The Anglian Arts Project launched in October 2019. The aim of the project is to bring together groups of professional artists and makers from all over East Anglia in a selling exhibition in a venue in Essex or Suffolk. The project is organised by Graham Bell and Sally Pudney who have organised arts festivals and exhibitions in the Colchester area of North East Essex since 2012.
We have two exhibitions planned for 2024.
Information about the exhibitors in our May exhibition:
Shaun Hall
I have been making pots mainly in raku for nearly 25 years! I graduated from Middlesex University having specialised in the technique of raku kiln firing. This method I have continued to refine over time, and the endless surface variations and colours the process can yield never cease to fascinate me. It can be an elusive yet equally fascinating technique. I tend to work with copper based glazes which can develop turquoise, deep blue, green or bright copper and bronze tones.
More recently I have begun to develop my own volcanic glaze pots, which like Raku can be very temperamental- but equally as intriguing and very tactile, with dry crater surfaces! These are fired to around 1240c- with Raku being much lower fired to around 1000-1050c.
Initially I made slab constructed pots and these I continue to develop and make. They echo modernist forms whilst also referencing older more archaic sculpture. I also have pursued wheel thrown pottery in tandem and these are loosely inspired by both traditional Pottery from Japan and pre medieval or iron age ceramics. I throw all my pots on an old upright kick wheel which was my Mum’s.
I have work on show at Buckenham Galleries in Southwold and a bit further afield at Ship of Fools in the Orkney Isles. I am a member of Anglian Potters and am featured in a recent book on Raku entitled “Contemporary Raku”- authored by Stephen Murfitt and published by Crowood Press in 2023.
I now work from my home workshop in Earls Colne having moved from Halstead after 15 years in August 2023.
Anna Osborne (The Speculating Rook)
Using a combination of free-machine embroidery and screenprint Anna produces textiles for interiors.
All work begins with observational drawing. Then, reusing fabric whenever possible, she combines wool, silk, velvet, linen and printed cottons to make cushions, lampshades, bags and upholstered stools which are then illustrated with stitched drawings creating new surface patterns and textures with each piece of work.
Sarah Woodcock ( Hopton Leather)
Sarah is a traditional leatherworker, using traditional techniques and materials, but with her own designs. She took up her grandfather’s saddlery tools a few years ago and continues to develop her practice. In lockdown she established her business Hopton Leather and works with the Suffolk Craft Society to promote her work and that of other East Anglian artists.
Neville Tatham
Neville makes functional Slipware pottery that is raw fired to earthenware temperatures. The materials and techniques used remain visible, often with the warmth of the terracotta clay showing through the glaze or left bare, creating a textural contrast between the raw and glazed surfaces. The pots are decorated using slip trailed and incised decoration which is then finished with a lead based glaze. The application and thickness of the slip also determines a range of effects.
Jane Mitchell Finch
Jane is a free motion embroiderer who originally trained as a Graphic Designer. She works from her studio in Brampton, Suffolk, and takes inspiration from the local landscape, the coast and nature. She will always search for the slightly quirky side of life which will be interpreted through stitch. This will take many forms – the use of fabrics to create a collage, a more graphic approach using just a bold black line, or the use of watercolours and threads for a more painterly look. To create these she uses linens, old collected textiles and felt.
Nicholas Rowe
Nicholas is an artist and craftsperson turning wood. He draws inspiration from the bark, grain, imperfections and distinctive features in green/wet, seasoned and reclaimed wood he sources locally. Deciding initially what form enables the best appreciation of the natural material’s visual and tactile qualities, he is often induced to alter the final form to respect hidden voids, cracks, Spalting lines or grain ripples that reveal themselves whilst turning. His material sensitive approach creates work where character and provenance are central.
Ed Mitchell Finch
In 2017 we converted a large garden shed into a cosy, light, print studio and the Mitchell-Finch Letterpress was born!
This adventure in print actually began many years ago, when we were first taught to compose metal type during our first year at Norwich School of Art. However, by the time we left college at the end of the 1970’s, to work in the design industry, typesetting had already begun the slide into digital.
So this is a return to my roots, getting away from the computer screen to produce work manually. Working with vintage metal and wood type to express my designs by hand-printing on vintage printing presses. Getting inky and enjoying it.
I have gathered a small collection of wood and metal type and presently have the following printing equipment available:
Adana 8×5 and Model 3 desktop presses, Adana TP48 powered press, Harrild & Sons treadle press and a Farley flat-bed proofing press. There is another large treadle press awaiting restoration and I am always on the lookout for more letterpress equipment.
Sally Pudney
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The second exhibition of 2024 will be at The Barley Barn, Church House Farm, Rectory Road, Aldham CO6 3RT from Wednesday, 18th September to Sunday, 22nd September, open each day from 10.30-4.30
Exhibitors to be announced.
Scroll down for details of our previous exhibitions.
ANGLIAN ARTS PROJECT EXHIBITION SEPTEMBER 2023
Our second exhibition of the year will take place at The Sentinel Gallery, Chapel Road, Wivenhoe CO7 9DX from Tuesday, 12th September to Sunday 17th September, open daily from 10.30am-4.30pm, except on the Sunday when we will close early at 3.30pm.
The exhibiting artists will be:
Andrew Pitt – a watercolour landscape painter from Reydon near Southwold in Suffolk
Christine McKechnie – a collage artist from Southolt near Eye in Suffolk
Chrissie Lines – a jeweller from East Walton near Kings Lynn in Norfolk
Greta Hansen – a printmaker working in lino print from Stowmarket in Suffolk
Anne-Marie Jacobs – a potter from Mersea Island in Essex
Sarah Woodcock – a leather worker, trading as Hopton Leather, from Hopton in Suffolk
Sally Pudney – an acrylic landscape painter from Lexden, near Colchester in Essex
More images and information about each artist will be added as we visit them during August, leading up to the show, so do keep checking back here.
Chrissie Lines
Chrissie is a jeweller working mainly in silver and sea-glass. She is very environmentally conscious in her work: the silver she uses is re-cycled, and the sea-glass is picked up from the beach in Norfolk, where she lives, and by friends in Northumberland and Ireland who collect it for her. As she says, it is re-using a man-made product, no-one has had to go down a mine to get it, and no-one is being ripped off for it. Her work glows with its beautifully rich greens, and deep indigo blues, and watercolour shades of aqua, set off perfectly by the silver settings. Each piece is unique, as no two pieces of sea-glass are the same, and Chrissie has to design each setting to suit that individual piece of glass. Chrissie works in a lovely studio adjoining the farmhouse where she lives in the rural countryside of West Norfolk.
See more of her work on her Instagram account here.
Anne-Marie Jacobs
Anne-Marie Jacobs’ work is caused by her fascination with the Essex salt marsh. The feelings of strength, fragility, wildness and restriction are present in the landscape. With this unapologetically decorative work she adds to those things a sense of preciousness and balance which come from the human experience of the landscape.
See more of Anne-Marie’s work here.
Christine McKechnie
Christine McKechnie is a collage artist working in the Suffolk village of Southolt, near Eye.
“My work is made up of many layers of cut paper, painted with water colour and sealed. I use my drawings as a starting point carried out wherever I am, at home or abroad. I live in a pretty thatched cottage and have a studio built especially for me by my architect husband at the end of my long flower and vegetable garden. I am happy to receive visitors. My work has been shown at the RA summer exhibition, and I have had many solo shows in London and elsewhere.”
See more of Christine’s work here.
Sally Pudney
Sally is a landscape painter working in acrylic and pastel in an expressive realistic style. Her work focuses on the fields, woodlands, footpaths and lanes of East Anglia, especially her native Essex, and its coastline and rural buildings. She enjoys exploring these areas, walking, drawing and taking photographs. She paints in a garden studio at her home in Lexden, just outside Colchester.
She has published three small books resulting from her painting projects – Twelve Months in an Essex Wood, Twelve Months in an Essex Field, and the most recent, Twelve Months on an Essex Island. They will all be available at the exhibition.
She is co-organiser of the Anglian Arts Project, along with Graham Bell, and this webpage is hosted on her own website. Select from the menu bar above to see more of her work on the Gallery, and Small Paintings and Drawings pages and here to see her Instagram account.
Andrew Pitt
Greta is an artist printmaker working in lino print and wood cut, living in Stowmarket in Suffolk. She trained at Ipswich Art School, Central St Martins and London University, and taught art and pottery, first in London and then at Bacton in Suffolk. She then became a professional artist, inspired by the landscape of rural Suffolk. Her prints are developed from drawings and paintings made in situ on regular sketching trips. In her printmaking she uses the reduction method, often working from dark to light. She particularly loves the colour effects that can be achieved using this method.
Greta has exhibited with us several times before and her colourful finely detailed work is always popular with our visitors.
To see more of Greta’s work see her Instagram account @greta_hansen and her page on www.suffolkcraftsociety.org
ANGLIAN ARTS PROJECT EXHIBITION MAY 2023
Our first exhibition of 2023 is at The Craft House, 1B Thoroughfare, Woodbridge IP12 1AA. It will run from Wednesday, 24th May – Tuesday, 30th May open each day from 10.30am-4.30pm.
Scroll down for information about the artists taking part.
David Flower
David is a glassmaker, working at Salt Glass Studios in Norwich, Norfolk. He has been a glassmaker since graduating Staffordshire University in 1999 with a Design: Glass BA(hons). He has always used glass and colour to reflect his environment, ‘from the fading beauty of a hydrangea in Bury St Edmunds to a blustery walk on a Norfolk beach’.
He strives to imply the feeling of his experience rather than the detail. He says, ‘Nature is my greatest teacher, her use of colour and texture makes her the greatest artist.’
Neil Whitehead
Neil is an artist, illustrator, photographer and designer, and is a new exhibitor for the Anglian Arts Project. He originally trained as a technical illustrator, and then became a designer and art director working for large agencies and consultancies mainly in London. After a spell freelancing he established a design and consultancy with his wife in Dedham, and then, twenty years ago, moved to the south west of France, where they ran painting and other creative courses.
He now lives in the small Suffolk village of Felsham, just south of Bury St Edmunds.
His paintings are principally of landscapes in a semi-impressionistic style, and he works mostly in acrylic and watercolour. He is inspired by the local landscape, and loves colour and structure. His illustrative work is technical in nature, especially of vintage cars, planes and trains.
For more information about Neil see his Instagram account @lienbackwards and his website www.ideaart.uk
Greta Hansen
Greta is an artist printmaker working in lino print and wood cut, living in Stowmarket in Suffolk. She trained at Ipswich Art School, Central St Martins and London University, and taught art and pottery, first in London and then at Bacton in Suffolk. She then became a professional artist, inspired by the landscape of rural Suffolk. Her prints are developed from drawings and paintings made in situ on regular sketching trips. In her printmaking she uses the reduction method, often working from dark to light. She particularly loves the colour effects that can be achieved using this method.
Greta has exhibited with us several times before and her colourful finely detailed work is always popular with our visitors.
To see more of Greta’s work see her Instagram account @greta_hansen and her page on www.suffolkcraftsociety.org
Denise Brown
Denise is a ceramic artist working from her studio on the family farm in rural Cambridgeshire. Her current work draws inspiration from her surrounding Fenland landscape, from the many walks along rural farm droves where she lives, and the renowned Fenland skies and waterways. This new ‘Fenland’ style of work was very popular during our September 2022 show, and since then Denise has been developing this theme further.
She constructs using slab building techniques and her designs are incised into the clay using a simple potter’s knife and tools made from found objects.
See more of Denise’s work on her website www.denisebrownceramics.co.uk and on her Instagram account @denisebrownceramics.
Richard Allen
Sally Pudney
Sally is co-director and organiser of the Anglian Arts Project, along with Graham Bell. This page is hosted on her own website – go to the menu bar above for more information about Sally, and to view her Gallery, Small Paintings and Drawings and Blog pages. You can also follow her on Instagram @sallypudneyartist and the Anglian Arts Project itself @anglianarts
ANGLIAN ARTS PROJECT EXHIBITION SEPTEMBER 2022
Our second exhibition of 2022 will be held at the Sentinel Gallery, Chapel Road, Wivenhoe, Colchester CO7 9DX. It will run from Tuesday 13th September to Sunday 18th September open each day from 10.30-4.30
Cathy Constable
Cathy Constable is a fused glass artist who lives in the little village of Fingringhoe. Situated on the Roman River, close to Mersea Island and the Essex marshlands, Cathy finds the landscape around her endlessly fascinating – and inspiring for her work. She uses fused glass as a vehicle to express the ethereal qualities and feeling of the salt marshes, water channels and mudflats. She finds that the reflective properties of glass can be exploited to evoke the patterns of water and land, and builds up layers of glass, which are fired between 700c and 800c, to emulate the layers in the countryside. Her work includes the use of opaque and iridescent glass, enamels, glass powders and frit, which all add to the complexity of the pieces. She likes to work on the edge of abstraction to reflect a sense of place, and adds small details to give a touch of context, such as a sandpiper or avocet, sailing boats or marshland plants.
See Cathy’s work on her website www.cathycoglass.co.uk or follow her on Instagram or Facebook @cathyconstablefusedglass
Michael Carpenter
Michael Carpenter has been a jeweller for nearly 50 years. He lives and works in Debenham, Suffolk.
He trained in Birmingham and then worked in London, gaining valuable experience in various fields of jewellery making, from the fashion jewellery market, to high end one-off pieces.
He moved to Suffolk in 1984 and set up his own workshop, creating jewellery collections and selling widely across the UK. He opened Spiral Gallery in Debenham in 2004.
Michael has exhibited at many other venues over the years, including The Goldsmiths Hall, the Barbican, and Leeds City Art Gallery.
For more information about Mike and his work go to his website here
Below are two images of his recent work.
Jane Mitchell Finch
Jane is a free motion embroiderer who originally trained as a Graphic Designer. She works from her studio in Brampton, Suffolk, and takes inspiration from the local landscape, the coast and nature. She will always search for the slightly quirky side of life which will be interpreted through stitch. This will take many forms – the use of fabrics to create a collage, a more graphic approach using just a bold black line, or the use of watercolours and threads for a more painterly look. To create these she uses linens, old collected textiles and felt.
See Jane’s work on her website at www.mitchell-finch.online or follow her on Instagram @ jane_mitchell_finch
Below are two images of her recent work.
Clare Kiely
Clare Kiely is a textile artist. It is the gentle beauty of her three alpacas and the glorious softness of their fleece that is the foundation of her work. In a world that is obsessed with speed, Clare’s art is slow and sustainable, using only the natural colours of the alpacas and spinning, weaving and felting entirely by hand.
Clare is particularly inspired by shapes created by dark against light and is constantly drawn to ancient symbols which represent deeper fundamental truths.
The Arts and Crafts Movement with its emphasis on traditional craftsmanship, truth to materials and simple forms has had a great influence on her work as has John Ruskin’s passion for environmentalism and sustainability.
Aware of the healing power of art, Clare offers a variety of textile workshops from her home in Waldringfield with the opportunity to meet Clement, Fergus and Norman and then create something beautiful out of their fleece.
See more of Clare’s work at https://www.suffolkalpaca.co.uk
and on Instagram @suffolkalpaca
Denise Brown
Denise is a ceramic artist working from her studio on the family farm in rural Cambridgeshire. Her work draws inspiration from the British coastline, mostly from the South West, and also from her surrounding Fenland landscape. She constructs using slab building techniques and her designs are incised into the clay using a simple potter’s knife and tools made from found objects. Sometimes pieces are finished with the application of 22ct gold leaf. Her latest work is informed by the many walks along rural farm droves where she lives, and the renowned Fenland skies and waterways.
See more of Denise’s work on her website www.denisebrownceramics.co.uk and on her Instagram account @denisebrownceramics.
Andrew K Clarke
Andy is a watercolour seascape and landscape artist. He was born in Ipswich, Suffolk and from a very early age just wanted to ‘do art’. He studied Graphic Design and Illustration at Colchester School of Art and Norwich School of Art culminating in a B.A. (Hons) in 1984. After running his own graphic design business for 25 years, in 2017 he returned to watercolour painting in earnest, a medium that he has always loved.
His work usually starts from loose, plein air watercolour sketches accompanied by photographs for reference. Final paintings are then produced from his studio. He is drawn to the wilder more natural landscapes that some parts of the UK have to offer, especially the creeks, estuaries and coasts of Suffolk, Essex and Norfolk, which are a constant source of inspiration and delight.
Andy is an associate member of the Society of East Anglian Watercolourists, and he has exhibited at their Open exhibitions since 2017. He has also exhibited with the Society of Graphic Fine Art and The Royal Society of Marine Artists at the Mall Galleries, London.
Anne Townshend
Anne Townshend is a printmaker. Suffolk is where she lives and works, and she finds inspiration everywhere. Gentle countryside, unspoiled river valleys, the atmospheric east coast with its long shingle beaches and peaceful marshlands.
Anne can often be found cycling around her local lanes armed with a sketchbook, gathering ideas for her next lino-print. Back in her studio she carves the design into the lino block; then she uses her cast iron Albion press – which has been with her since the beginning of her printmaking journey – to make her prints. Making art is Anne’s pleasure, and she hopes it gives others pleasure too.
Sally Pudney
Sally Pudney is a landscape painter based in Lexden near Colchester, working in an expressive realistic style. She works in acrylic on board, often with added oil pastel or other media.
The image below shows her drawing at West Mersea, and an image of one of her paintings from her 2022 painting project Twelve Months on an Essex Island.
Sally is co-director and organiser of the Anglian Arts Project, along with Graham Bell. This page is hosted on her own website – go to the menu bar above for more information about Sally, and to view her Gallery and Blog pages. You can also follow her on Instagram @sallypudneyartist and the Anglian Arts Project itself @anglianarts
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ANGLIAN ARTS PROJECT EXHIBITION MAY 2022
Our first exhibition of 2022 will take place in St Mary’s Church Hall, Church Road, Little Bentley, Essex, CO7 8SE. It will run from Saturday, 14th May to Tuesday, 17th May, and will be open daily from 10.30 – 4.30. There is a free parking area a few yards from the Hall. Little Bentley is a lovely village in a very rural part of Essex, and the Hall was originally built as a little village school just outside the church.
I am delighted to share the list of painters, printmakers and artist craft makers who will be exhibiting their work with us at Little Bentley in May. They are:
ANGLIAN ARTS PROJECT EXHIBITION 2021
Our 2021 exhibition will take place in the Essex Wildlife Trust’s Naze Centre at Walton-on-the-Naze where we have hired their large Education Room. It will run from Saturday, 4th September to Saturday 11th September and will be open daily from 10.30 – 4.30. There is a large car park just outside, and a cafe run by the Essex Wildlife Trust in the same building. The whole building has disabled access.
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Our first exhibition which took place in October 2019. Our 2020 exhibition had to be cancelled due to the Covid 19 pandemic.
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The first exhibition was held at the ‘Open Art Space’ in the Sentinel Gallery in Chapel Road, Wivenhoe.
Artist and musician Alfie Carpenter works with paint, paper, voices, sounds and words to create songs and scenes. Based in rural Suffolk and using a mixture of plein air and studio work, Alfie’s visual art captures the distinct landscapes of East Anglia through playful and evocative mixed media collage. Having trained as a singer and composer, Alfie writes and performs dream-folk songscapes as well as exhibiting his art across the UK.
Alfie’s musical and artistic outpourings are equally atmospheric. Whether the components are shapes, colours and textures, or pitches, words and voices, Alfie assembles music and art to give life to a landscape, vision or emotion.
Using scrap papers, textured surfaces, printed text, fabric and found objects, Alfie’s collage technique involves building up layers of collage, washing over the top with acrylic paint and finishing with pencil to achieve a unique interpretation of landscapes. Created en plein air as well as in the studio, Alfie’s landscapes aim to capture the sense of a place by emphasising texture, colour and perspective.
Alfie was selected for the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Based Media in 2020 and 2021 and has exhibited in Brick Lane Gallery London, and throughout East Anglia.
For more information about Alfie and his work go to his website here