I paint vibrant abstract art, exploring themes of my  'Connection' with nature and with each other.  Painting gives me so such joy,  my intention is to communicate these feelings and energies to my audience through colourful marks and energetic, intertwining lines.

I am an artist and ceramicist and love working with both paint and clay! My main job is as a pottery teacher so I suppose clay always seems more like my 'job' , whilst painting seems more like a treat to work on. I try and spend time on both and couldn't possibly choose a favourite! 

My mum taught me to make clothes when I was young, and I have loved working with fabric ever since.  I taught dressmaking at night school for adults and had three blind ladies in my class and have always made clothes for myself, daughter and my grandchildren.

After years of working in pencil or watercolour, I discovered the versatility of textiles after taking a City & Guilds Course in Creative Textiles around 30 years ago & haven’t really looked back since! I like the choice of colour, texture and variety of fabrics available, and the feel of the fabric and thread in my hands when I work. I find sanctuary in stitch, and find that hand stitch, in particular, can soothe, distract and calm a fractious soul- despite the time that it takes to create a piece!

I have always wanted to put paint to paper and dabbled in art for many years. There was never the opportunity for me to study art at school as I went down the science route. After a long career in the health service and then in education and a busy family life it wasn’t really until Covid that I had the time to really study art techniques seriously and I found a fabulous teacher who taught on line with live tuition. This was groundbreaking for me and so it was in my early seventies that I really made progress. Learning the techniques required and having time to practice was my Covid gift.

 I fell in love with fused glass 8 years ago and instantly fell in love with it. There are so many different ways of working with and manipulating glass that I’m still working my way through. A kiln opening is always so exciting and there’s always so much more to learn that I don’t think I’ll ever get bored.

I specialise in wildlife artworks & pet portraiture. I use only acrylic paints on either canvas or textured paper. My style is self developed using the paint in both its dense form, along with layered washes of colour. 

Working from photographs, I create a contemporary interpretation of the subjects, resulting in colourful, expressive & highly detailed artworks. 

I have always had art & craft as a hobby – my entire family growing up were very creative, but like many I got a “proper job” and joined Marks & Spencer straight after A levels as a Commercial Management Trainee.  I then worked in various sectors (including event project management) and when my children were at school and we were in a financially more secure place, I was lucky enough to take a few years out to complete the foundation course and degree. I have since built up my art business and in the last few years taken over the running of The Derbyshire Makers – culminating this year with opening the shop and gallery at Peak Village.

.  For this exhibition I am excited to working alongside the very talented Sharon O’Connell. Our  exhibition will probably include textiles, paper, paint, alongside a multitude of ephemera that seems appropriate to our theme; it’s exciting to have the opportunity to approach this exhibition spontaneously so, whilst I am thinking about it, our design process will not actually start until we sit down together in our workspace at The Derbyshire Makers at the beginning of January.

Jenny is predominately a creative photographer who focuses on design, composition, colour and texture rather than a literal approach to picture making. There is often a sense of movement or abstraction in many of her images. Jenny has an added interest in creating cyanotypes and prints created on gel plates.

Hazel's paintings depict Derbyshire's varied landscape, exploring forgotten corners and unusual views away from the beaten path.  Using a limited palette, she uses acrylics and oils to capture seasonal colours.

I am a watercolour artist. I have experimented with other mediums in the past such as acrylics and oils but I always come back to watercolours. I just love the way they work - their transparency and also their unpredictability. I work quite spontaneously and loosely leaving the paint to its own thing. I used to do children’s personalised collages and also pen and ink pet portrait commissions but decided to concentrate on my painting as commissions just got too much pressure, too stressful.

‘Serendipity’
For this exhibition Linda will be showing a range of paintings selected from a collection created during and post covid. There will also be a collection of new ‘never-been-seen-before’ prints on metal (aluminium) created specially for the show. She will also be exhibiting a small range of art gifts. All work will be for sale.

I work in several media, quite often more than one at a time! I feel that this really helps keep my work fresh and enjoy working out how I can apply techniques used in one medium to an entirely different medium. That said, at the moment the majority of my work is either in pastels (my old favourite) or acrylics (which I feel that I have really got to grips with this year and am particularly enjoying!).

I am an artist and ceramicist and love working with both paint and clay! My main job is as a pottery teacher so I suppose clay always seems more like my ‘job’ whilst painting seems more like a treat to work on. I try and spend time on both and couldn’t possibly choose a favourite!