Meet The Maker – Kirsty Elson

Kirsty Elson -Artist

Kirsty is a multi-media artist living in Cornwall. She originally studied Illustration, specialising in Printmaking, at Cambridge School of Art.  After moving back to the South West, and becoming mum to two boys, she couldn’t restrain her creativity any longer and she began making cards from local driftwood.

The Wave

Since then, she has become more and more interested in creating beautiful pieces from driftwood and other found objects, and has become quite well-aquainted with her sewing machine!

Cottage with washing

She is inspired by all things coastal and unsurprisingly her seaside surroundings have a big influence on her work.

Lighthouses

Kirsty loves the idea of using found objects like driftwood and turning them into something beautiful and unique.

Driftwood houses

Kirsty hopes her work makes you smile, it makes us grin with delight!

Winter terrace

Meet The Maker – Rosie Scott-Massie

Rosie Scott-Massie – Artist

Rosie combines expressive use of paint with precise paper-cutting techniques to create abstracted landscapes and studies of unusual buildings.

The Fox Tower, Brough

The Doric Temple, Duncombe Park

Inspired by the history and stories within a place, and themes of escapism, Rosie works with maps, drawing the landscape from them with a scalpel, destroying the map’s primary purpose and celebrating it’s decorative qualities.

The Temple Folly, Wensleydale

The Banqueting House, Hackfall

Rosie’s most recent work pushes the medium of papercutting by introducing the 3^rd dimension, using pins to develop shadow and depth amongst the intricately cut paper.

Lund’s Tower, Earl Crag

Rosie’s new pieces for Heart Gallery are itching to get hung on our walls and you may even recognise the landmarks!

Gibson Mill, Hardcastle Crags

We can work closely with Rosie on commissions so if you have a favourite building, place or area you would like depicting as a framed papercut by Rosie then call in to discuss your requirements.

Meet The Maker – Julia Ogden

Julia Ogden – Artist

Julia grew up in Yorkshire, where she spent her days playing in her parents’ garden and the surrounding countryside. She drew all the time and still does.

Hares – Julia Ogden

Heart birds – Julia Ogden

Julia studied a BA Hons in Illustration at Edinburgh College of Art, graduating in 1999. She then went on to do an MA in Sequential Illustration at Brighton University. The work she produced during her studies was mainly print-based and she often made artist books.

Collage – Julia Ogden

Birds – Julia Ogden

She began painting after University and this is now her main passion. Julia’s paintings are exhibited throughout the UK, including Heart Gallery of course,  Bluemoon Gallery, Tunbridge Wells, Janet Bell Gallery, Anglesey, Portland Gallery, Richmond, Sarah Wiseman Gallery, Oxford, Harrison Lord Gallery, Brighouse and The Design Shop, Deanclough, Halifax.

Bear Hug – Julia Ogden

Her new collection of artwork is on paper using a combination of pencil drawing and acrylic paint. She has been inspired by nature and comforting themes such as friendship, love and support. She hopes that her paintings and drawings brighten up grey days with warm colours and motifs.

Winter Birds – Julia Ogden

Julia is a valued member of staff at Heart Gallery so we are always really proud to showcase her work in the gallery whatever it may be … from greetings cards to framed originals, canvases or prints Julia’s work always puts a smile on our faces.

Elly – Julia Ogden

And we know it will make you smile too so see you soon x

Star Birds – Julia Ogden

Meet The Maker – Kate Lycett

Kate Lycett – Artist

Kate grew up in Suffolk where the skies are vast and the land is low and flat. Her grandad was an architect and he taught her the rudiments of technical drawing when she was 9. He made Kate a drawing board and a T square, and showed her how to sharpen a pencil with a knife. Kate ventured north to York were she studied fine art at University (YSJ) and specialised in textile design. She had fun with pots of wax, resin, shiny fabrics and butterfly’s wings.’ From there she spent a year in  Huddersfield were she studied industrial applications and CAD; fewer butterflies, more Loom Sheds! 

Study of Birds – Kate Lycett

Kate’s first design job sat her in a sterile studio changing colourways of prints  to match company logos and she was never allowed to get her hands dirty. She missed her fingers being permanently stained with Prussian blue, and so she started to paint again. In 1999 Kate moved to Sheffield, and after a while she started to sell her work in galleries, and in the art and craft markets there. She made many great friends. The better she knows a place the better she can capture its warmth. A place needs to resonate with Kate before she can paint it.

Valley Gardens – Kate Lycett

Kate’s textile design background is always present in the way that she paints, and interprets what is around her. She sees patterns in everything; the hills adorned with houses and washing lines, rows of flower pots and stripes of brightly painted drain pipes. Lines of gold thread trace lines through the landscape, and gold leaf changes the surface of her pictures with the changing light of day. Kate wants to paint beautiful pictures of the places that she loves. There are never people in her pictures but they’re full of life and warmth.

Red Leaves – Kate Lycett

Kate is a great collector of treasures – be it beads, threads, ribbons, pieces of fabric, really anything small and shiny! She collects images in much the same way and her amazing paintings are often a patchwork of ideas and details that Kate has drawn in her sketchbooks or photographed. She loves to bring out elements of pattern in a landscape – things like rows of stones, tiles and railings or guttering painted interesting colours.

Cold Snap – Kate Lycett

Hebden Bridge is now home for Kate and is part of who she is and what she does. She lives here with her husband and three small children. She loves the warmth, the colour and the community of where she lives. From her studio window at the front of her house she can see trees and the remains of a vast mill chimney in her garden which is full of nesting birds.

Stubbings – Kate Lycett

Kate loves that almost everyone she meets in the street can do or make something beautiful. It has been the source of many of her paintings, and will continue to be so. The longer she is here, the more she learns. Kate feels there is such history here in Hebden Bridge and she hears so many stories. Hannah at Radiance helped Kate to develop her lanterns and she now stocks those new designs and also her greetings cards. Colour has always been a key player in Kate’s work, and she uses this to convey how she sees the world.

Terraces – Kate Lycett

Not so long ago Kate and I chatted over a very good cup of coffee in Cafe Solo, Hebden Bridge, and talked about her work and how it would sit well in Heart Gallery with the artists I currently support. It didn’t take us long to realise that we admired one another’s work, ethics and ambition and so a friendship was formed and dates set. We are really proud to now be showcasing some of Kate’s recent framed originals along with limited edition prints from Sunday November 4th. These are being unveiled at the launch party of out Christmas Exhibition, CHRISTMAS AT HEART. Unfortunately Kate cannot be with us on the 4th as she is taking her daughter to London for her birthday but we shall be having a  ‘MEET THE MAKER’ live event with her on Sunday 11th November which is something Heart Gallery has had on the back burner for quite some time – it will be fun! You will be able to come along and chat to Kate over a cup of tea!

CHRISTMAS AT HEART invitation

This will be the start of a long relationship for Kate and Heart Gallery and we will be announcing the dates of her Spring Solo Exhibition TALL TREES AND WARM STONE shortly so watch this space! In the meantime please make sure you bob in to see her stunning new work Sunday 4th November in our Picture Gallery.

Hebble End – Kate Lycett

 

Meet The Maker – Corrina Rothwell

Right, let’s see…. this is a different approach to meet the maker because Corrina is a different kind of maker!!

Corrina Rothwell - Digital Artist and Illustrator

Let’s imagine a frog leaping from lily pad to lily pad.  Each lily pad represents an important stage on Corrina’s creative journey.  Plop, she is born (Rochdale, Lancs.)  (Being born is essential to creativity).  Plop, mum and dad plonk her naked on a roll of wallpaper with a paint brush and a pot of red paint.  She is very small.  Sadly she does not still have that first painting of hers!  Plop….you get the idea now…. she goes to school and draws a Mother’s Day card in felt-tips.  It’s a tree with millions of tiny pink flowers.  Corrina’s teacher sends her round school to show the other teachers and says she’s really gone to town on it.  Corrina draws and paints a lot but she’s not very good.  She does a special painting on a big board, lots of pattern and colour (see unnaturally-posed picture). 

Corrina and her rather large painting

Corrina is maybe 8 when she does this.  Her dad paints over it at some point, probably when he can’t afford any board for his own painting.  In later years he gives her some of his rejected paintings to paint over which makes it ok. At 13 Corrina’s best friend and her make bow-ties and sell them at school because sadly they are in fashion at the time. At 16 she starts A-level art along with French, German and English, but soon drops it thinking that she can do art on her own anytime and she doesn’t need to be taught.  An ardent vegetarian, she designs some MacDonalds Murder Burger t-shirts and sells them at Grass Roots in Manchester.  She also sells one to her history teacher which she’s extremely pleased about!

Mistakenly Corrina ends up doing European Studies with Dutch at Hull University.  She drops out because she hates it and she’s not an academic.  She goes on the Enterprise Allowance Scheme and paints fabric and makes it into cushions.  She also takes an evening class in screen-printing, which she loves, and produces her first greetings cards.

From there Corrina moves to Nottingham and buys herself an old Singer sewing machine. Plop. She trys a bit of freehand embroidery, feels right at home with it, and that’s what she does, mostly happily, for the next 14 years ….. although there was a ‘gosh that’s clever’ aspect to her textile work which made it appealing to people, it certainly lost its appeal to Corrina …plop…plop…plop

'she just couldn't behave herself with cheese' embroidery - Heart Gallery's best seller

Corrina gets really bored of sewing and frustrated with what it can’t do. She has in my mind a way that she wants her images to look and she can’t get them to look that way with the sewing machine. She realises that what is important to her is the image itself, not the way in which it’s created. Corrina thinks that maybe she’s a frustrated print-maker and contemplates going in that direction. However, a) she’s too impatient to learn b) the equipment is too expensive to buy and c) there’s nowhere in Nottingham where she can do it if she can’t do it at home. On a whim – plop – she buys herself a Bamboo Fun graphics tablet, plugs it into her laptop and she’s off! Corrina takes to it like a duck to water (we’re still in that pond) and finds it fun (does what it says on the tin) versatile and full of exciting potential.

Assumed Dead

So there you have it, Corrina is now working on new designs for her greetings cards which Heart Gallery sell and is sitting on her Nottingham lily pad which is going to flower beautifully this year with all the amazing opportunities coming her way.

Don't Mind Me

Corrina has a selection of prints in the clothing store Urban Outfitters in both Manchester and Kensington, which is very exciting – she loves the idea of artwork mingling with everydayness….and of course Urban Outfitters is a very cool shop!

Cross Dresser

As for new artwork, Corrina is in the throes of a pigeon obsession at the moment! 

Unexpected Item

Excited by how much fun it was importing photos of pigeons and giving them things to say, she went out with her camera, took lots of pigeon pics and a new batch of drawings was born.

Bit Of Ham

Corrina has used pigeons in her work before, but things came to a head when she designed the poster for the upcoming Secret Garden Craft Fair in Nottingham on Saturday 25^th June.

Sherwood Art Week

Corrina’s pigeon prints are on sale at the Phoenix Arts Centre in Leicester and will soon be available from her website and other outlets.

Still Don't Fancy U

Corrina is also looking forward to having an illustrated recipe printed in a new cookbook being published in the US in autumn, called They Draw and Cook

Butter

Corrina’s work always amuses Heart Gallery customers and her greetings card range is expanding so keep bobbing in to see more great designs. Her new range Dottie is published by Black Olive.

Apostrophe

Jugs

Fruit Bowl

Meet The Maker – Catherine Green

Catherine Green - Textile Artist

Catherine’s work incorporates print and stitch on beautifully tactile fabrics such as velvet and satin to create vibrant, tactile pieces.  She builds up layers of dye, both printed and painted, before using devoré techniques to remove the fabric surface to reveal the delicate silk beneath, creating an almost three dimensional effect. 

Catherine Green - Wilderness

 

 

 

 

 

Catherine works intuitively from her first point of reference and enjoys allowing the design to change and evolve as the piece progresses through each process.

Catherine Green - Carved Leaves III

Catherine takes her inspiration from the rural and urban areas around her studio in Yorkshire which appear to combine and contrast in perfect harmony; spiky grasses and seed heads set against a backdrop of a geometric cityscape alongside more rural landscapes inspired by the Yorkshire Dales and coastal pieces influenced by the dramatic East Coast. 

Catherine Green - Charcoal Carved Leaves

Each piece is created using strong colour ways which are intended to be striking and uplifting. 

Catherine Green Bright Pears

Catherine Green - Climbing

Catherine has recently had a series of pieces reproduced into greetings cards and giclée prints which are available at Heart Gallery along with framed originals.

Catherine Green - Violet Carved Leaves

Meet The Maker – Jo Clark

Jo Clark - Artist, Illustrator, Writer

Jo is originally from Lincoln where she began her journey to become an artist, illustrator and writer. After completing her Foundation in Art and Design at De Mont Fort University she moved to Cambridge to study Illustration at Degree level. Graduating in 2001, Jo settled in Cambridge working full time in various retailer outlets, but always kept the creative side alive by sketching, sewing or painting. Whilst working as a Reprographics Technician at, Anglia Ruskin University, she began to realise she wanted to achieve more with her creative career and enrolled on the Children’s Book Illustration Master of Arts course.

Illustrative work

Studying for the MA allowed Jo to develop many skills; not only her unique visual language using simple shapes and line and a sophisticated colour palette, but discovering herself as a writer.

Hyena and Tortoise illustration from Jo's book

Slug illustration from Jo's book

A reoccurring theme became evident in her work namely, that of the ‘underdog’. This shows throughout her work from the characterisation in her books (as yet unpublished) such as the slug, hyena and a water nymph, to the wildflowers and organic structures shown on her greetings card range. Heart Gallery sells Jo’s card designs and here are just a few of them:

Spheres card

Tree Sparrow card

Lavender card

Elderflower card

Jo has taken on various freelance work from company logo design and branding to private commissions. Her work was noticed by a local magazine editor, who published a feature on Jo’s work and inspirations aptly named ‘Designs on Life’ in the ‘Style’ magazine. Since then her work has been featured on the ‘Print and Pattern Blog’ in ‘Vogue’ magazine and will be in ‘The Independent’ Saturday supplement on 28^th May 2011. A forthcoming  publication will be in a ‘Rotovision’ publication called ‘I Heart Stationery’ by Charlotte Rivers due for publication Autumn 2011.

Jo Clark - Poppies Mug

Jo left her position in reprographics several months after the launch of her greetings card range. She now concentrates on promoting her business and developing new card designs.

Blooming Mugs and greetings card

Birdy Mug

Jo hopes that children and adults will enjoy her work, and that it will bring a little sunshine into their lives.

Meet The Maker – Clare Caulfield

Clare Caulfield – Yorkshire based Artist and Printmaker

Clare Caulfield is a Yorkshire based Artist and Printmaker who graduated with a First Class Honours Degree in Surface Pattern Design from Staffordshire University in 2000. Combining the processes of drawing, painting, collage and various printmaking techniques Clare captures the excitement, life and vibrancy of many of the world’s most enticing cities including Paris, New York, Venice, Rome, London, Sydney and Prague. The magic of each location being recreated in Clare’s very distinctive and appealing illustrative style of working.

The London Eye South Bank

Drawing has always been a very important part of Clare’s work. She is fascinated by architecture be it the Midtown skyscrapers of Manhattan, The Grand Canal in Venice or simply capturing Parisian life outside a brightly canopied pavement cafe, she strives to create spontaneous lively line work.

Flatiron Building

View from Accademia Bridge Venice

La Mere Catherine Paris

Clare uses her sketchbook and camera to record and capture her experiences whist visiting each of these cities, on returning to the studio she then interprets this information to produce her quirky pen and watercolour and mixed-media paintings. For Clare the initial pen drawing is the most important part of the whole process needing to achieve a lively and fluid quality of line. From the initial marks on the paper, Clare chooses not to plan out her composition in pencil first, but to always work directly in pen from the beginning.

Prague

Closer to home Clare has turned her attention to the historic Shambles of York, County Arcade in Leeds and the beautiful architecture to be found within Saltaire Village: Salts Mill, The United Reformed Church, the shop fronts of Victoria Road and the cobbles of Albert Terrace have all been interpreted in her instantly recognisable style.

York Minster

Boutique Shopping in County Arcade Leeds

Saltaire United Reformed Church

Clare’s love of drawing and use of line lend themselves perfectly to her work as a printmaker. She produces her handmade original prints at West Yorkshire Print Workshop where she also teaches weekend screenprint courses. Screen printing allows Clare to transfer the lively original drawings often taken directly from her sketchbook produced whilst on her travels, onto both paper and canvas enabling her prints to maintain this great sense of spontaneity. Within many of her screenprints Clare combines elements of hand painted acrylic and watercolour resulting in each print being a truly individual piece in itself.

San Giorgio Maggiore Venice

Clare also produces drypoint prints, a method of intaglio printmaking as she enjoys the rich velvety line quality it achieves. The prints are created by firstly drawing the image by scratching directly onto the plate with a sharp needle. For each print made the plate is re-coated with ink and then carefully wiped each time therefore every print is original and unique. Only small editions can be made as the plate wears down very quickly during the printing process. Some of these prints also combine elements of chiné colle allowing Clare to introduce subtle areas of colour and texture into her compositions.

Harrods Red Bus

Clare exhibits both her paintings and original prints with galleries throughout the country in regular solo and group shows. She has been represented by CCA Galleries at the Affordable Art Fair in London exhibiting her collection of hand painted screenprints on canvas of famous landmarks in the capital including The Royal Albert Hall, Tower Bridge and Buckingham Palace.

Royal Albert Hall

Heart Gallery is proud to be one of Clare’s carefully chosen Galleries to showcase her work all year round.

Meet The Maker – Sarah McDade

Sarah McDade - Hebden Bridge ceramicist

Sarah is a member of the Linden Arts Group situated in Linden Mill, Hebden Bridge and supplies a few galleries with her work – Heart Gallery is proud to be one of Sarah’s chosen stockists for her hand built sculptures.

One of Sarah's many stoneware heads.

Sarah has been making ceramic heads and figures for over 20 years, and has established a reputation for high quality work. Inspired by the creative possibilities when building the human form in clay, ideas are developed from observation, drawings, sketches and photographs.

Alex

Sarah’s stoneware figures and heads are colourful male and female character heads and serene female figures with brushed and sponged decoration.

Beryl

All Sarah’s figures are individually hand built using a grogged clay, which allows for strength in the building process, but also has the finer qualities needed for detail. Sarah decorates with underglaze colours and oxides, which are often enhanced by repeated firings.

Gertrude

Sarah hand sculpts each piece individually, but designs are repeatable and available in a range of colour options.

Andy

Hamish

Sarah has extensive experience in the organisation and running of a broad range of workshops, educational projects and residencies – including primary and secondary schools, after school clubs, adult education and teacher training initiatives. Projects are usually planned in co-operation with clients and can incorporate core studies and special interests. Supply of clay and materials together with firing facilities can be included, if required. Over the years, Sarah has also arranged numerous public workshops at galleries and community centres around the North of England.

Maisie

Sarah has recently produced a new range of small pieces in black or terracotta clay.

Terracotta earth piece.

Simple coiled or slab-built shapes forming heads of figures are incised with lines or patterns, and these are filled with contrasting pale colour.

Black earth piece.

The terracotta range highlights the fluid shapes and stylised curves of the female form and are defined with incised lines, together with strong colours to contrast with the clay body.

Black earth piece.

Sarah’s work sits well in Heart Gallery and this year she will also be exhibiting at the following events:

19th – 21st November: Linden Arts Group exhibition at the Arts festival shop, Albert Street, Hebden Bridge.

6th Nov – 8th Jan: ‘Kaleidoscope Christmas Exhibition’ at The Platform Gallery, Clitheroe.

Danny

Although this little chappie is called Danny …  I’m sure by big chappie, Bart, modelled for this one!!

Bart at Filey!

What do you think?

Kerry Mosley

Having just taken delivery of some of Kerry’s amazing work she kindly sent me this link for you to follow. If you scroll down on this site from the top bar under THIS ISSUE you will find an image of Kerry’s which I now have framed in Heart Gallery and I must say that it is amazing. It was displayed for this last weekend and received a great deal if interest from my customers. What I love best about this portrait piece is its ability to change depending on the angle you view it from. Standing at my counter on Saturday, Paula and I commented that from the distance we were looking from you couldn’t tell that it was a stitched, textile piece but even so it was a haunting image which definately grabbed you and made you look twice. I will post an image of the framed piece in the near future but in the meantime please check it out from this link, thank you. http://www.ebony.co.uk/workbox If you like what you see you may wish to commission Kerry to do a piece for you from a photograph of your choice so do please get in touch with me at Heart Gallery to discuss this option, thank you.