‘Hope Springs Eternal’ Spring Exhibition 2021

‘Hope Springs Eternal’ will open online on Sunday March 14. With luck we will be able to welcome you once again when we re-open on April 12.

This exhibition encompasses a unique collection of hand picked, desirable, contemporary British fine art and craft including stained glass, watercolours, textile art, ceramics sculpture, felted landscapes and silver jewellery. Each piece designed to bring joy, we hope we strike a heartening mood of optimism after what seems to have been a very long winter lockdown.

Tamsin Abbott

Tamsin’s work is influenced by the Herefordshire countryside, the orchards, the hills, the woods and all the plants, birds and animals that grow and live. Tamsin works on mainly British made mouth blown glass, in  fabulous colours. She completely covers the glass with a special black glass paint which is totally opaque. When the paint is dry Tamsin then scrapes back into it using a variety of simple tools. She uses the paint like a scraper board which is working in the negative to achieve an effect rather like a woodcut.

See more stained glass panels and Tamsin’s limited edition prints here

Rachel Wright

Rachel takes her inspiration from many sources including landscapes and seascapes, wildlife, harbour towns, boats, lighthouses and windmills. These subject matter are then translated in machine embroidered fabric collages, using vibrant threads, worked onto carefully cut  pieces of fabric.

See more original textile embroidery’s and printed cushions by Rachel here

The embroideries enable Rachel to draw and paint through fabric and stitch. The fabrics provide a rich source of colour, texture and pattern forming her ‘palette’ and the threads are used like a fine paintbrush to fill in the details. Rachel’s trademark is her use of striking, rich colour, which captivates and draws the viewer in. Her aim is simply to delight the eye.

Sue Hayden

Sue’s paintings are based on the relationship between texture, shape and light. Starting with observational drawings from life she uses bright acrylics and pastels on layered surfaces to add randomness and energy to her work.

See more paintings and prints by Sue here

Particularly drawn to natural objects and landscapes her work emphasises a love of colour, texture and movement in what can be touched and what can be seen in the distance.

Ellie Ling

Ellie studied art at the Jacob Kramer Art College in Leeds in the late 1960s and early 1970s. After a varied career as organic gardener, full-time mother and university lecturer, she returned to her first love, art, in Hereford (where she graduated with a First Class Honours degree in Illustration). She now concentrates on painting gardens, both real and imaginary. In doing this, she has joined the long tradition of painters depicting the garden as a theatre for many of the significant events – mostly joyful, but also more contemplative or poignant in our lives.

See more original watercolours and limited edition prints by Ellie here

Her paintings are inspired particularly by the composition and jewel-like sense of colour of Persian and Mughal miniatures and medieval Books of Hours. They also reflect her own experience of working in the gardens of big country houses in Worcestershire and Ireland, and her love of the history of garden design. 

Helen Martino

Helen is fascinated by body language and how it communicates. In her ceramic sculptures the exaggerated and stylised movements of the silent movies has seemed a natural way to portray communication and narrative as the sculptures depict moments in the everyday life of people.

See more ceramic sculpture by Helen here

She has been looking at Mogul and Persian miniatures and how they tell a story within a single image. Often they show significant events within the life span of a person or a family. Her sculptures are intimate in size and like the miniatures tell of a single moment or event and yet they infer a past and future story to be filled in by the viewer.

Helen works in a series of pieces within a single narrative, each successive sculpture expressing the story in a different way through a change in scale, movement, composition or colour.

Kathie Barrs

Kathie has been fortunate in having had many opportunities to learn and work alongside renowned felt making tutors from all over the globe, and she is grateful for their skill, patience and generosity. Every one brings something new to each individual’s experience of felt making, and the inspiration and motivation gained from each workshop was invaluable.

See more felted works of art by Kathie here

She is a member of the International Felt Makers Association, and completed her level 2 City and Guild qualification in Design and Textiles (Felt) at Felt in the Factory in 2015.

Jewellery by Leoma Drew

See more of Leoma’s jewellery here

Leoma Drew’s jewellery has evolved from a fine art background. An exploration into memory and nostalgia led her to abstract emotional journeys through creating motifs; that became a cryptic symbology to depict personal events within Drew’s life. As her work progressed and developed the butterfly became a predominant symbol that kept presenting itself. The exploration of the butterfly’s shape and form led to small hand crafted sculptural outcomes that would later become Leoma’s signature style within her Jewellery practice.

“The world can seem black and white at times, fragile, harsh and beautiful”

These themes run deep and present themselves through Leoma’s designs; generating a contrast between pierced silhouetted motifs combined with form. She invites flashes of colour by introducing uniquely cut stones that present an anomaly that deviates from the form. The irregularity and variations of the stones enhance the experience of her jewellery which intensifies the intimacy that exists between object and body.

Jewellery by Rachel Bailey

See more of Rachel’s jewellery here

Rachel has been a jeweller for over 20 years. She studied at Portsmouth College of Art in the late ’80’s and then went on to West Surrey College of Art and Design in the early ’90’s taking a degree in three dimensional design – specialising in metals.

Rachel’s work explores her love of wild creatures, our native animals and birds and magical realms. The semi precious stones she uses are an integral part of her inspiration as they suggest landscapes in which the creatures inhabit. Each piece is individually made and therefore unique, in sterling silver and Hallmarked in Sheffield.

We hope you will enjoy our Spring Exhibition 2021 and look forward to welcoming you once again in person when our doors are allowed to re-open. In the meantime we are online and here to take your phone calls and emails.