and shapes still tend to produce associations nonetheless. Associations are produced like glimpses without always being totally direct in realistic or figurative terms.
I also love music, and the feelings I get from it, and part of what I want with my work is for people to get the same feeling from looking at my painting that I do from listening the music that I like.
Maggie Robinson
Maggie is both an artist and musician, having grown up in a house filled with music and dance, later specialising on the piano and viola and played chamber music in string quartets. Diane’s painting work is informed by her musical life, as seen in the titles of many of her works. She has exhibited with the Society of Women Artists in Westminster and the Mall Galleries for many years and the Royal Society of British Artists annual exhibition also in the Mall Galleries.
“For me it is all about looking, learning, studying and practising. I have been on many courses and studied with some renowned tutors but I seriously needed to find my own path, make my own mistakes, struggle through the frustrations, and seek out the relevant information and inspiration as it was required and I have been on this journey for many years. I continually strive to create each piece of work with that indefinable ‘Maggie’ expression that I hope gives life to each piece created in ‘The music of the landscape’."
Bob Emmet
'I studied at Ipswich School of Art and Lowestoft College of Further Education in the 1970s, then worked as a freelance ceramics designer for various potteries in Hampshire during the 1980s. I was an Art and Design technician and part time lecturer at Portsmouth School of Art during the 1990s. I have always had a fascination of the sea, its moods and movement, so I try very hard to get a sense of movement in my work. Long term influences have included Arabic writing, Celtic knot-work designs and that all time staple Art Nouveau I mostly work in stoneware but am wrestling with porcelain - the translucent quality gives so many more possibilities . Glazes are matt or satin, occasionally using coloured porcelain slips and lustres.’
Elica Drybrough - Ellid Ceramics
Elica Drybrough of Ellid Ceramics is based in Dumfries, Scotland. The ceramicist designs and makes hand-sculpted ceramic table lamps and pots with asymmetric silhouettes in warm earthen colours and bold tactile textures. She uses slab techniuque and press mould together with sandy clays for her designs.
Elica is inspired by organic forms in nature.
“My current range exhibits the beauty of clay in its natural organic form, with an emphasis on asymmetric shapes with bold textures. I discovered clay as a medium during my study in Art & Design at Dumfries College. The enjoyment of experimenting with and experiencing new things led me to creating the current forms. My pots are press moulded, then partially coiled, and finally hand sculpted. The use of grogged clays, with warm, earthen and organic tones, helps them contrast when displayed in groups. I used mainly red, black, sand and terracotta coloured clays. The emphasis is on the natural texture and colour of the clays, while glazes are mostly avoided in my collection, in order to preserve an organic theme. Although some of my ceramics pots are glazed partially. The firings varied from earthen to mid-temperature, which produced darker and light tones for each individual clay. My artwork is also displayed internationally."
Alan Ball
My Aims
To search for beauty in a shape or form that sits happily with human tastes and judgments are irrevocably linked to our planet and it's laws of nature, science and our cultural history.
To create an object that attracts the eye and invites the observer to take a closer look at it's shape and colour and then to hold it and consider the textural quality of its surface. I trained and worked as a Design Engineer for many years. I started making pots in 1965. Left engineering to train as a teacher at Neville's Cross College, Durham. Taught art and pottery at a comprehensive school in Gateshead. Left full time teaching to work as a self employed potter in my own studio workshop at Washington Art Centre for 20 years. I was a founder member of the Northern Potters Association, it is their 40th anniversary this year 2017. Now work from my home studio making one off pots for galleries and craft shops.
STUART AKROYD
Stuart is a hot glass designer-maker. He creates one-off pieces for exhibition, in addition to functional production work, he undertakes commissions & collaborations. Inspired by nature his designs are vibrant, beautiful and unique.
Alison Dupernex
My aim is to make a work of art to wear, with the choice of colour and yarn texture being vital components to gaining this result. I am continually searching out small select quantities of natural yarns from individual merchants in the UK, Italy and Japan. I mix cashmere, linen, cotton and silk in an alchemy of colour and texture to provide a unique experience in every piece. I always have in mind that when any knitted fabric is worn the wearer enters into a sensual environment of touch, feel and colour which can inspire contemplation, joy, comfort, and warmth. Instantly the wearer is interacting with the piece of craft. My current range includes fine cashmere and silk jackets, coats and scarves, all of which are timeless design classics with a contemporary feel. The scarf collection has been extended to include over 50 different designs and colour ways. My inspirations and motivations derive from the colours and textures I see around me in nature. For me there is an endless fascination that can be gained from exploring how different colours react when juxtaposed with others. Shades overlap other shades to varying degrees and the changing conditions of light when the clothes are worn also greatly affect the way in which the colours are perceived by the viewer. I have written several books to encourage all ages to take up knitting.
Sara Budzik
The often overlooked and unloved are some of the most fragile & vulnerable beings on the planet. I was fascinated by them as a child and I literally struggle to hurt a fly. I’m on a one-woman mission to change peoples views of these wonderful creatures. Despite not tiring of making molluscs I’m currently developing some new beasts!
QUALIFICATIONS
BA (Hons) First Class Fine Art Bretton Hall College 1999
MA Fine Art Surrey Institute 2001
Qualified Teacher Status 2005
MEMBERSHIPS & ORGANISATIONS
Crafts Council Directory AN Artist’s Network MPA Midlands Potters
Allan Scott
is an award winning sculptor and artist, based in Washington, Tyne and Wear. Having lived and worked in the North East throughout his life, Allan studied at Northumbria University as a mature student, graduating in 2000 with a BA Honours in Fine Art, and later completing an MA at Sunderland University. Allan creates bronze and plaster sculptures, busts in sandstone, granite, portraits and still and life oil paintings and charcoal drawings. His latest series of small bronzed hooded figures has been very well-received critically and by collectors. "I work in a variety of media for example bronze, plaster, resin, stone, oil, pastel, and water colour.”
Allan has been responsible for major public commissions. Allan was recently awarded the Charles Henshaw prize for Hoodie.
Lucy Jean Green trading as “Name and Colour”
Kinetic Artist and Paper Sculptor
I am an artist who specialises in kinetic art and paper sculpture working out of a small studio in Mytholmroyd, West Yorkshire.
My work is greatly inspired by mythology and fact that surrounds birds. I create sculptures and delicate automata by hand cutting paper and hand-crafting brass mechanisms. Each sculpture is unique and every commission is bespoke. I work in both small and large scale.
I also work part-time as a prop maker in theatre and television and have experience working on set and in art departments.
John Creighton
John lives and works on the edge of the North Yorkshire moors, where he uses the landscape to inspire his large scale abstract paintings. Utilising traditional materials, John reinterprets this classical theme with a modernist approach.
Andrew Dalton
Andrew works from his small print workshop in Thirsk, North Yorkshire, discovering new approaches to expressing his fascination with black and white and its ability to convey a figurative or abstract representation of a personal narrative.
Adam King
Adam is a painter and printmaker, living and working in both Harrogate and Scarborough. He responds to his surroundings through representation of the architectural and natural world, using a range of media and techniques. His latest work is deceptively simple, demonstrating a sureness of composition and brushwork.
Sally Streuli
Sally’s ceramics are derived from various influences, built on memories and experiences from her own life as well as the rich history of ceramics in society. The robust forms and external decoration of her dark stoneware contract with the bright and highly decorated interiors.
Elizabeth Shorrock
Elizabeth is a mixed media artist inspired by the landscape of her home in the Lake District and her preferred holiday destination in the Hebrides. Elizabeth uses her images to create collographs and etchings which are used across a number of contexts.
Christine Pybus
Christine is an artist working in both oils and watercolours, with a particular love of painting plein-air seascapes, landscapes and snow scenes. Whilst home is Whitby on the North Yorkshire coast, she travels extensively to work, including to New Zealand, Australia and throughout Europe.
Malcolm Taylor
Malcolm Taylor is a member of the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts lives in the North West of England and paints across several media, acrylics, oils, pastels and collages, painting landscapes, still lifes and abstract work.
He has exhibited widely across the UK , including the Royal Academy Summer Show and the Mall Galleries in London.
Rob van Nigtevech- 'Powerful Signature'
Often using expensive materials, including gold leaf, and working with a slide rule and lathes and avoiding computers and other modern methods, Rob makes handmade fountain pens of the highest spec and levels of precision of a quality not found on the high street. His influences are the Japanese art of pen making and working with exotic materials.
Louise Bradley
Louise Bradley studied and works in Newcastle upon Tyne. Her work explores drawing, printmaking, paper cut and painting as well as digital media. She works initially directly from life and nature, focusing on line, structure, emotion and symbolism to create a powerful presence of the subject, whether it is a portrait, figure or still life. Recent work has been developed by making automatic drawings which are drawings made without looking at the drawn surface, often with the paper stuck on the underside of a table. Subjects are chosen for their organic sensual qualities.
Simon Crawford
Simon was born in 1959. He studied History of Art and English at Nottingham University before going on to the Byam Shaw School of Art in London to complete a Diploma in Fine Art in 1985. Since then he has exhibited widely in this country and abroad, including a mixed touring show to Moscow and other Russian cities. His work featured in the 2004 mixed exhibition at the Dean Clough Galleries in Halifax and the ‘Into Abstraction’ exhibition at The Mercer Gallery in Harrogate (2008). In 2001 he won the Sir Hugh Casson drawing prize at the Royal Academy summer exhibition and the 2008 Jerwood Drawing prize. He currently lives in North Yorkshire and is married with 2 children. His paintings and drawings reflect a passion to depict the human form, or parts of the figure, as well as references to interiors and landscapes. He combines these elements in an amalgam of forms sometimes using an economy of line in his drawings, or more luscious use of paint to represent both the essential characteristics of figures and the ripeness of subject matter.
Charlotte & Siger Boehmer
Charlotte and Sigi are based in Hohr-Grenzhausen, Germany, a town dedicated to ceramics. Working in stoneware they make ceramics in new colours fronted-burning stoneware clay.
Markus Bohm
Markus Bohm works at Lake Mueritz Pottery in Germany has developed a specialism and fascination over 30 years as a ceramicist in glazes, and is a pioneer in developing his own glazes with a combined process of ‘volumetric blending and computer aided glaze calculation’. Although he fires his pots in a wood fired kiln, all of his work is glazed in addition to the effects that wood ash, soda and salt provide. He uses stoneware glazes, but also works in other disciplines such as raku and earthenware.
Kathrin Najorka
Kathrin is a ceramicist in Krauschwitz in Germany. Her stoneware pots are wood and salt fired. She writes: “At the same time it is exhausting and fascinating to burn ceramics with wood for many hours or days. To find a vessel in the oven and in the end to accept it, like fire, ashes, smoke ... the moon, the wind, the sun, in the end, shape the vessels.”
Louise Remington
I have been potting for over ten years, I like to make pots in small batches, using stoneware clay, I hand build and also throw, I like to produce fun functional quirky pieces, I find inspiration from the Oxfordshire countryside and the Cornish coast
Florencia Troisi
Florencia Troisi lives in Cordoba, Argentina and is a freelance artist, starting as a traditional artist doing drawings with pencils. She now works as an independent artist, an illustrator and creator of public installations. Her work celebrates Latin American culture and explores themes of childhood, the feminine and ancient mythology.
Sarah Sharpe
“The Mother and Child Archetype and Woods/Forests have spoken to Sarah greatly over the years. They stir her internal landscape, which then calls Sarah to paint. Often there is a fusion on both; the Woods are steeped in mystery and story, as is Mother and Childhood. Sarah’s work is greatly inspired by being a Mother of a brain injured child, who is now 24. Sarah exhibits locally and nationally through the year and has won several awards such as The Harley Prize (Harley Gallery, Welbeck Estate) and been selected for various exhibitions including the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal School of Art and Dean Clough, Halifax. She was elected a member of Manchester Academy of Fine Art (MAFA) in 2017. Over the past year Sarah has had two solo exhibitions titled ‘Unconditional Love’, exploring the long term relationship with her disabled child; and ‘Woman in Waiting’, a response to Advent story and Childbirth.”
Keith Shorrock
I have been working in wood since I was at secondary school. I found it fascinating then and still do so today. I made my career in education and thoroughly enjoyed that profession. Throughout my working life I always worked in wood, making items from as simple as a shelf to a hand built kitchen. When the time came to leave working in education, I committed full time to developing my skills as a furniture maker. Since then I have developed a range of items particular to me, my signature items. These can be seen in my gallery. I also work to commission and this is a challenge I like. To make a specific piece of furniture to a customers requirements, and get it spot on is rewarding. I have made items from bookends to chairs. I am a member of Green Door Artists, greendoor.org.uk the artists collective based here in the south of Cumbria. It is one of several organisations through which I exhibit my work with other artists and craftspeople. I live in Cark-in-Cartmel in the south of Cumbria, a delightful place to live particularly as my workshop overlooks the Levens estuary.
Elizabeth Welch
Elizabeth Welch’s work is greatly inspired by natural forms, carefully using photos from researching trips and wildlife reference books. Each piece is made painstakingly by hand, using borosilicate glass; a hard glass mainly used in scientific and functional applications due to its strength and durability.Rods of Borosilicate glass are melted using a surface mix oxygen and propane torch to create colourful, quirky creatures and sculptures. Colour is given to the glass using various different metal oxides in particular silver, gold and germanium oxides. Elizabeth buys and imports pre-coloured rods of Borosilicate glass from the USA to get consistent colour and compatibilities between the glasses. After gaining financial and advisory support through the Princes Trust Enterprise Programme Elizabeth now works out of her studio in Angmering, West Sussex. She strives to learn and push the boundaries of her abilities and the glass.
Frances Noon
I started making silver jewellery in the 1990’s whilst still exhibiting and selling my print work. I worked mainly with intaglio print techniques & liked to make bookworks too. Etching involves drawing onto the surface of metal & using acid to embed the drawing into it. I always loved the effects the process would have on the zinc & gradually my interest in working with the metal alone took over & I began to explore jewellery techniques at an evening class. I use silver to make my jewellery & I manipulate shape & decorate the surface with punches, shears, saw & files. I oxidise much of my silver work, and then rub the pieces down in order to bring out the surface marks – a similar way in which a printing plate is prepared with ink before going through the press. I have explored a number of different themes and currently garden birds play a big part in my collection. My work is predominantly figurative and I get my ideas from observing & drawing in my garden. Each piece becomes quite individual & I think my birds have personality & expression.
I have been exploring larger sculpture 3d pieces for about 4 years now, I see these as an extension & a combination of my jewellery & print techniques. I began with birds & hens as a main theme, but now include a range of animals, boats, trees and new wall pieces. I like to play around with scale in my work, just like you would see in a dolls house with different sized furniture & huge doll occupants. So my gull on a row boat is far too big and birds in trees are rather massive. They combine base metals, copper & brass, with wood and allow me to use colour in my work. I hand texture the metal using the rolling mill & by hammering, I have a variety of punches to draw with on the metal surface & I file the shapes around the edges. The metal parts are soldered together & then taken through an oxidisation process mentioned above. Some of my pieces have integral wooden parts now, especially the boats & trees. So I spend equal amount of time sawing & sanding down wooden pieces. I use layer upon layer of paint to build up the coloured surface so it looks aged & worn. The birds & animals are presented on a wooden framework, a plinth or peeping out of their own houses. Boats have a small section of “ sea “ & trees sit on a block of “land.” Like my jewellery, each piece is made by hand and has individual decoration & personality.
Leyla Murr Shipley, BD17 7AD
I paint surfaces using my creative drive to discover the unplanned and the unexpected. Through colour and texture a relationship of fields appears that speaks to me in a visual and
Psychological language, triggering the subconscious release of experiences expressed through the desire to create a composition or a footprint that hits the spot. Aware of the impact of the visual on the brain I subconsciously extend an invitation to others to share or to find something in my work that makes an impression to which they can respond. I use colours through which I myself meet up with my idealistic side, where happy balance livesderived from unexpected happy accident. On the surface it may seem childish and unsophisticated but I found that creativity lives in that happy place and life and growth is born there. My art doesn’t reflect the reality but instead offers a meeting point or a sanctuary to those who can share, viewers who are happy to find a meaning they thought they had lost. I hope that this meaning will be a source of pleasure, motivation or a shift in the emotional values that can later have positive impact on their lives.
Mark Ibson
Bishop Wilton-based Mark Ibson, after a lifetime of furniture and interior restoration, began working on canvas five years ago and his exploration of surface texture and colour is incredible, sometimes there is a foreboding to his work but his expression through texture is fascinating.
"I did a foundation course in art many years ago at Queen's Gardens in Hull but then left that behind. After that, I did a course in graphic design, but it was at the time it was being computerised and I preferred to be more organic, hands-on, which I found in restoring furniture and then in painting,"says Mark.
"I started painting about five years ago; having worked in restoring aged and discoloured furniture and interior restoration, it seemed to be a natural progression. It became a bit of an obsession for me as I experimented with surface texture, colour and composition over the last couple of years”
Duncan Pearson
Duncan is the man behind ‘Mutant Art’, working from his studio in the Exchange Mill building in Elland, Yorkshire. Being part of an old working mill provides Duncan with space to work on a number of paintings at the same time which is very much part of his approach to exploring several different artistic routes.
Sara Le Gris
Sara is based in Keswick, Cumbria, where she makes modern and unique wares by hand. Inspired by nature and the sea, Sara utilises traditional copper foil and solder to connect beautiful pieces of sea glass which celebrate a host of colours, shapes and textures.
John Pegg
Following an interesting career in music, John became an artist unexpectedly through encouragement by his friends. His work is almost exclusively achieved in oils but varies stylistic approach and subject-matter.
Sarah Venus
Sarah Venus is an artist living on the coast of North Yorkshire. Natural forms and the interaction of elements are a common thread of inspiration that draws a link between her use of printmaking, felting, textiles, painting and collage - as well as other unconventional materials in her work.
Ben Arnup
Ben is a York based artist who uses ceramics as an exploration of the way we see. Creating a contradiction between a drawn illusion and what is actually tangible plays a game with the onlooker, setting the prosaic nature of clay against the unlikely structure of the drawings.
Josh South
Josh is a Newcastle based Industrial Designer. His diverse portfolio utilises high and low tech manufacturing processes to work already beautiful materials into useful objects. Working collaboratively and drawing upon a wide range of influences provides a rich narrative to his work.
Alistair Brookes
Born in a mining village Alistair Brookes's work is inspired by memories of his early life. Life and traditions found in mining communities provide his inspiration. Living in the Yorkshire Dales Alistair says that he finds the rural life full of characters.
Raku pottery is Alistair’s chosen media as he likes the spontaneity and surprise in its results. His designs are created with a firing process that uses both fire and smoke to create unique patterns and designs.
Susan R Evans
Susan is a member of the British Toymakers’ Guild and works chiefly in wood. Among her sculptures, she loves to make quirky mechanisms that involve cranks, cams and levers in various woods and her toys are intended originally for adults. Her interests in wood, the sea and nature and in international folk art and medieval and romanesque carvings combines in her work a knowledge of art history with a sense of fun. Susan exhibits widely throughout the UK.
Susan Wheeler
Susan Wheeler is an Oxfordshire printmaker who makes linocuts from the inspiration she derives from the landscape, botany and buildings of Oxford and the surrounding countryside. She has exhibited nationwide including the Biscuit Factory, Newcastle upon Tyne, Radley College and at the Oxford Printmakers.
Paguro
This Nottingham based artist uses the recycled rubber of tyre inner tubes to hand cut by eye delicate patterns and items of jewellery. An eco-friendly and cruelty-free process, using recycled materials, the reclaimed rubber serves as a leather substitute due to its similar texture and unique patterns.
Amy Hall
Previously a workshop leader at Leeds Art Gallery & LSA at East Street Arts, Lees, Amy Hall is a full time jewellery maker at her own business, Red Paper House.
Designs inspired by nature are combined with bold colours, geometric shapes and hand illustrated patterns to create jewellery, each item then handmade by Amy in her Yorkshire workshop. Hand drawn designs are laser cut, in the UK, using sustainable birch wood, sourced via fair trade routes. The wooden shapes are hand painted and hand illustrated.
Jack Laverick
Jack studied at Leek College of Art, studied Modelling and Mouldmaking with Ed Bentley as well as working with his father, ceramic artist Tony Laverick.
Jack works with translucent slip porcelain, making tea light holders, planters, candle holders, pot and vases and lighting with his combined interests in geometry, photography (which he studied under landscape photographer Dave Butcher). Jack has the touch for delicate clean lines and intricate detail and his work is inspired by his many disciplines in drawing, design, photography, as well as his deep ceramics background.
Sandra Martin
Rock formation, stones and pebbles inspire my ceramic work.
The sculptural pieces try to capture the stratification seen in
rocks and cliffs or the smoothness of pebbles washed by the sea.
The planters emulate geodes with the rough stony exterior splitting
open to expose glistening colour.
All the pieces are made from crank clay and are fired to stoneware
allowing them to be displayed outdoors.
Juliet Macleod studied at Central St Martins and worked as a graphic designer in London for twenty years. After stopping work to have a family she rediscovered her love of pottery following a course at Gray’s School of Art. Juliet moved to Aberdeen from Devon in 2010. She has been lucky to live in areas of immense natural beauty and this has in turn provided her with a huge visual resource.
After a year of discovery and experimentation Juliet now works as a studio potter specialising in contemporary porcelain using traditional slipware techniques.
Mark Smith
Each piece of work by Mark Smith draws inspiration from the sea, and each as it's own unique appearance and story to tell.
Objects found on travels or by shoreline often become part of the work.
Mark uses a variety of techniques to achieve the finished look of a piece, focusing mainly on decay and repair.
The work is constantly changing due to the materials found, each piece can never be replicated.
Ships, boats, wrecks, beach huts and houses are the main focus of the work, all textured with raised and indented objects that have an indication of our industrial past.
Jackie Cardy Textile
Heving spent most of my useful life as a primary school teacher, mainly on supply, I now find myself over 60 and able to indulge my passion for creativity. I spend most of my days ignoring the washing pile, instead constructing felt on which to stitch. I might stitch brooches or I might stitch wall pieces. Either way I have fun, and, fortunately, find that people will part with their hard earned money to own my work, which touches me greatly. It seems I have something which occasionally touches others, and for that I am immensely grateful. I work in a crowded little spare bedroom in my home in a village in the North West of England, where I live with a patient husband, a bossy cat and Hetty, the best little dog in the world. My inspiration comes from nature both vast and minute. From the beautiful jade, lime, grey, and cream of the sea and the Burren on the West coast of County Clare in Ireland, to the tiny patches of weeds in the undergrowth of the woods. Ancient traditions and marks in the landscape all swish about in my head and occasionally fall out onto the fabric. I use my sewing machine needle like a pen and have stitched many hundreds of miles over silk, wool, and velvet. I stitched all my life and in 1992 I eventually took up a City and Guilds course in Creative Embroidery. It taught me many new skills, and helped me to develop my own style and refined my approach to my work. I achieved a 'Highly Commended' from City and Guilds 'Medals for Excellence' awards for my part two work in 1997
Kate Toms
Kevin Hutson
Kevin has been working with wood for more than 30 years. His first experience was with a small modest drill attachment lathe. Completely enthralled by the different shapes and configurations that could be achieved, he progressed from this lathe onto a larger and more professional machine.
Kevin served a five year apprenticeship in Carpentry and Joinery at The Brighton Technical College successfully passing both City and Guilds and the Advanced City and Guilds examinations. After 16 years' practical experience he progressed as a freelance draughtsman in architecturally designed joinery manufacture. He found this experience inspired his designing for the more creative forms; he is completely self-taught in this type of creativity.
Having turned conventional shapes for a period of time Kevin found the need to advance towards more aesthetic shapes. Originally from East Grinstead, Kevin now blends subtle textures and tones of colour to emphasis the variety of grain found in wood. Kevin has used exotic hardwoods but more frequently uses sycamore and ash. Each piece is finished by a process of a mixture of natural oils such as Danish oil and liquid paraffin over a period of three days, to compliment the subtle tones used.
Inspirations for Kevin have been Barbara Hepworth’s sculptures and the study of Oriental architecture. As Kevin expresses in his own words, “this I try to instill in my work by the movement of wood to form more flowing lines than seen in conventional turning.”
Kevin’s work can be seen in galleries throughout the UK. He has taught woodturning in HM Prison and to various woodturning and furniture societies in Sussex. He is also a member of the Worshipful Order of Woodturners.
Stef Mitchell
Through painting and within the historical tradition of nature print Stef documents place, space and light capturing daily walks. Paintings are made in the studio after walking and reference photos taken on a phone whilst walking - the photography is quick and unlaboured so as to catch a glimpse rather than frame a view. The underlying forms in the painting are drawn with torn paper and layers of painting and collaged painted paper slowly bring together the finished piece.
After a degree in photography and sound Stef completed post graduate studies at Goldsmiths London fol- lowed by a second degree in Fine Art where she specialised in painting. Stef has exhibited nationally and internationally. Her paintings have been awarded the Selectors Prize at The Ropewalk Gallery, the Browne Smith Baker Prize at Hull Ferens Open and the RWS Contemporary Watercolour Prize. In 2018 her work was shown in the Newlights Prize Exhibition.
Stef works between studios at Sledmere and Staithes and is currently artist in residence for the wolds Way National Trail.
Garry Courtnell
Garry Courtnell's practice is largely based on expressive landscape. Garry paints in oil and acrylic, finding inspiration from places visited, remembered or simply imagined. Garry has been a practising artist & photographer for 25 years although over the past few years has concentrated mainly on painting, receiving much acclaim for his exhibitions in York, Newcastle upon Tyne and his hometown of Hartlepool. Garry paints in oil and acrylic, in a style reminiscent of 18th and 19th century French art. His influences are Ivon Hitchens and classical and contemporary chinese painting. Garry had begun his life as an artist in photography with which his interest was the derelict townscapes of his tees upbringing. It was as a lecturer in photography that he was discovered as a landscape artist, and one of the highest quality. He is known for his several oils of trees which are exceptional and his cloudscapes and sky scenes with heavy use of impasto in layering the oil on the board. His work is exhibited in the Pineapple Gallery, Bishop Auckland and the Biscuit Factory, Newcastle.
Michael St.Clair
Michael studied Fine Art Printmaking at the University of Humberside and worked for several years in graphic design before retraining as an art psychotherapist in 2010. As well as helping others express themselves through art making, he is keen to pursue a career as an artist himself creating images which are partly metaphorical and partly autobiographical.
"I am principally interested in form, colour, mark making and narrative and by simplifying shape, adjusting colour, and adding texture aim to make images which are both interesting and visually pleasing. I have always loved to draw and feel it is important for me to keep the activity of drawing very present in my paintings. I want my images to include very ‘handmade' direct marks, often scraping, sanding and scratching the painting surface to achieve this. At times my painting process is quite messy and chaotic whilst at others it is more ordered and precise. During their construction the images tend move around between these two extremes but hopefully settle at a place of balance. Having been brought up in the North East of England and lived for many years in the North West, I am currently interested in exploring the similarities and differences of these regions which hold particular significance for me. Although I am not trying to copy what I see in front of me, I am responding to it visually, in an attempt to draw attention to what I see and feel in a fairly emotional and personal way.
I think I used to be more concerned with narrative and since everything revolves around me (!) I used figures to do that, thinking about metaphor and symbolism. There’s something simpler about what I’m doing now which I enjoy and find more freeing. Responding to something visual just seems more direct. I never really know what to say about style. I’m generally trying to simplify and distill. I like to play with perspective and reference cubism and modernism.
If at all possible I’ll try to do some kind of drawing on location. i don’t paint ‘en plein air’ much as I feel it makes me want to be too realistic. Its like I need a bit of a gap from what I see to making the work, almost to fit myself in the middle. I do use photos for reference but again, try not to copy them. My work does change a lot in its creation, I spend a lot of time looking and trying to work out what ‘makes sense’ emotionally and visually. A friend recently said my work was all about composition, which strangely, I’d never thought about but felt pleased that someone had recognised, especially after the hours I spend agonising over it! I did work as a graphic designer, so think I got used to spending lots of time fitting things in spaces. As you said it’s a mix of what was observed and what fits with the painting, if that makes sense?
I try to draw from observation as much as I can, almost every day if possible and love ‘urban sketching’. I helped set up the Urban Sketchers Tyne and Wear group and love taking part in sketch crawls. My drawing in that capacity is quite different to my paintings and I see it like practicing scales on an instrument. I make a point of getting to work early for my therapist job so I can draw from my car because I know it makes such a difference to me – I’ve been drawing the same car park for five years!”
Andrew Cheetham
Andrew lives and works in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, where he has a studio in one of the baiting sheds on the harbour. Andrew has been painting the sea and documenting Scarborough’s declining Fishing industry since 2000. Throughout this time the sea has been a constant inspiration in his work.
Rob Watson
Rob specialises in wheel thrown domestic ware, generous in proportion with substantial rims and handles that are freely decorated and boast a vibrant colour palette. Many of Robs ideas are influenced by English slipware, and all things Japanese.
Chris Utley
Chris works in a converted stable at her hamlet near York, hand building and sculpting her work with coils and slabs. Each piece is textured, carved and painted with a mix of slips, underglaze colours and oxides. Christine glaze and fires several times to achieve multiple layers of colour.
Phil Arthur
Phil is a Norfolk based potter combining his skills as a former production wheel thrower with the freedom of hand building techniques. Phil has developed a line of bird and animal pots inspired by 17th century English slipware, Pre-columbian vessels and pots of Picasso - using thrown shapes as a basis for altering and constructing.
Elizabeth Emmens-Wilson
Elizabeth is a designer/maker who explores the potential of pattern across a number of mediums. Be it textiles or ceramic, Elizabeth loves enhancing everyday objects with decoration, each one unique, each built up over several firings or several sewing and embroidery techniques.
Elisabeth Bailey
Elisabeth uses clay throwing skills developed over 35 years to form simple ceramic shapes as backdrops for free, swift brushwork drawings. She works with hot wax, painting directly on the newly glazed surface, then dipping pots in another colour. During the kiln firing, designs move with the shape of the form, so pot and drawing become one. Inspiration comes from animals and birds she studies, drawing them until a few brush strokes define shape and form.
Lesley Seeger
Whilst my landscapes are built on close observation I also like to work in random ways, experimenting with colour and mark making freely. Much of my work becomes a hybrid between the observed and imagined.
Karen Thompson
Karen Thompson was born in the coastal town of South Shields in 1973. In 2004 she completed ceramics qualifications at Kensington & Chelsea College then graduated with a BA (Hons) Ceramics from Bath Spa University in 2008. Thompson’s ceramic work draws on both historic and contemporary influences and frequently explores themes of subversion, satire and humour. Her work is held in private and public collections including The Crafts Council, The Arts Council, York Art Gallery, Scarborough Museums Trust, Bath Spa University and Crescent Arts. Thompson currently lives and works in Scarborough, North Yorkshire.
Paul Browne
veryday I forage my way thru life & discover new possibilities in which I can document, in the form of paint, onto canvas. I am drawn to the unlikely compositions of northern scenes, such as an empty street, terraced houses or the stark baron landscape of the Pennines. I am a Northern contemporary painter, with expressive aspirations. I mainly use oil & acrylic, pen & ink.
Carla Pownall
I trained as a production thrower in the 1970s and 80s at Birkenhead Park Potteries in Wirral, making stoneware tableware. After the pottery closed I spent my time bringing up my family and working part-time as a pottery teacher. Now I am making my own stoneware and raku pots. My pots are also for sale in several galleries throughout the North West and in Yorkshire as well as in my garden gallery at home in Bidston, Birkenhead.
Diane Jones
Diane received a Degree in Art and Design from Bradford College of Art in 1987. Since then she has worked as a freelance designer/ maker, has co-owned a craft and design shop, worked as an Artist in residence at a school for several years and run textile printing workshops for the public.
Her studio is in Bradford. Diane works with printed textiles using Devoré and Monoprint techniques to create one-off fabrics from which she makes scarves, wraps, and framed pieces, latterly using machine embroidery to further embellish. Her designs reflect her fascination with colour, pattern, light, rhythms and silhouettes found in the natural environment and enjoys the layering and depth that experimenting with Devoré (etched) velvet can demonstrate.
Louise Pallister
Louise Pallister (b.1966 UK) received a First Class BA Fine Art/American Studies from Liverpool University/LIHE (1987) and an MSc Historic Conservation from Oxford Brookes University (1991), then an MA Fine Art at City and Guilds of London Art School, graduating with Distinction in 2014 and was awarded the Slaughterhaus Print Prize, was included in the Collyer Bristow graduate exhibition 'Exceptional' and her essays on the influence of nature on her practice published by the journal The Learned Pig.
Pallister’s work involves aspects of drawing, printmaking, and film to point to the absence of elusive, extinct or endangered species. She uses mark making to acknowledge both a widely shared familiarity with animal others and the unknowability that divides us. Species’ and individual histories inform the direction of Pallister's work but drawing is the fundamental means of information gathering and understanding. Using the positive act of mark making she describes the negative states of disappearance and extinction. Images are formed, drawn and erased, wiped, subtracted, transformed; layers revealed or obscured; movement implied. Their feral traces are visible in areas of negative space or smudges of charcoal and ink. Activating the drawing through stop motion film describes a process that fluctuates between adding and removing, a narrative from manifest to extinct, "there" to "not there". In printmaking the use of images in series that repeat, fade or are disrupted, refers to the imprint of an animal, its mark, and to the impression left.
Wilson and Benn
Colin Wilson and Sarah Morehead are Messer’s Wilson and Benn since 2008.
Colin graduated as a mature student from Northumbria University as a 3 Dimensional Designer working in Furniture and Fine products. His previous life skills as a Time Served Apprentice saw him travel to far-flung places. He wittingly describes himself, with a glint in his eye, as an industrial gypsy. Sarah graduated from De Montfort University as a Fashion and Textiles Designer. Again no stranger to traveling the world and gaining valued friendships and an understanding of people and products.
As a duo we explore life through design, craft, product, film, sound and people. Our personal stories evidence a mixture of Industrial and Academic Practice. Through inquisitiveness and play that we offer a collection of things that are hand made and hand crafted. Our products are carefully designed with thought to their purpose. We use our skills, knowledge and expertise in taming our materials. Many of our designs have a narrative, a history, and pay reference to past traditions that maintain a heritage or support an industry. We both source and collect the best materials from around the British Isles to carefully craft our products. All our products are designed and made on these shores that we call our home.
Laura Hancock - Westerton Pottery
My interest in pottery has been ongoing since childhood, having spent many hours in my fathers pottery workshop at home, in Washington near Durham. My involvement in making my own studio pottery developed further whilst being trained in the craft at Biddick Farm Arts Centre (1988-94) by my father Alan Ball. Since 2005 I have developed my work from domestic ware and glazed studio pottery to an ancient smoke firing technique. By once firing, followed by a decorative smoke firing and bees wax polish to finish, the pots have the tactile, earthy quality I was looking for. Influenced by African Art and the shapes and textures of nature, my hand built vessels and wall hangings have a distinctly tribal feel. I use natural materials, such as driftwood and leather to decorate my wall hangings. I work from my studio in Westerton , Co Durham, and am a member of the Northern Potters Association. I supply work to several local galleries, and take part in Open Studio events. Also for several years I have attended Potfest In The Pens. A marvellous potters market.en ongoing since childhood, having spent many hours in my fathers pottery workshop at home, in Washington. My involvement in making my own studio pottery developed further whilst being trained in the craft at Biddick Farm Arts Centre (1988-94) by my father Alan Ball. Since 2005 I have developed my work from domestic ware and glazed studio pottery to an ancient smoke firing technique. By once firing, followed by a decorative smoke firing and bees wax polish to finish, the pots have the tactile, earthy quality I was looking for. Influenced by African Art and the shapes and textures of nature, my hand built vessels and wall hangings have a distinctly tribal feel. I use natural materials, such as driftwood and leather to decorate my wall hangings. I work from my studio in Westerton , Co Durham, and am a member of the Northern Potters Association. I supply work to several local galleries, and take part in Open Studio events. Also for several years I have attended Potfest In The Pens. A marvellous potters market.
Susie Cummins
It’s important for my work to resonate with my audience who, perhaps without realising, connect with the energy that is extracted from its original source/inspiration. I believe the clay will become what it wants to be and the finished piece will find the person it is intended to be with. I’m currently working on three collections, which continue to evolve. All have a connection to nature and spirit; all are in stoneware. I find myself drawn to the littoral zone, where water connects to the land and creates submerged textures and colours. It is this connection that provides me with spiritual energy and strength. When I have felt the need to escape, or in times of stress I have always found it necessary to be near the sea. Above the waterline there’s a feeling of constant search and chaos. Below is inner peace and spiritual energy. In the middle is littoral.
Emily Rowley
I enjoy making figurative ceramics. The personalities of the people I make are created by change, due to the nature of the clay and determined by the viewer. I like to see the people grow and develop through the making process and then imagine stories as to why they are how they are. I like to think that everyone who views them will give them a diffreent personality and life story.
Sophie Hamilton
Sophie set up her workshop at High Marishes in 1991. She makes colourful, functional stoneware pots – the range includes mugs, jugs, bowls, plates and plant pot holders. The pots are either hand thrown or jigger jollied. After the bisque firing the pots are decorated using sponges, brushes and slip trailers to apply layers of rich coloured glazes. Most of the designs are influenced by flowers, leaves and stripes. The pots are all fired to 1300°C in a reducing atmosphere.
Melina Xenaki
A recent graduate from the Royal College of Art, Melina is a ceramicist based in East London, where she designs and makes all her pieces by hand.
She was born and raised in Athens, Greece. In 2012 she completed a 3 year Ceramics & Glass undergraduate course at the University for the Creative Arts in Farnham and set off for London to start a master's degree at the Royal College of Art. After graduation in 2014 she worked at Glebe Rd studios, a great space for ceramic artists in the heart of Hackney in London.
“My Kri-kri collection is named after the feral goat endemic in Crete, which was most likely brought to the island during the time of the Minoan civilisation. Horns and beaks, textured lines, black rough surfaces with a metallic feel, my sculptural forms host wild animals, between inlaid patterns, joined long necks and bizarre protrusions. I want my pieces to resonate the raw and authentic beauty of Early Cypriot ritualistic pots, the significance of the bird, the Minoan obsession with the glorious bull and the everlasting sun. I love working with slabs and coils using the very forgiving and rich in iron black clay. Hand-building is the making method I find most satisfying, as it allows me to marry the animal & the plant world with my pots. Constant glaze experimentation is at the centre of my practice, enriching my sgraffito patterns and covering the black ceramic surface with colour and craters. The patterns are carved on leather hard clay, then inlaid with my hand-mixed glazes before the glaze firing. I use ash from burnt wood for my ash glazes and use different oxides to colour my base crater glaze. All my pieces are fired to stoneware temperature in an oxidising atmosphere.”
RCA MA Ceramics & Glass
DAVID WISEMAN LG ARWS
Born in Essex in 1949, David Wiseman studied at the Colchester School of Art (1967-69), St.Martin’s School of Art (1969-72) and the Royal College of Art (1972-75), where in 1973 he was awarded the John Minton Prize. In 1977 he received the Arts Council of Britain Award and in 1978 the Greater London Arts Association Award. He has been painting ever since most spent in his Ealing garden studio (where he lives with his potter wife Betty) close to the local rivers, woodland and canal he loves and that inspire his work. He has taught painting in numerous art schools across the country and have exhibited widely both as an individual and in many important selected group exhibitions. His work is represented in private collections in all parts of the world and he has completed 8 major public art works including large scale murals at Charing Cross, Frimley Park, Royal London and Ealing Hospitals. He was recently elected member of the National Acrylic Painters Association (2010) winning the Presidents Prize (2010) and Adrian Henri Memorial Prize (2012) in their exhibitions in St Ives and Birkenhead. He was elected to the London Group in 2013 , their Centenary Year. Winner of the Royal Watercolour Society Purchase Prize 2016. Elected to the Arborealists 2016. Winner Royal Watercolour Society Publicity Prize and Wallace Seymour Prize 2018 Elected to the Royal Watercolour Society in 2021.
“My larger works on canvas are made in the studio and I also work directly from the landscape with a variety of mixed media on smaller works on paper and canvas . Although spending a lot of time in Devon and the south coast I am equally inspired by the local rivers and parklands close to my Ealing home. My paintings are begun in a loose freely drawn calligraphic way using a wide variety of brushes, rollers, scrapers, sponges etc. the final image being extracted in a playful, organic way using overlaid marks and glazes to express qualities in nature such as mood, light, colour and atmosphere. I want to convey a feeling of change and movement in the landscape and for the paintings to be intriguing, tantalising and ambiguous held between the pure plastic qualities of the paint and all the celebratory, magical illusions and evocations of the depiction of nature”
Ian Burke
Ian Burke was born in Saltburn in 1955 and was brought up in Redcar. Educated at Sir William Turners Grammar School, Ian studied BA in Fine Art under Michael Rothenstein RA 1974-78 and Goldsmiths ATC 19779/80. After two years following his father onto the oil rigs as a labourer on the North Sea, Ian studied his MA in Fine Art at Goldsmith’s College, London 1982-84, a contemporary of Damien Hirst.
From there Ian went to work in various state schools in the North East and Cumbria, including head of art at Barnard Castle School and then at Rugby then Eton College where he was only the 13th Master of Drawing in its 582 year history and Head of Art.
A prizewinning member of the Royal Society of Printmakers, Ian is a painter, printmaker and “assemblagist” (look it up!) He has exhibited in galleries widely and has had several works accepted and exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions.
Much of Ian’s strong images are inspired by the boats, crews, buildings and people of the coastline between the Tees and Esk rivers on the north east coast, particularly the fishing village Staithes where he lived before he bought a watermill on the North Yorkshire Moors near the river Esk, where coincidentally his great great grandmother once lived in 1745! With a waterfall in his garden and a woodland on the edge of the property, Ian and his artist partner Susan live an inspired moorland life. A converted pig shed is his studio which houses his large 1856 Columbian press, where he has produced his art, mainly woodcut and linocut, for so many years - as well as laser cut, etchings, paintings and “assemblages” (!) Among all the many influences on his art, Ian prefers to print on quality japanese paper and japanese influences extend to assemblages made from driftwood japanese fishing floats that are washed up on the US coast often etched in the original japanese pictorial text.
His boyhood pursuits of drawing, walking, fishing and football (Middlesbrough FC) continue as an inspiration for work, as he would tell his students “to deal first with what they like and love” in subjects and designs for their artwork.
Ian’s choice, despite a successful teaching career, to remain embedded in the North Yorkshire community instructs his enthusiasm to make his art accessible to all ages at an affordable cost.