ALISON JACOBS
@alispangle
www.alisonjacobs.art
[email protected]
I am a visual artist interested in the natural world. I trained in Art, Geography and Graphic Design. In 1993 I obtained a BSc Hons in Physical Geography from the University of Derby and in 1998 an HND in Graphic Design from Somerset University.
I enjoy investigating the landscape where I am based and enjoy recording, collecting and archiving what I find there. I am interested in exploring the environment around me puzzling over relics of the past and how things are transformed by the processes of time. I am thinking more about how all things are connected and cannot escape ideas of climate change and the balance of our planet. My latest work is focused on the West Somerset Coastal margins.
I’m predominately a painter in acrylic but also enjoy painting digitally using an iPad. I am a studio holder and founder member of Contains Art located at the iconic East Quay building in Watchet. I am also a member of Hatch Art Collective and Somerset Art Works.
ROLYPOLY
2025 ongoing
Mixed Media
RolyPoly is a never ending artwork. I add to it everytime I make work usually from the bits left over, or odd thoughts or things I have found. It's intended to be interactive, the viewer must turn through its cards by turning the wheel. It's a collection of random ideas. It's my brain. Its fragments of my imagination and memories, layered, trapped in a metaphorical box. You can rifle through it, take a peek, read my mind, look into my past, puzzle over it, maybe it will trigger some shared memory? Let those thoughts free.
Medium - My old Rolydex index card system from when I worked at Springett Associates in London in 1998
AMANDA SHEARS
@amandajshears_art
www.ajsdesigns.org.uk
[email protected]
I am a multidisciplinary artist. My practice covers sculpture, painting, installation, film and performance dance. I love being experimental.
‘I do not create what I see, I create how I feel.’
Making site specific installations fill me with nervous tension & excitement. I always start with a concept that develops through conversation, research, trial and much error. I use materials that I have or that I find lying around. There is always last minute chaos and an energy that projects itself onto every new piece.
As a sculptor working with different materials I use techniques from traditional carving to freestyle experimental form. I work freely and believe that every curve and line drawn or sculpted has a purpose.
Collaborating on projects and being part of a collective such as Hatch is what drives me. Bringing a message through art, experiences, friendships is where the magic starts. I make art to engage reaction and emotion, to question life. So react.. feel emotion and feel free!
THE WIRED BRAIN
2025
Chicken Wire
Thinking. The Brain. That's what it does. Right? Does it think inside or outside the box? Does the brain think for itself or does it allow the system to think for it? Does it just go through the motions. Gets the body up and awake, moving, touching, talking, painting, messaging, loving, hurting, seeing, feeling, smelling, listening, making, running, dancing. Thinking? What is it thinking? I'm wired. Wired in my box. Can't get out. Stuck. Trapped. Everyone in their box. My thoughts want to get out. Get out of the box. But they are wired. The system stays in the box. Change the system. Change the system. Think outside the system, but my brain is still in the box. Wired. Can't get out. So many thoughts charging through my brain. But the brain still goes through the motions. Gets my body up and awake, moving, touching, walking, feeling, hurting, loving, being, reading, hearing, smelling, crying, laughing, seeing, dancing...
Think through the wired brain. Get out of the box.
AMANDA HALL
@amanda.hall43
www.amandahall43.com
[email protected]
I am a conceptual visual artist working with a range of media including textiles, found objects, sculpture, installation and performance. I came unexpectedly and late to the world of art and making, having had a long career in the health and social care sector. This has had a profound influence on my creative practice which explores and questions issues that are important to me and common to us all. Issues such as the environment, women’s rights, health and ageing.
I draw upon materials from a range of sources to explore and develop ideas, this often involves altering found and personal objects, displacing their focus from the practical to the aesthetic whilst asking us to consider the important issues of today.
I am increasingly interested in involving others in projects as I believe that collaborative art is a powerful political tool to encourage individual reflection, promote discussion, instigate community and challenge existing ideas.
ALCHEMY
2023
Mixed media: metal and beads
The Alchemies are three stainless steel frying pan splatter guards, embellished with multiple beads in green, black and orange and suspended using a bicycle wheel.
The work is part of a series that explores the theme of what we leave behind. Inspired by the aftermath of a house fire, I was intrigued by the patterns created by the water from the fire brigade’s hoses in the soot that had settled onto the kitchen cupboards and works surfaces. The beads have been hand stitched onto the splatter guards in differing designs, each representing a pattern created by the flow of water into soot. It intends to give value to every day domestic objects, often ignored and easily discarded.
AMY THORNLEY-HEARD
@amythornleyheardartist
www.amythornleyheardartist.co.uk
[email protected]
I am a multidisciplinary artist working in sculpture, installation art, ceramics, and collage. My art practice centres around matrescence (the rite of becoming a mother), entomology, agriculture, food and memory. The themes recurring in my work have elements of artivism spun into threads with personal stories.
CONSTITUENT PARTS
2025
Paint, tin, plastic baby bottles, silicone teats, shopping receipts, bird's nest, wing mirror, plastic toothbrush, paper, fairy lights, dried flowers, seashells, fishing wire, galvanised steel chain, steel fixings.
I am part lid, part shell, part toothbrush, part teat.
Part key, part light, part flower, part receipt.
I first had the urge to make this work during the perinatal and then postpartum phase of my second child's pregnancy, birth and fourth trimester.
Some aspects of the maternal mental and physical load represented in 'Constituent Parts':
Lid - comfort, containment
Shell - protection, covering
Toothbrush - hygiene
Teat - nourishment, nipple substitute, milk
Key - security, learning
Light - lifeforce, illumination
Flower - growth, reproduction
Receipt - never ending need to feed
Paint - smothering, coating, cracking open
To my babies I was every function. Death by a thousand tiny cuts of nappy changes, night feeds, dishes and laundry. Before long the fragmentation of female identity through maternity began. It felt like I was being incrementally smothered by incessant service. Drowning in responsibility. It felt like I was somehow being coated and eroded from the inside out.
ANNA BAKER
@anna_e_baker
www.anna-baker.co.uk
[email protected]
I’m a multi-disciplinary artist working from my studio in rural Somerset. Dealing predominantly with paper and cloth I’m investigating the relationship between people and spaces, most often natural landscapes.
My practice has become a celebration of small moments. Searching and finding as I walk or stand still. Collecting visual notes from domestic life and the land beneath our feet, making sense of how those two things influence each other.
Studying how connections form, and how the rules of conversation shift as their environments change, I work both in a solo capacity and collaboratively to journal the land and our relationships with it.
SMALL BESIDE YOU, SMALLER BESIDE ME
2025
Reclaimed cloth, thread, paint, pins, recycled aluminium
‘Small Beside You, Smaller Beside Me’ has come from a reflective place, considering motherhood, family life, support systems, a resonant desire to understand personal landscapes and their 'conversation' with external landscapes.
Studying the places, spaces, moments, where one thing meets another. And the cyclical nature of this.
It deals with the spirit of the domestic, and a chaotic celebration of the land. The relationship between these two ‘places’.
This piece began with these words…
I put myself in a wild landscape
of hedgerows and woodland,
travelling to farmed spaces,
negotiating furrows,
that tip me gently
into structures of daily domestic life.
And back again.
CHARLIE MCFARLEY
@charlie_mcfarley
www.charliemcfarley.com
[email protected]
My work stands out for its bold, colourful style, blending playful yet refined compositions with clean lines and dynamic forms. Drawing on my graffiti roots, my creations fuse street art sensibilities with a deep affection for vintage comic book illustration, resulting in striking visuals that are both energetic and evocative.
Over the years, I have gained recognition for my contributions to the art world, exhibiting in numerous acclaimed shows throughout London and the UK, including a recent group exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery.
Now residing in West Somerset, I continue to make my mark as both an artist and a mentor. From my studio in Minehead I continue my painting practice and designs large-scale community and commercial murals, while also leading regular art workshops for local youth, sharing my passion for creative expression and inspiring the next generation of artists.
THE EVOLUTION OF MAN
2015
Acrylic on wooden doll
The evolution of MAN is a satirical piece that pokes fun at the expected progress a "typical" man is pressured to undergo. Wearing a suit and tie, looking presentable while holding down a good job and being able to provide for his family. The final figure in the set of babushka dolls has progressed acceptably through the stages of growing up from his humble beginning, represented by the first doll (a twinkle in his daddies eye.)
DEBBI SUTTON
@SuttonOnSutton
[email protected]
At the heart of my art is a responsive documentation of my world, mediated
through play. I cross traditional boundaries and am not contained by, or
explained by, traditional labels such as painter/sculptor/photographer/writer.
I curiously experiment, responding to surroundings, ideas and memories. I see
echoes and connections. My work can spiral from previous pieces, The Silver
“Volcano” cloak from the fire gods became the lining for a listening space in
“An Uneasy Peace”. “I Thought I was Going to be Comfortable” is another listening piece.
I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO BE COMFORTABLE
2025
Airbed, cardboard box and sound
The inside of an airbed becomes the outside of a box, within a metre square. From inside a breath like sound of pumping.
The airbed developed a slow leak, that got bigger. I would start comfortably held aloft on a bed of air, and then, through the night it gently lowered me onto the hard, unforgiving ground. I would pump and it would lower.
Sleep evaded me on those nights; until one night I decided to explore the inside of the mattress. It was a time I was moving and boxes became the bane of my life. Hundreds of boxes haunted me, filling my studio and a room I should not enter. I took a box declaring it a work of art. The mattress became angry and with innards exposed it smothered the cardboard. Inside the box I am still trying to inflate the mattress so that I can sleep.
“I thought I was going to be Comfortable” Possessions packed into boxes. 4 nights on an airbed in my former home. Airbed failed and I could not sleep. I took it apart and made a curious object.
ELAOISE BENSON
@ebensonart
www.ebensonart.co.uk
[email protected]
I am an artist working across painting, poetry, and performance My work navigates grief, feminism, and environmentalism. And I am captivated by the fluidity of perception, the dualities and tensions within phenomenological experience.
My paintings emerge from plein-air meditations with the woodland, which are translated into acrylic on scrap canvas and fabric. Fragments of remembered places dissolve into shifting forms and colour, creating portals to liminal spaces. My poetry serves as an overt display of my artistic subjectivity which is reintroduced into painted works, forming a cyclical process.
Through abstraction, I favour uncertainty, inviting reflection on ones ecological relationships. In the face of climate crisis, reconnecting with the land feels vital. Since losing my mother in 2022, my work has deep ties to grief and the spiritual healing nature provides. I see the landscape as a site of transformation, and hope our empathy for it can become a new mode of activism.
IT'S ALWAYS FOGGY TILL YOU APPEAR
2025
Acrylic on canvas, netting, twine, scrap fabric, embroidery
It's Always Foggy Till You Appear aims to visually depict the painting process - a meditation on paintings materiality, repetitions, diversions and the unseen hours of labour that is committed to it. Two paintings are woven together with twine, holding between them scraps of discarded works and fabric, as well as embroidered musings on my relationship with art making and the irrevocable connection it has to my loss. For me, moving through grief is rather like making a painting. The painting can never be more than a fragment of the experience, but it still brings moments of beauty and moments of joy with it. It's an expression of love with nowhere else to go.
EMILY DIAMOND
@e_diamond_sculpture
[email protected]
I enjoy exploring ideas around nature connectedness so a language between the natural world and humanity is evident within my work. My sculpture often aims to celebrate the beauty of nature, specifically trees, but recently I have gone down some different avenues to express my ideas by creating sculptures involving small scenes of people with narratives about society and the environment using a combination of collage and discarded waste material. I try to create work where feeling and the experiential initiative can inspire the viewer to reflect on the subject of nature and our place within it.
LIVE
2024
Collage/sculpture
‘Live’ is a part of a tryptic called ‘Live, Laugh, Lie’. The work consists of a collage scene of a crowd of elderly people looking into a red sky which is set within a dusty washing machine window. The tryptic comments on three generations, ‘Live’ is specifically about the elderly. What are they looking into? The past, present or the future?
FRANCES ALLERTON
@francesallerton
[email protected]
I have enjoyed painting all my life but ending my social work career has given me more time to learn and experiment. I had an early introduction to oil paints and like their versatility in colour mixing. However I frequently use other traditional paints and inks when they are more practical or for greater translucency.
Until recently I have relied very much on painting what I saw, mainly landscapes, and felt that I couldn’t see colours or shapes in the same way if using photographs or my memory. As I’ve lived in the countryside for the last 25 years this has lead to a lot of sitting on muddy banks and pictures with fields, and even cows.
Once I have painted outside I feel I have enough information to experiment in comfort and tend to paint the same thing a number of times as I discover new things about the patterns of the landscape. Whilst I have painted in many locations I think the quiet horizontals of the local landscape have been my greatest influence.
WINTER LEVELS
2025
Wood, Found materials, Oil paint on canvas
In late 2024 the rhyne by the Tesco path, on North Moor in Langport, was cleared and all the bits of tree and mucky stuff were put in piles, on the grass, in time for the long, brown winter. The path runs at the back of my garden and is the view from my studio. I also had a knee operation that stopped me going very far in these months and so this piece is about wanting to see pretty views of the local countryside. It was quite interesting that there wasnt much plastic in the piles (maybe a community group removed it), and also that, even on some very dingy days, the moor still looked interesting as I wandered along the sloppy margin.
GEORGINA TOWLER
@georgina_towler
www.georginatowler.com
[email protected]
My life as a painter is endlessly entwined with my exploration and understanding
of the Somerset landscape; it’s the result of my intense observation and
accumulative consideration of the environments I’m surrounded by everyday.
Developed slowly over time, through a process of rumination, percolation and
abstraction in the studio, I use bold colour and form to investigate ambiguous rural
spaces. Hard meets soft, light meets dark, abandoned meets resolved, my visual
language moves back and forth, traversing the in-between. Referencing the duality
and dynamism to be found in landscape and in life, whilst also capturing the
symbiotic relationship between the artist, the painting, and the world around them.
YOU'RE TYING ME UP IN KNOTS
2023 - 2025
Acrylic on canvas
Entitled with the same name as one of the ‘sliced’ paintings it contains, ‘you’re tying me up in knots’ is formed entirely of numerous strips of painting, cut from abandoned or unresolved works from the previous couple of years. Weaved, tangled and knotted together this piece expands painting from its 2-dimensional tradition; exploring the on-going torment and trials of painting as an process, whilst also commenting on the interwoven nature of a painters practice.
JAN MARTIN
@janmartinillustration
www.janmartin.co.uk
[email protected]
I am a writer and illustrator and in the past 5 years I have been creating illustrated poetry books. In 2023 I became a member of the Quantock Poetry Trail Group and last year I produced a moving image installation with a spoken word soundtrack for their installation at East Quay, Watchet. Since then I have begun studying for the MA Creative Writing (Poetry) at Bath Spa University, where I have also made contact with a group who produce 'poetry films'; and have been taking the practice of setting my poetry to moving image further. I work in Photoshop, Capcut, Adobe Animate and use various other applications to record, film and animate my own words and images, with the intention of presenting spoken word and visual art together in a way that enhances both practices.
DROP
2025
Audio visual installation
The film and soundtrack I am showing use the written work that I have been producing on my MA Creative Writing (Poetry) at Bath Spa University. The MA requires that we produce a full manuscript of poetry. The theme for my manuscript (which will take the form of an extended poem) will be landscape as it reflects, symbolises and echoes our human experience. It explores how our psychology can be expressed by the landscapes we live in and our responses to it. We use the landscape to communicate mood and frame of mind and it can provide challenge, healing or provoke self-examination. The visual element is a combination of collected imagery and film with animated text elements and effects: it is intended to enhance the spoken word element in order to stimulate a multi-sensory response to the work.
JANE MOWAT
@Janemarsmowat9
www.janemowat.co.uk
[email protected]
While I have been a printmaker, and based most of my work in wood (carving and printmaking) for several decades, it was while creating my four poster bed about 14 years ago that inspired my first textile pieces. Since then I have worked on a number of projects where I have 'drawn' the design in blackstitch onto white linen. I call these 'slow drawings'. These I have produced on themes such as seaweed for the coastal exhibition at East Quay in 2021, and the Flow exhibition at the Rural Life museum in Glastonbury. I also created 39 small mountain scapes as hanging 'handkerchiefs'for Hestercombe's "portrait landscape 'in 2022.
As a printmaker I have been a member of Somerset Printmakers since the 1990s, and have exhibited in the Mall Galleries and the Royal Academy London, and the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol. I have won prizes including in the Bridport Open and the Atkinson Gallery in Millfield.
My main themes are nature and our relationship to it.
WATERFALL
2025
Fabric, thread, tree branch, lights
My first thoughts were of the box, and how somehow the piece had to be contained in it. I decided to use my blackwork embroidery, as this is a medium that lends itself to installations and can be manipulated into various forms to suggest ideas or concepts.
Looking back to my first pieces produced maybe 10 years ago, I decided to re-pupose them. They were produced for an installation of a carved four-poster bed (a kind of 'box' on a larger scale), and one piece in particular depicted falling water.
Along the lines of nature, falling water, sunlight and shadows and the idea of nature that has no bounds but flows out in all directions is the counterpart:
Illusion, trickery, containment;trying to imitate the real (and probably failing!)
JAZZ POTTER
@jazz_potter09
www.jazzpotterart.com
[email protected]
I am an artist who enjoys delving into a range of mediums to create work which ranges from paintings, to collage, textiles and sculpture. I love to construct compositions and experiment with shape and colour. I make use of open spaces and shapes across all my work and I aim to play with how the colour interacts with this void like space.I like to work with certain imagery and re fabricate certain compositions together to create a new narrative or statement. I draw upon my personal experience a lot within my artwork investigating themes of grief, self esteem, self reflection and the female experience.
SPACE BETWEEN
2025
Paint mobile
The piece “Space between” was created on one of the many journeys my practice takes. My practice is quite process driven and this piece was derived from drawings I made of a previous work. I have been experimenting with lighting work in the studio. I had set about making collages using old underwear. I collaged and stretched these items over a frame before drawing the shapes of the shadows cast by the collage. I then set about considering how I could use these shapes to inform new work. I love the idea of different works having a common intrinsic thread or an essence of the past work in the new piece. “Space between” allowed me to consider a different approach to collaging that I’d normally taken. It has a skeletal look and when lit it can provide looming and ominous shadows. It could be described as a mobile and I love how you are presented with a new composition when looking at it from opposing perspectives.
JENNA MYLES
@somersetcool and @thelostskylark
www.thelostskylark.com
[email protected]
Years ago, when I was a singer songwriter, the focus of my creative practice was songwriting. Since then, I’ve spent decades playing with words in many different forms.
My love of message and meaning has largely developed into poetry. Since moving to Somerset, just over 9 years ago, the focus of that has been exploring nature and the landscape, as well as relationships, memory, and moments in time.
My aim is always to make people think, smile, or both!
I write my poetry and lyrics on handmade Somerset paper, using a restored, 1950’s, portable typewriter named Olive. She’s a beaut!
THE LOST SKYLARK
2025
Audio
‘The lost skylark’ is about the loss of creativity due to the constraints of time - in my case no longer songwriting/singing, as I used to years ago, when that was my focus. It’s also about the spark of creativity I still feel when I get a glimpse of that lost skylark… the singer/songwriter still in me, but largely hidden away these days.
I’ve written a three-verse traditional folk song exploring these themes and I have recorded it acapella.
For me, a lone voice is always more vulnerable, without any music accompanying it. That reflects the vulnerability I feel when sharing this part of myself these days. Recording my voice, singing outside amongst the birds, brings nature close – something that’s incredibly important to me now.
A new friend pointed out to me recently that my work in radio means I always amplify other people’s voices, and that this work gives me a space to share my own. I thought that was an interesting, insightful way of putting it.
JENNI DUTTON
@jennidutton9342
www.jennidutton.com
[email protected]
I am a multidisciplinary artist/activist, exploring themes around time, memory, identity and loss. I use both found and crafted, often discarded or second hand fabrics and objects, to make work referencing the human form.
I value the slow therapeutic and expressive power of working with a variety of materials and techniques. My work engages with personal doubts and anxieties, offering glimpses into the dreams and anxieties of childhood and adolescence, influence by long forgotten myths and fairy tales.
As adults we attempt to rationalise these unresolved longings, yet they continue to surface through the unconscious influencing what we create. This tension - between past fantasies and present realities- becomes a driving force in my practice.
TWICE SUSPENDED
2025
Tissue paper, PVA glue, acrylic box, mirror
A hollow empty body twice suspended.
Sila died of cold in Gaza.
Her father tenderly carries her tiny body
wrapped in white fabric,
to be buried in the sand.’
‘Twice Suspended’ is my response to this tragedy, repeated endlessly all over the world.
JENNY BARRON
@jennybarron36
[email protected]
I have created work with watercolour in range of styles for most of my working life. Although I paint mostly representational and realistic compositions with a still life theme I have also produced seascapes and occasionally slightly surrealist and imaginary narratives.
Some of my enthusiasms for use of pattern stem from my early training and work in textile design which I think has contributed hugely to my work , and my enjoyment of it, in general
THREE PLANES
2025
Mostly watercolour mounted on card
The structure I have used for this 3D piece of work comes from a wonderful book that I have often plundered for imaginary still life compositions, ‘The Penguin Dictionary of Strange and Curious Geometry’ . but this is my first venture into actually constructing something from its pages.
The surface patterns and images applied to the interlocking planes ( three in all..but with front and back ) can be seen as references to various elements ….inspired partly by the raw ‘free for all’ mix of nature and metal of the unique Hatch environment .
I have worked with textures, patterns and saturated colour in a mostly limited palette of blue (Paynes Grey) red ( purple and brown madder ) and yellow ( quinacridone gold ) which I hope will pull the different planes together. This venture has led me on an enjoyable and meandering exploration of many possibilities , only some of which could be included in the piece but which I will continue to pursue.
JOHN HAILSTONE
@john.granizophotography
www.granizo.uk
[email protected]
My photographic interest began at the age of ten, when I was given a Kodak Instamatic. Ten years later, equipped with a better camera, I began photographing nature & the natural environment, mainly in black & white. I enjoyed the whole process: from choice of film; noticing subjects; having an image in mind; exposing & developing the negative; through the lengthy process of making a fine print in the darkroom. This became the basis for my creative approach, which echoes Ansel Adams in terms of observation, visualisation and realisation. Yet, as Ansel observed, first you need the desire to photograph. In 1998 I began digital and processing and giclée printing in order to obtain the creative control in colour I previously enjoyed in black & white. I became a Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society in 2004. Since then I have exhibited extensively in Oxfordshire and Berkshire. For me, the realisation of a fine art print is an essential conclusion of the photographic process.
EXO EARTH
2015-2019
Illuminated giclée canvas prints
A triptych of glowing photographic canvases exploring speculative worlds that orbit stars other than our Sun and inspired by the over 5000 exo planets that astronomers have now discovered.
Each 70cm square canvas is illuminated from within and forms the side of a large triangular prism suspended by a black chain symbolising dark matter and links with the Cosmos:
Aether (God of upper atmosphere and light)
Aether originated from a yew tree in a Sussex churchyard.
Gaia (Personification of the Earth)
Gaia originated from driftwood on a Suffolk beach.
Nemesis (Goddess of retribution)
Nemesis originated in rocks on a Northumberland seashore.
My original photographs of the Earth and its lifeforms have been altered in form and colour to embody new earths beyond our own and may hint at possible futures for our Earth.
JULIET DUCKWORTH
@julietduckworth9631
www.julietduckworth.co.uk
[email protected]
Juliet Duckworth, born 1964, is a multi-disciplinary artist living and working in Somerset. She makes land art, sculptures and installation art and her work shows concern with temporality and preservation. Using readily available organic material she tries to capture moments in the recurring cycles of nature by casting negative space and forms found in the countryside around her home. Entropy is evident as her initial control of material, site and place is then left for the environment, time and natural influences to alter. Living beside a working farm in the countryside feeds her interest in persistent cycles of growth and decay. She tries to interrupt these by stalling natural order to observe changes over time. Her works deteriorate slowly becoming an active performance and an important part of the work’s aesthetic.
LISTEN TO THEM FALLING
2025
Apples, clay, fishing line, matchsticks, metal grid
Listen to them Falling is made from apple windfalls, found abundantly in my garden. I wrap them in clay to preserve fleeting moments in nature's cycles and suspend them in space. This allows changes to the surface from the internal rotting to be observed over time. The decaying process thus becomes an active performance between the viewer, space and fruit and an important part of the artwork's aesthetic. Viewers are invited to walk around the cube shaped artwork, to get close enough to smell and experience the apples dangling and changing before their eyes. The apple strings are ordered into a grid like pattern in contrast to their organic origins but relating to formal apple orchard planting. Entropy is evident in this work, as, while my initial control of site, source and material is ordered, the elements of nature and chance alter and sculpt it.
KIRSTEN MADEIRA-REVELL
@madeirarevell
www.madeirarevell.art
[email protected]
Kirsten is a multidisciplinary artist working across 2D, 3D, and installation art,
using line as her primary language to explore the dynamic between spontaneity
and intention. Her work is rooted in a commitment to social and environmental
equality, examining themes like repetition, nature, and the human condition.
Kirsten is fascinated by multi-perspectivity and the truths held within diverse belief systems. Keen to reveal "the other side of the story", a recurring theme in her art is the reimagining of women in mythology, challenging narratives that continue to diminish women today, such as maligned characters and cautionary tales.
With a background in cognitive design and engineering research, her process is
influenced by both analytical and creative perspectives, inviting viewers to see
things differently and reflect on their own perspective and experiences.
CHOICE
2025
Sculpture - repurposed steel & aluminium wire, repurposed plastic bottles, plaster, ready-mades
Our worlds can change through choice or by circumstance. Sometimes we leave parts of ourselves behind. We can lose our authentic voice. We can become more in one way and less in another. Do we have the choice to bring our whole self and expand beyond even our own expectations?
Inspired by the original Hans Christian Anderson story of ‘The little Mermaid’. This piece focuses on the themes of; moving from one world to the other, the pain of treading a path less than yourself, without a voice.
When the little mermaid left her world, she not only gave up her tail & her voice, but every step on her ‘longed for feet’ felt agonising. By strapping her tail on too, perhaps her voice will return, helping her navigate her chosen path?
The materials point to plastic pollution in the oceans - HDPE milk bottle lids are caught in used nylon fishing nets. Maybe this will thwart society from 'putting a lid' on women's wisdom. The casts are of my own feet, acknowleging the pain of dimming my own lights when working in male dominated industry.
LINDA WICKS
@craftsmen_furnishers
[email protected]
I’m influenced by Oriental style. I liken the processes of ceramics to alchemy
and push boundaries whilst being aware of the risk of “failure” in order to create
something unusual. I look to the natural world for my inspiration, especially rock
formations, where, under thousands of degrees of heat, minerals and metals were
mixed together to form the ‘cooled’ world we live in.
MISFIRED?
2024
Ceramic
This exhibition especially appeals to me because I can hang my work instead of
using conventional shelving.
I have decided to exhibit my “ failed” pots and sculptures, combining different
pieces together to create new entities.
MADELEINE ROCK
@maddierockartist
[email protected]
I am an artist and printmaker inspired by the natural world. Walking and drawing are my starting points, allowing me to explore and understand my subject before translating my experience into print. Through the process of making plates, I search for ways to convey the textures, rhythms, and structures of the landscape.
I am drawn to the tactile qualities of collagraph, where surface and texture play a central role in image-making. My practice pushes print beyond the flat plane—scaling up, layering, and moving into three dimensions.
Through experimentation with surface—layered ink prints, blind embossing, and stencil cut-outs—I seek to create works that interact dynamically with light and shadow, shifting and transforming with their surroundings.
WOODMAN’S FOLLOWER
2025
Collagraph print on paper, wire frame
The piece is inspired by my visits to Horner Woods, part of the Holnicote Estate on Exmoor. Now reduced to less than 2% of Britain, the conservation and management of ancient woodlands is essential to preserve their unique habitats. National Trust’s 50 year vision for Horner Wood hopes for a ´flourishing ecosystem’ including, at its margins, healthy colonies of the rare Heath fritillary, commonly known as the Woodman’s follower.
I use these butterflies here as a symbol of hope as they flit around the woodland periphery drawing us in to take a closer look at the printed and embossed paper surface. This work is both an exploration of print and a response to the fragility and beauty of ancient woodlands; to the twisting tree limbs, shifting light, and deep-rooted histories that captivate me.
MELANIE DEEGAN
@melaniedeegan
www.melaniedeegan.com
[email protected]
As a founder member of Hatch I always value the opportunity to create work for the vast and challenging space that the barn offers. This is in complete contrast to my daily sculpture practice which is more conventional and requires significant investment in time to create the level of detail I require. The principal focus of my daily practice is the observation of movement, or more specifically the intention behind the movement. It is a study of anatomy combined with an appreciation of the materials used and their limitations. Whereas at Hatch I can enjoy the immediacy of creating large, temporary structures with no long term purpose.
CONTAINING CREATIVITY
2025
Mixed Media
Positioned inside the box observing the smooth walls there was a compulsion to deconstruct the lining. Using the material to construct new shapes. Randomly locating these within the interior. From a creative perspective this proved unsatisfactory. The limitation of the walls had to be removed. Cutting and sawing until the surface was pierced and light could flood in. Scratching and hacking away the walls, driven to break out and escape the limitations of the white cube.
MELLONY TAPER
@MellonyTaperArtist
www.mellonytaper.com
Following the birth of her daughter a decade ago, Mellony Taper found her practice constrained by domestic borders. Lacking both time and space to make physical work, she began making digital, photographic works that manifested themselves in versions of the memorabilia, fabrics and domestic objects of a home; works that reference family photos, clothing, household objects and linens. Taper refers to this body of works by the umbrella label of ‘Domestic Use Only’: loaded with implicit ambivalence regarding her place as an artist in both the home and the wider world.
A TROJAN HORSE
2025
Mixed media and found objects: inside out dress; entomology pins.
“Motherhood is the strangest thing, it can be like being one's own Trojan horse.”
- Rebecca West
Functions of a Trojan Horse: secrecy, concealment, misrepresentation, deception, sleight of hand. Something that is not what it seems.
MIKE BRADSHAW
I am a visual artist, collector, educator and designer.
In my artistic practice I make playful three-dimensional work by selectively composing and arranging found objects, images and recycled material, which I describe as ‘drawings in physical space’. I use a wide range of media to complement the construction, often recording my progress towards outcomes using photography, to provide visual ‘sketches’ to support development and modification.
Central to this process is recognising the inherent qualities of the items I use, including past ownership, provenance, age and the way I see it now. In some work I am looking for equivalents that I can ‘draw with’; illustrating physical qualities, such as form, structure, texture or changes in scale, with the potential to provoke the viewer’s curiosity.
Collectively composed, these visual elements are crafted to re-imagine origins, offering new explanations and meanings as well as creating new messages, expressions or narratives.
AXON
2025
Mixed Media
Axons are the neuron transmitters responsible for passing on messages within the brain.
Thinking inside the box I wanted to recreate the fundamental elements of thinking that ‘the cell’ implies, through the complexity of it’s construction. The woven organic material is birch gathered after the recent storms. The structure is freely suspended inside its ‘box’. It holds itself, floating within the space, yet literally branching out, reaching outside the box to transmit what ever thought you may imagine.
Changing the scale, the cell can be perceived as rather sinister when you consider this is the source of our thinking. Does the grid cage our thoughts or is it protecting the fragility of their origins?
However you see and read this piece, the axons are positively reaching out, they will transmit and hopefully hold your attention to experience other perceptions about the piece to discuss and question.
NICKY SAUNTER
@nickysaunter
www.throughtheroundwindow.com (under development)
[email protected]
My work is an exploration in a variety of media about connection, understanding and emotion between people, and between people and non-human things. I am interested in the story of our lives, how we tell them to ourselves and to others, and what impact these stories have on us and on those to whom we tell them. As a human I am always aware that I am part of a huge living organism we call Earth. We do not know what other beings call this mega-being. One day we might know more. For the moment we can only glimpse connection between the human and non-human world, sometimes sensing it like perfume left behind in an empty room, sometimes feeling it through other strong emotions like awe, wonder, love and fear. There is a constant see-saw of connection between humans and between humans and non-human things. I include objects, both natural and manmade, particularly where memory and experience has imbued them with emotional connection. Connection can be weak but it is always there.
FREEDOM TREE
2025
Mixed - wood, paper, textile
Freedom Tree is the story of the women of Afghanistan and their connection to each other and to the rest of the world. Since the imposition of increasingly repressive rules on Afghan women by the Taliban, the blend of historic cultural traditions and strict interpretations of Islamic law has left half the nation imprisoned at home with little or no access to education, healthcare, self expression, travel, friendship or fun. Reading a book about the hidden stories of Afghan women, I felt a strong connection to these people and a horror at their predicament. Their lives seem bound and restricted like the bonsai tree that forms the main support structure of Freedom Tree. It is fragile, starting to decay and yet its brave rainbow colours and tiny reaching branches still hold some hope. It grows from this remarkable book. Figures with the faces of real women hang from sparkling threads and feature writing by Afgham women on their bodies. Other faceless figures represent stories untold.
OSCAR BURNS
@oscarburnsart
www.oscarburnsart.com
[email protected]
I am a multifaceted artist specialising in interactive and immersive sculpture, sound and performance. My work explores community engagement, inclusivity in creativity and the relationship between humanity and nature. By using creativity as a form of communication and discovery I hope to engage people in the benefits of art, collaboration and self expression.
DAWN
2025
Steel, Plaster, Motor, Sensors
This piece is about the inevitability of change, learning how to embrace it and looking forward to a new day.
PATRICK BREMER
@patrickbremerart
www.patrickbremer.co.uk
[email protected]
Using found images and drawing from the zeitgeist captured in discarded magazines, I aim to explore the interconnectedness of identities and experiences, as well as the influence of social and cultural contexts. By layering diverse images, patterns, colours, and motifs, the portraits blur the line between realism and abstraction, inviting viewers to look closer and uncover the hidden narratives within.
I have exhibited throughout Europe, USA and South Korea, and produced collages for a wide range of clients such as Cadillac, Google and The New Yorker. I currently work from my studio in Minehead, West Somerset.
LULLABY
2025
Graphite and acrylic gel medium on paper
This piece is a departure from my usual collage pieces, using graphite and paper rather than magazine cuttings, to experiment with a more spontaneous and unpredictable way of working with paper. Hidden in the piece are rubbings of things on the desk, such as old coins, and explores themes of childhood memory via the madeleine moment, or Proust effect, whereby small triggers can involuntarily invoke previously forgotten memories.
PHIL NICHOLAS
www.soundcloud.com/phil-nicholas
[email protected]
I am a musician, composer and creator of sound scapes. Throughout my career I have created music and soundtracks for TV and film. My aim is to create audio atmospheres which directly shift the mood of the place, and so the listener walking through it. This is often without their conscious recogntion. I enjoy playing with music technology and playing its sounds with a keyboard. I am a keyboard player at heart.
1. "INTO THE BOX; 2. "CUBISM"
2025
Sound, plastic tubing, cotton, steel, wood
Part 1
composed music for entering the exhibition coming from speakers inside floating white cubes; Ambient strings/electronica.will send ruff mix in a week or so.
Part 2
composed music to finish your experience of the exhibition, hopefully at the far end of exhibition.this is physically coming from a black cube 1 meter cubed above you.with speakers inside and a sound synced light display.
R.M. SÁNCHEZ-CAMUS
@appliedliveart
www.camusliveart.net
[email protected]
My practice is rooted in participation, co-creation, and psychogeography—methods that challenge traditional hierarchies of artistic production. I am committed to art as a vehicle for social engagement, a means to unearth hidden narratives and create spaces for collective reflection. I explore personal and communal narratives, creating spaces for reflection and dialogue. London-based since 2005 I was born in New York City to parents who migrated from Chile.
I believe art is a catalyst for social change and collective ownership. My projects engage communities in storytelling and activism, transforming public spaces into arenas for expression. Creativity fosters well-being, and I integrate this philosophy into all my work, from art initiatives to storytelling collaborations. I aim to build solidarity through the creative process, bridging divides and fostering empathy.
I run Applied Live Art Studio (ALAS) and teach at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design.
Sound Design with Patrick Furness.
ECHOES OF THE LIVED
2025
Sound Installation
In "Echoes of the Lived", I am interrogating structures of confinement—through the lens of the physically entrapped life of the battery-farmed hen, I explore systems of control that dictate human existence.
The work is an echo chamber for lived conditions, drawing on the repetitive shifting cadences of mechanized labor, monotony, and yearning. This interplay mirrors contemporary existential conditions—where language, expression, and any dissent are often swallowed into the self-replicating machinery of capital and governance. An entrapment that force blooms an imperative to construct meaning from the condition.
The animal in captivity has no free will, which we assume to have, yet we submit ourselves to the systems we were born into, rationalizing our inertia through constructed necessity. Through our relationship with the farmed animal’s existence we can consider our own modern condition: trapped in illusion while holding out for redemption.
ROD HIGGINSON
@rod.hig
www.rodhig.com
[email protected]
My interest in photography started at the age of 10 years and has been a life long fascination,. The techniques i use have evolved without the input of a formal photographic education. Black and white photography allows me to focus entirely on the subject without the distraction that colour can introduce. More recently working with groups of artists has introduced a new dimension into my work. Hatch provides an environment that particularly appeals to my preference for dark spaces and shadows. Observing the creativity of other artists brings a fresh perspective to my view of the world.
NOT NORMAL
2025
Mixed Media
The idea for a photograph fitted to the end of a cube suddenly came into my mind. The concept of a cube defined the photograph for me. The normality of a family camper van outing , they look out to sea surrounded by their dogs. Other components remind me of Hatch, the caravan I have used for previous exhibitions and the pigs in the woods, free to live out their natural life. The black and white figures are inspired by images from a book I have which is written by a Zen monk. Their simplicity appeals to me as they move in and out of cube in a seemingly random manner, they are not limited by the confines of the cube.
SAM COPSEY
@samcopsey_sculpture
[email protected]
The majority of my practice consists of mechanised movements and humorous happenings. Technology and machines are notoriously built for development and progress; my work satirizes this idea of progress. The wheels, gears and chains of my machines allude to some practical, productive process, yet their appearance is misleading: anticipated mechanised functions result in a dysfunctional, often comical perpetual loop, teasing at the premise of what a machine is for.
I find great pleasure in combining and composing found objects; when they fit together perfectly it is as if they were waiting for that moment; their history and context add another layer to my work. I explore the interplay of objects, creating new relationships and tensions: the precise moment of something fitting into or falling out of place.
HOMAGE TO BARBARA
2025
Sculpture, mixed media: found objects, metal, wood, electric motor
The idea for this piece initially came from finding the cast iron drain cover with 'HEPWORTH' written across it. As a fan of Barbara Hepworth's work I couldn't resist creating an art work dedicated to her. I have playfully combined found objects and materials associated with stone masonary, and experimented with their forms and movements.The piece also alludes to the idea of time passing and the meditative making process.
SARAH MEIKLE
@Sarah.meikle.artist
[email protected]
I work with a wide variety of materials, teaching creative crafts to groups across the community. I have a background in Diversional Therapy, using creativity and diversion to help people with terminal illnesses and in recent years I have run a crafts club for people affected by sight loss. I also produce my own work in ceramics, textiles and willow, and undertake commissions. My exhibition work includes recycled materials where possible, as I am conscious of the amount of materials that can end up thrown away.
THE CREATIVE ROAD
2025
This work includes willow, wire, varieties of paper, acrylic and recycled materials.
The Creative Road is an expression of the journey that unfolds before my feet, inspired by the many influences that cross my path. As a traveler in life, I am aware that my understanding of the world around me is changing and this plays a part in my creativity. There is a sense that it continually unfolds and evolves, with the capacity to expand and contract.
The journey is important because it connects to who I am, but it becomes brighter and more meaningful when it is entwined with helping other people on their creative road, no matter where they are on their journey.
SIMONE EINFALT
@simone.now
www.simoneeinfalt.com
[email protected]
Lives and works in Bristol and Somerset, UK
As an Artist, Filmmaker, and Producer, I create work at the intersection of moving image, object and sound art, often utilising new and emerging technologies such as motion capture, augmented reality or 3D scanning to explore place and its human and other-than-human expressions, heritage and future.
With a focus anchored in rural environments, I shed light on architecture, artefacts, and materials as well as people’s stories: My latest projects include Mapping the Rural (2023 - ongoing), and Strawberry Line (2023 - ongoing) through which I dive into archives of North Somerset communities.
In 2024, I started my MA Fine Art (Media) at Bath Spa University, further developing my sculpture and creative technology practice.
I am a resident at Pervasive Media Studio (Watershed), and a member of Bristol Experimental Expanded Film (BEEF). On some days during my week, I work as the Arts + Tech Producer for Bristol-based Knowle West Media Centre.
MAPPING THE RURAL - EMERGENCE I
2025
Ceramic, Video, Audio
The starting point for my research is my family’s former pre (and post) WWII Barn (Lower Austrian German dialect: ‘der Stadl’) situated in Zwettl am Kamp (AUT) which was demolished in 2023 after several attempts to save the desolate building. The deconstruction coincided with my late father’s aggressive neurodegenerative illness PSP and thus emerged as a ‘Sinnbild’, a representation, of memory loss and the transformation of identity. I am now collecting and ‘reconstructing’ the Barn aided by its remaining protagonist, a large home-built circular saw (‘die Kreissäge’) to understand my family’s history and to forge a method set for my speculative and historical narrative-focussed examination of transient place.
What will this place become?
What remains?
SUZANNE PARTRIDGE
[email protected]
My practice is people and witness, visual comunication and connection.
I am an artist who is left to wonder .. "what would the German Expressionists be making now?"
How are we to view the world?
What are we told?
Who is making us argue, and at what cost? because it is true to say -- someone always has to pay the price of free speech.
We are only human -- that is a fact.
I am drowning in social media, and mass miss-information, and AI - when what I really need is to connect with a truth that can be found within the imperfection of human made artworks. The communication of another that says, I am here, I see you and you see me. The ordinary finger print of something that was created because the need to make it was bigger than the lack of skill it took to create. Artwork that allows me to feel and think and comunicate .. "this is a piece of my soul that I hadnt seen until you showed it to me."
NORTH STAR
2018 - 2025
Life Jacket. Inflatable Boat material. Red tape. Cable ties.
People die as a result of our comfort and convienience. Here in the global north the rest of the world is not considered much more than a holiday destination. And beyond that do we really percieve the following as an acceptable truth .. "we have lifestyle, they have war. we have papers to travel, they do not" (?)
Spanning the years 2015-2018, I worked as an independent volunteer artist, alongside the international community in The Calais Jungle, and Pipka Refugee Camp in Lesvos.
I collected life jacket material and inflatable boat material from the coastline of Lesvos, Greece. I made it into bunting, and lashed it together with cable ties. The bunting is a nod to my memory of the 1977 Jubilee. Bunting that now represents Empire, Colonialism, and Capatalism.
"The flowers are the children in the boats" -- after Syrian Journalist Mostafa Tellerfadi.
"Anyone who can see, will see it is a mess" -- after the painting of the same name. Calais Jungle resident 2016.
TINA SALVIDGE
@salvidgetina4
www.tinasalvidge.co.uk
[email protected]
I am an artist who explores past, present and future temporality in my practice. In other words, how we exist within or have some relationship with time. Delving through the perspectives of moving images, sound and display I work with film, ceramics, installation and aural artefacts.
Whilst I am attracted to moments of interplay and interconnection, I find that disjunction, (those leaks and glitches that opaquely intersect histories, memory, and archival presentation) also protrudes. There exists an element of everything being connected, often seemingly by accident, that creates a “not quite rightness” in my work that can be seen as off-kilter.
Often susceptible to science fiction, a ficto-narrative can emerge in my work as it develops, as I am drawn to the interaction of man and environment. Representation of landscape (real or imagined), our relationship with other species, and the connections between science fiction and folk traditions are some evolving areas of research.
I DREAMED OF YOU
2025
Mixed media (including 3D printed, organic and non organic materials
For the Hatch Open Call I wanted to challenge myself to make something distinctive from my existing body of work, and also at a smaller scale . The exhibition theme triggered thoughts of an abstraction of a container - of the element that make us sentient beings, that holds our emotional and intellectual life.
In 2012 my elderly mother suffered a stroke and was hospitalised, fortunately I was with her and able to advocate for a specific treatment. When she revived with all her intellectual faculties intact she told me she had dreamed of me.
The suspended mixed media assemblage is conceived as an interpretation of the box as the framework for the brain within and surrounded by interconnected blackened veins and blood vessels. Despite closing down and creating a membrane, the inner workings of the brain remain alive (shining bright). This isn’t the Soul, and I am not enough of a scientist to explain the workings of the brain but can only offer up my artist’s interpretation.
ZAC GREENING
@zacgreening
www.zacgreening.co.uk
[email protected]
My inspiration comes principally from nature – 'the ultimate sculptress'. I find the sculptural forms created by the sun, moon, waves and trees particularly inspiring as symbols of sustainability.
I works in a wide range of media from discarded plastic bottles to organic matter. Often these materials are fused together to reinforce the aesthetic or narrative that I am looking to express.
A narrative is created that highlights the relationship between man and the natural environment. Common themes found in my work often abstractly express or make a comment on issues such as sustainability, environmental degradation, or consumption; alternatively they may simply be an expression of the marvel and awe he sees in a sunset or the kinetic and meditative experience found in the rolling of sea waves. I try to communicate and remind the viewer of mankind’s inextricable socio-economic and spiritual link with the natural world.
THINKING ABOUT REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE
2025
Repurposed plastic bottles
I think about the fragile state of the natural world and think about the necessity to moderate our daily consumption. My favourite quote being "Consider your consumption"
ZOE SNAPE
@zoe.snape.artist
www.zoesnape.com
[email protected]
Zoe Snape is a multidisciplinary artist exploring transience through bubbles, sea foam, bioart and assemblage to provoke emotional engagement with the climate crisis. Based in East Quay, Watchet, UK, she makes art that examines control, confinement, freedom and psychological resilience.
MOTHER
2025
Plastic ball-pool-balls on aluminium
I am an artist-mother-carer. I struggle to juggle.
Trapped at home, in my head, thinking inside the box of domesticity and great responsibility. I focus on scarce resources.
My kids are gifted a ball-pool-pit. They jump in it, explosions of popping plastics. Unsteady Gran trips over balls. Grandad cradles one in his hands, dementia puzzling purpose. Husband kicks one beneath the curtains. Friends scorn the plastic presence.
I re-fill the pit. The kids jump in it.
Explosion. I shout. Guilt.
I apologise. I tidy them. They spill.
I tidy.
I spill.
Tidy spill.
Tony’s pill.
Tony’s ill.
I cannot solve these problems. I have to think inside the box. Embrace the constraints.
A plastic stalactite. Perverse plastic milky mammary. A clown’s clutter. These guilty plastics, these guilty feelings are not going anywhere. They are non-biodegradable. Incessant. They pour. I constrain. They pour.
A plastic stalagmite is growing somewhere.
@alispangle
www.alisonjacobs.art
[email protected]
I am a visual artist interested in the natural world. I trained in Art, Geography and Graphic Design. In 1993 I obtained a BSc Hons in Physical Geography from the University of Derby and in 1998 an HND in Graphic Design from Somerset University.
I enjoy investigating the landscape where I am based and enjoy recording, collecting and archiving what I find there. I am interested in exploring the environment around me puzzling over relics of the past and how things are transformed by the processes of time. I am thinking more about how all things are connected and cannot escape ideas of climate change and the balance of our planet. My latest work is focused on the West Somerset Coastal margins.
I’m predominately a painter in acrylic but also enjoy painting digitally using an iPad. I am a studio holder and founder member of Contains Art located at the iconic East Quay building in Watchet. I am also a member of Hatch Art Collective and Somerset Art Works.
ROLYPOLY
2025 ongoing
Mixed Media
RolyPoly is a never ending artwork. I add to it everytime I make work usually from the bits left over, or odd thoughts or things I have found. It's intended to be interactive, the viewer must turn through its cards by turning the wheel. It's a collection of random ideas. It's my brain. Its fragments of my imagination and memories, layered, trapped in a metaphorical box. You can rifle through it, take a peek, read my mind, look into my past, puzzle over it, maybe it will trigger some shared memory? Let those thoughts free.
Medium - My old Rolydex index card system from when I worked at Springett Associates in London in 1998
AMANDA SHEARS
@amandajshears_art
www.ajsdesigns.org.uk
[email protected]
I am a multidisciplinary artist. My practice covers sculpture, painting, installation, film and performance dance. I love being experimental.
‘I do not create what I see, I create how I feel.’
Making site specific installations fill me with nervous tension & excitement. I always start with a concept that develops through conversation, research, trial and much error. I use materials that I have or that I find lying around. There is always last minute chaos and an energy that projects itself onto every new piece.
As a sculptor working with different materials I use techniques from traditional carving to freestyle experimental form. I work freely and believe that every curve and line drawn or sculpted has a purpose.
Collaborating on projects and being part of a collective such as Hatch is what drives me. Bringing a message through art, experiences, friendships is where the magic starts. I make art to engage reaction and emotion, to question life. So react.. feel emotion and feel free!
THE WIRED BRAIN
2025
Chicken Wire
Thinking. The Brain. That's what it does. Right? Does it think inside or outside the box? Does the brain think for itself or does it allow the system to think for it? Does it just go through the motions. Gets the body up and awake, moving, touching, talking, painting, messaging, loving, hurting, seeing, feeling, smelling, listening, making, running, dancing. Thinking? What is it thinking? I'm wired. Wired in my box. Can't get out. Stuck. Trapped. Everyone in their box. My thoughts want to get out. Get out of the box. But they are wired. The system stays in the box. Change the system. Change the system. Think outside the system, but my brain is still in the box. Wired. Can't get out. So many thoughts charging through my brain. But the brain still goes through the motions. Gets my body up and awake, moving, touching, walking, feeling, hurting, loving, being, reading, hearing, smelling, crying, laughing, seeing, dancing...
Think through the wired brain. Get out of the box.
AMANDA HALL
@amanda.hall43
www.amandahall43.com
[email protected]
I am a conceptual visual artist working with a range of media including textiles, found objects, sculpture, installation and performance. I came unexpectedly and late to the world of art and making, having had a long career in the health and social care sector. This has had a profound influence on my creative practice which explores and questions issues that are important to me and common to us all. Issues such as the environment, women’s rights, health and ageing.
I draw upon materials from a range of sources to explore and develop ideas, this often involves altering found and personal objects, displacing their focus from the practical to the aesthetic whilst asking us to consider the important issues of today.
I am increasingly interested in involving others in projects as I believe that collaborative art is a powerful political tool to encourage individual reflection, promote discussion, instigate community and challenge existing ideas.
ALCHEMY
2023
Mixed media: metal and beads
The Alchemies are three stainless steel frying pan splatter guards, embellished with multiple beads in green, black and orange and suspended using a bicycle wheel.
The work is part of a series that explores the theme of what we leave behind. Inspired by the aftermath of a house fire, I was intrigued by the patterns created by the water from the fire brigade’s hoses in the soot that had settled onto the kitchen cupboards and works surfaces. The beads have been hand stitched onto the splatter guards in differing designs, each representing a pattern created by the flow of water into soot. It intends to give value to every day domestic objects, often ignored and easily discarded.
AMY THORNLEY-HEARD
@amythornleyheardartist
www.amythornleyheardartist.co.uk
[email protected]
I am a multidisciplinary artist working in sculpture, installation art, ceramics, and collage. My art practice centres around matrescence (the rite of becoming a mother), entomology, agriculture, food and memory. The themes recurring in my work have elements of artivism spun into threads with personal stories.
CONSTITUENT PARTS
2025
Paint, tin, plastic baby bottles, silicone teats, shopping receipts, bird's nest, wing mirror, plastic toothbrush, paper, fairy lights, dried flowers, seashells, fishing wire, galvanised steel chain, steel fixings.
I am part lid, part shell, part toothbrush, part teat.
Part key, part light, part flower, part receipt.
I first had the urge to make this work during the perinatal and then postpartum phase of my second child's pregnancy, birth and fourth trimester.
Some aspects of the maternal mental and physical load represented in 'Constituent Parts':
Lid - comfort, containment
Shell - protection, covering
Toothbrush - hygiene
Teat - nourishment, nipple substitute, milk
Key - security, learning
Light - lifeforce, illumination
Flower - growth, reproduction
Receipt - never ending need to feed
Paint - smothering, coating, cracking open
To my babies I was every function. Death by a thousand tiny cuts of nappy changes, night feeds, dishes and laundry. Before long the fragmentation of female identity through maternity began. It felt like I was being incrementally smothered by incessant service. Drowning in responsibility. It felt like I was somehow being coated and eroded from the inside out.
ANNA BAKER
@anna_e_baker
www.anna-baker.co.uk
[email protected]
I’m a multi-disciplinary artist working from my studio in rural Somerset. Dealing predominantly with paper and cloth I’m investigating the relationship between people and spaces, most often natural landscapes.
My practice has become a celebration of small moments. Searching and finding as I walk or stand still. Collecting visual notes from domestic life and the land beneath our feet, making sense of how those two things influence each other.
Studying how connections form, and how the rules of conversation shift as their environments change, I work both in a solo capacity and collaboratively to journal the land and our relationships with it.
SMALL BESIDE YOU, SMALLER BESIDE ME
2025
Reclaimed cloth, thread, paint, pins, recycled aluminium
‘Small Beside You, Smaller Beside Me’ has come from a reflective place, considering motherhood, family life, support systems, a resonant desire to understand personal landscapes and their 'conversation' with external landscapes.
Studying the places, spaces, moments, where one thing meets another. And the cyclical nature of this.
It deals with the spirit of the domestic, and a chaotic celebration of the land. The relationship between these two ‘places’.
This piece began with these words…
I put myself in a wild landscape
of hedgerows and woodland,
travelling to farmed spaces,
negotiating furrows,
that tip me gently
into structures of daily domestic life.
And back again.
CHARLIE MCFARLEY
@charlie_mcfarley
www.charliemcfarley.com
[email protected]
My work stands out for its bold, colourful style, blending playful yet refined compositions with clean lines and dynamic forms. Drawing on my graffiti roots, my creations fuse street art sensibilities with a deep affection for vintage comic book illustration, resulting in striking visuals that are both energetic and evocative.
Over the years, I have gained recognition for my contributions to the art world, exhibiting in numerous acclaimed shows throughout London and the UK, including a recent group exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery.
Now residing in West Somerset, I continue to make my mark as both an artist and a mentor. From my studio in Minehead I continue my painting practice and designs large-scale community and commercial murals, while also leading regular art workshops for local youth, sharing my passion for creative expression and inspiring the next generation of artists.
THE EVOLUTION OF MAN
2015
Acrylic on wooden doll
The evolution of MAN is a satirical piece that pokes fun at the expected progress a "typical" man is pressured to undergo. Wearing a suit and tie, looking presentable while holding down a good job and being able to provide for his family. The final figure in the set of babushka dolls has progressed acceptably through the stages of growing up from his humble beginning, represented by the first doll (a twinkle in his daddies eye.)
DEBBI SUTTON
@SuttonOnSutton
[email protected]
At the heart of my art is a responsive documentation of my world, mediated
through play. I cross traditional boundaries and am not contained by, or
explained by, traditional labels such as painter/sculptor/photographer/writer.
I curiously experiment, responding to surroundings, ideas and memories. I see
echoes and connections. My work can spiral from previous pieces, The Silver
“Volcano” cloak from the fire gods became the lining for a listening space in
“An Uneasy Peace”. “I Thought I was Going to be Comfortable” is another listening piece.
I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO BE COMFORTABLE
2025
Airbed, cardboard box and sound
The inside of an airbed becomes the outside of a box, within a metre square. From inside a breath like sound of pumping.
The airbed developed a slow leak, that got bigger. I would start comfortably held aloft on a bed of air, and then, through the night it gently lowered me onto the hard, unforgiving ground. I would pump and it would lower.
Sleep evaded me on those nights; until one night I decided to explore the inside of the mattress. It was a time I was moving and boxes became the bane of my life. Hundreds of boxes haunted me, filling my studio and a room I should not enter. I took a box declaring it a work of art. The mattress became angry and with innards exposed it smothered the cardboard. Inside the box I am still trying to inflate the mattress so that I can sleep.
“I thought I was going to be Comfortable” Possessions packed into boxes. 4 nights on an airbed in my former home. Airbed failed and I could not sleep. I took it apart and made a curious object.
ELAOISE BENSON
@ebensonart
www.ebensonart.co.uk
[email protected]
I am an artist working across painting, poetry, and performance My work navigates grief, feminism, and environmentalism. And I am captivated by the fluidity of perception, the dualities and tensions within phenomenological experience.
My paintings emerge from plein-air meditations with the woodland, which are translated into acrylic on scrap canvas and fabric. Fragments of remembered places dissolve into shifting forms and colour, creating portals to liminal spaces. My poetry serves as an overt display of my artistic subjectivity which is reintroduced into painted works, forming a cyclical process.
Through abstraction, I favour uncertainty, inviting reflection on ones ecological relationships. In the face of climate crisis, reconnecting with the land feels vital. Since losing my mother in 2022, my work has deep ties to grief and the spiritual healing nature provides. I see the landscape as a site of transformation, and hope our empathy for it can become a new mode of activism.
IT'S ALWAYS FOGGY TILL YOU APPEAR
2025
Acrylic on canvas, netting, twine, scrap fabric, embroidery
It's Always Foggy Till You Appear aims to visually depict the painting process - a meditation on paintings materiality, repetitions, diversions and the unseen hours of labour that is committed to it. Two paintings are woven together with twine, holding between them scraps of discarded works and fabric, as well as embroidered musings on my relationship with art making and the irrevocable connection it has to my loss. For me, moving through grief is rather like making a painting. The painting can never be more than a fragment of the experience, but it still brings moments of beauty and moments of joy with it. It's an expression of love with nowhere else to go.
EMILY DIAMOND
@e_diamond_sculpture
[email protected]
I enjoy exploring ideas around nature connectedness so a language between the natural world and humanity is evident within my work. My sculpture often aims to celebrate the beauty of nature, specifically trees, but recently I have gone down some different avenues to express my ideas by creating sculptures involving small scenes of people with narratives about society and the environment using a combination of collage and discarded waste material. I try to create work where feeling and the experiential initiative can inspire the viewer to reflect on the subject of nature and our place within it.
LIVE
2024
Collage/sculpture
‘Live’ is a part of a tryptic called ‘Live, Laugh, Lie’. The work consists of a collage scene of a crowd of elderly people looking into a red sky which is set within a dusty washing machine window. The tryptic comments on three generations, ‘Live’ is specifically about the elderly. What are they looking into? The past, present or the future?
FRANCES ALLERTON
@francesallerton
[email protected]
I have enjoyed painting all my life but ending my social work career has given me more time to learn and experiment. I had an early introduction to oil paints and like their versatility in colour mixing. However I frequently use other traditional paints and inks when they are more practical or for greater translucency.
Until recently I have relied very much on painting what I saw, mainly landscapes, and felt that I couldn’t see colours or shapes in the same way if using photographs or my memory. As I’ve lived in the countryside for the last 25 years this has lead to a lot of sitting on muddy banks and pictures with fields, and even cows.
Once I have painted outside I feel I have enough information to experiment in comfort and tend to paint the same thing a number of times as I discover new things about the patterns of the landscape. Whilst I have painted in many locations I think the quiet horizontals of the local landscape have been my greatest influence.
WINTER LEVELS
2025
Wood, Found materials, Oil paint on canvas
In late 2024 the rhyne by the Tesco path, on North Moor in Langport, was cleared and all the bits of tree and mucky stuff were put in piles, on the grass, in time for the long, brown winter. The path runs at the back of my garden and is the view from my studio. I also had a knee operation that stopped me going very far in these months and so this piece is about wanting to see pretty views of the local countryside. It was quite interesting that there wasnt much plastic in the piles (maybe a community group removed it), and also that, even on some very dingy days, the moor still looked interesting as I wandered along the sloppy margin.
GEORGINA TOWLER
@georgina_towler
www.georginatowler.com
[email protected]
My life as a painter is endlessly entwined with my exploration and understanding
of the Somerset landscape; it’s the result of my intense observation and
accumulative consideration of the environments I’m surrounded by everyday.
Developed slowly over time, through a process of rumination, percolation and
abstraction in the studio, I use bold colour and form to investigate ambiguous rural
spaces. Hard meets soft, light meets dark, abandoned meets resolved, my visual
language moves back and forth, traversing the in-between. Referencing the duality
and dynamism to be found in landscape and in life, whilst also capturing the
symbiotic relationship between the artist, the painting, and the world around them.
YOU'RE TYING ME UP IN KNOTS
2023 - 2025
Acrylic on canvas
Entitled with the same name as one of the ‘sliced’ paintings it contains, ‘you’re tying me up in knots’ is formed entirely of numerous strips of painting, cut from abandoned or unresolved works from the previous couple of years. Weaved, tangled and knotted together this piece expands painting from its 2-dimensional tradition; exploring the on-going torment and trials of painting as an process, whilst also commenting on the interwoven nature of a painters practice.
JAN MARTIN
@janmartinillustration
www.janmartin.co.uk
[email protected]
I am a writer and illustrator and in the past 5 years I have been creating illustrated poetry books. In 2023 I became a member of the Quantock Poetry Trail Group and last year I produced a moving image installation with a spoken word soundtrack for their installation at East Quay, Watchet. Since then I have begun studying for the MA Creative Writing (Poetry) at Bath Spa University, where I have also made contact with a group who produce 'poetry films'; and have been taking the practice of setting my poetry to moving image further. I work in Photoshop, Capcut, Adobe Animate and use various other applications to record, film and animate my own words and images, with the intention of presenting spoken word and visual art together in a way that enhances both practices.
DROP
2025
Audio visual installation
The film and soundtrack I am showing use the written work that I have been producing on my MA Creative Writing (Poetry) at Bath Spa University. The MA requires that we produce a full manuscript of poetry. The theme for my manuscript (which will take the form of an extended poem) will be landscape as it reflects, symbolises and echoes our human experience. It explores how our psychology can be expressed by the landscapes we live in and our responses to it. We use the landscape to communicate mood and frame of mind and it can provide challenge, healing or provoke self-examination. The visual element is a combination of collected imagery and film with animated text elements and effects: it is intended to enhance the spoken word element in order to stimulate a multi-sensory response to the work.
JANE MOWAT
@Janemarsmowat9
www.janemowat.co.uk
[email protected]
While I have been a printmaker, and based most of my work in wood (carving and printmaking) for several decades, it was while creating my four poster bed about 14 years ago that inspired my first textile pieces. Since then I have worked on a number of projects where I have 'drawn' the design in blackstitch onto white linen. I call these 'slow drawings'. These I have produced on themes such as seaweed for the coastal exhibition at East Quay in 2021, and the Flow exhibition at the Rural Life museum in Glastonbury. I also created 39 small mountain scapes as hanging 'handkerchiefs'for Hestercombe's "portrait landscape 'in 2022.
As a printmaker I have been a member of Somerset Printmakers since the 1990s, and have exhibited in the Mall Galleries and the Royal Academy London, and the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol. I have won prizes including in the Bridport Open and the Atkinson Gallery in Millfield.
My main themes are nature and our relationship to it.
WATERFALL
2025
Fabric, thread, tree branch, lights
My first thoughts were of the box, and how somehow the piece had to be contained in it. I decided to use my blackwork embroidery, as this is a medium that lends itself to installations and can be manipulated into various forms to suggest ideas or concepts.
Looking back to my first pieces produced maybe 10 years ago, I decided to re-pupose them. They were produced for an installation of a carved four-poster bed (a kind of 'box' on a larger scale), and one piece in particular depicted falling water.
Along the lines of nature, falling water, sunlight and shadows and the idea of nature that has no bounds but flows out in all directions is the counterpart:
Illusion, trickery, containment;trying to imitate the real (and probably failing!)
JAZZ POTTER
@jazz_potter09
www.jazzpotterart.com
[email protected]
I am an artist who enjoys delving into a range of mediums to create work which ranges from paintings, to collage, textiles and sculpture. I love to construct compositions and experiment with shape and colour. I make use of open spaces and shapes across all my work and I aim to play with how the colour interacts with this void like space.I like to work with certain imagery and re fabricate certain compositions together to create a new narrative or statement. I draw upon my personal experience a lot within my artwork investigating themes of grief, self esteem, self reflection and the female experience.
SPACE BETWEEN
2025
Paint mobile
The piece “Space between” was created on one of the many journeys my practice takes. My practice is quite process driven and this piece was derived from drawings I made of a previous work. I have been experimenting with lighting work in the studio. I had set about making collages using old underwear. I collaged and stretched these items over a frame before drawing the shapes of the shadows cast by the collage. I then set about considering how I could use these shapes to inform new work. I love the idea of different works having a common intrinsic thread or an essence of the past work in the new piece. “Space between” allowed me to consider a different approach to collaging that I’d normally taken. It has a skeletal look and when lit it can provide looming and ominous shadows. It could be described as a mobile and I love how you are presented with a new composition when looking at it from opposing perspectives.
JENNA MYLES
@somersetcool and @thelostskylark
www.thelostskylark.com
[email protected]
Years ago, when I was a singer songwriter, the focus of my creative practice was songwriting. Since then, I’ve spent decades playing with words in many different forms.
My love of message and meaning has largely developed into poetry. Since moving to Somerset, just over 9 years ago, the focus of that has been exploring nature and the landscape, as well as relationships, memory, and moments in time.
My aim is always to make people think, smile, or both!
I write my poetry and lyrics on handmade Somerset paper, using a restored, 1950’s, portable typewriter named Olive. She’s a beaut!
THE LOST SKYLARK
2025
Audio
‘The lost skylark’ is about the loss of creativity due to the constraints of time - in my case no longer songwriting/singing, as I used to years ago, when that was my focus. It’s also about the spark of creativity I still feel when I get a glimpse of that lost skylark… the singer/songwriter still in me, but largely hidden away these days.
I’ve written a three-verse traditional folk song exploring these themes and I have recorded it acapella.
For me, a lone voice is always more vulnerable, without any music accompanying it. That reflects the vulnerability I feel when sharing this part of myself these days. Recording my voice, singing outside amongst the birds, brings nature close – something that’s incredibly important to me now.
A new friend pointed out to me recently that my work in radio means I always amplify other people’s voices, and that this work gives me a space to share my own. I thought that was an interesting, insightful way of putting it.
JENNI DUTTON
@jennidutton9342
www.jennidutton.com
[email protected]
I am a multidisciplinary artist/activist, exploring themes around time, memory, identity and loss. I use both found and crafted, often discarded or second hand fabrics and objects, to make work referencing the human form.
I value the slow therapeutic and expressive power of working with a variety of materials and techniques. My work engages with personal doubts and anxieties, offering glimpses into the dreams and anxieties of childhood and adolescence, influence by long forgotten myths and fairy tales.
As adults we attempt to rationalise these unresolved longings, yet they continue to surface through the unconscious influencing what we create. This tension - between past fantasies and present realities- becomes a driving force in my practice.
TWICE SUSPENDED
2025
Tissue paper, PVA glue, acrylic box, mirror
A hollow empty body twice suspended.
Sila died of cold in Gaza.
Her father tenderly carries her tiny body
wrapped in white fabric,
to be buried in the sand.’
‘Twice Suspended’ is my response to this tragedy, repeated endlessly all over the world.
JENNY BARRON
@jennybarron36
[email protected]
I have created work with watercolour in range of styles for most of my working life. Although I paint mostly representational and realistic compositions with a still life theme I have also produced seascapes and occasionally slightly surrealist and imaginary narratives.
Some of my enthusiasms for use of pattern stem from my early training and work in textile design which I think has contributed hugely to my work , and my enjoyment of it, in general
THREE PLANES
2025
Mostly watercolour mounted on card
The structure I have used for this 3D piece of work comes from a wonderful book that I have often plundered for imaginary still life compositions, ‘The Penguin Dictionary of Strange and Curious Geometry’ . but this is my first venture into actually constructing something from its pages.
The surface patterns and images applied to the interlocking planes ( three in all..but with front and back ) can be seen as references to various elements ….inspired partly by the raw ‘free for all’ mix of nature and metal of the unique Hatch environment .
I have worked with textures, patterns and saturated colour in a mostly limited palette of blue (Paynes Grey) red ( purple and brown madder ) and yellow ( quinacridone gold ) which I hope will pull the different planes together. This venture has led me on an enjoyable and meandering exploration of many possibilities , only some of which could be included in the piece but which I will continue to pursue.
JOHN HAILSTONE
@john.granizophotography
www.granizo.uk
[email protected]
My photographic interest began at the age of ten, when I was given a Kodak Instamatic. Ten years later, equipped with a better camera, I began photographing nature & the natural environment, mainly in black & white. I enjoyed the whole process: from choice of film; noticing subjects; having an image in mind; exposing & developing the negative; through the lengthy process of making a fine print in the darkroom. This became the basis for my creative approach, which echoes Ansel Adams in terms of observation, visualisation and realisation. Yet, as Ansel observed, first you need the desire to photograph. In 1998 I began digital and processing and giclée printing in order to obtain the creative control in colour I previously enjoyed in black & white. I became a Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society in 2004. Since then I have exhibited extensively in Oxfordshire and Berkshire. For me, the realisation of a fine art print is an essential conclusion of the photographic process.
EXO EARTH
2015-2019
Illuminated giclée canvas prints
A triptych of glowing photographic canvases exploring speculative worlds that orbit stars other than our Sun and inspired by the over 5000 exo planets that astronomers have now discovered.
Each 70cm square canvas is illuminated from within and forms the side of a large triangular prism suspended by a black chain symbolising dark matter and links with the Cosmos:
Aether (God of upper atmosphere and light)
Aether originated from a yew tree in a Sussex churchyard.
Gaia (Personification of the Earth)
Gaia originated from driftwood on a Suffolk beach.
Nemesis (Goddess of retribution)
Nemesis originated in rocks on a Northumberland seashore.
My original photographs of the Earth and its lifeforms have been altered in form and colour to embody new earths beyond our own and may hint at possible futures for our Earth.
JULIET DUCKWORTH
@julietduckworth9631
www.julietduckworth.co.uk
[email protected]
Juliet Duckworth, born 1964, is a multi-disciplinary artist living and working in Somerset. She makes land art, sculptures and installation art and her work shows concern with temporality and preservation. Using readily available organic material she tries to capture moments in the recurring cycles of nature by casting negative space and forms found in the countryside around her home. Entropy is evident as her initial control of material, site and place is then left for the environment, time and natural influences to alter. Living beside a working farm in the countryside feeds her interest in persistent cycles of growth and decay. She tries to interrupt these by stalling natural order to observe changes over time. Her works deteriorate slowly becoming an active performance and an important part of the work’s aesthetic.
LISTEN TO THEM FALLING
2025
Apples, clay, fishing line, matchsticks, metal grid
Listen to them Falling is made from apple windfalls, found abundantly in my garden. I wrap them in clay to preserve fleeting moments in nature's cycles and suspend them in space. This allows changes to the surface from the internal rotting to be observed over time. The decaying process thus becomes an active performance between the viewer, space and fruit and an important part of the artwork's aesthetic. Viewers are invited to walk around the cube shaped artwork, to get close enough to smell and experience the apples dangling and changing before their eyes. The apple strings are ordered into a grid like pattern in contrast to their organic origins but relating to formal apple orchard planting. Entropy is evident in this work, as, while my initial control of site, source and material is ordered, the elements of nature and chance alter and sculpt it.
KIRSTEN MADEIRA-REVELL
@madeirarevell
www.madeirarevell.art
[email protected]
Kirsten is a multidisciplinary artist working across 2D, 3D, and installation art,
using line as her primary language to explore the dynamic between spontaneity
and intention. Her work is rooted in a commitment to social and environmental
equality, examining themes like repetition, nature, and the human condition.
Kirsten is fascinated by multi-perspectivity and the truths held within diverse belief systems. Keen to reveal "the other side of the story", a recurring theme in her art is the reimagining of women in mythology, challenging narratives that continue to diminish women today, such as maligned characters and cautionary tales.
With a background in cognitive design and engineering research, her process is
influenced by both analytical and creative perspectives, inviting viewers to see
things differently and reflect on their own perspective and experiences.
CHOICE
2025
Sculpture - repurposed steel & aluminium wire, repurposed plastic bottles, plaster, ready-mades
Our worlds can change through choice or by circumstance. Sometimes we leave parts of ourselves behind. We can lose our authentic voice. We can become more in one way and less in another. Do we have the choice to bring our whole self and expand beyond even our own expectations?
Inspired by the original Hans Christian Anderson story of ‘The little Mermaid’. This piece focuses on the themes of; moving from one world to the other, the pain of treading a path less than yourself, without a voice.
When the little mermaid left her world, she not only gave up her tail & her voice, but every step on her ‘longed for feet’ felt agonising. By strapping her tail on too, perhaps her voice will return, helping her navigate her chosen path?
The materials point to plastic pollution in the oceans - HDPE milk bottle lids are caught in used nylon fishing nets. Maybe this will thwart society from 'putting a lid' on women's wisdom. The casts are of my own feet, acknowleging the pain of dimming my own lights when working in male dominated industry.
LINDA WICKS
@craftsmen_furnishers
[email protected]
I’m influenced by Oriental style. I liken the processes of ceramics to alchemy
and push boundaries whilst being aware of the risk of “failure” in order to create
something unusual. I look to the natural world for my inspiration, especially rock
formations, where, under thousands of degrees of heat, minerals and metals were
mixed together to form the ‘cooled’ world we live in.
MISFIRED?
2024
Ceramic
This exhibition especially appeals to me because I can hang my work instead of
using conventional shelving.
I have decided to exhibit my “ failed” pots and sculptures, combining different
pieces together to create new entities.
MADELEINE ROCK
@maddierockartist
[email protected]
I am an artist and printmaker inspired by the natural world. Walking and drawing are my starting points, allowing me to explore and understand my subject before translating my experience into print. Through the process of making plates, I search for ways to convey the textures, rhythms, and structures of the landscape.
I am drawn to the tactile qualities of collagraph, where surface and texture play a central role in image-making. My practice pushes print beyond the flat plane—scaling up, layering, and moving into three dimensions.
Through experimentation with surface—layered ink prints, blind embossing, and stencil cut-outs—I seek to create works that interact dynamically with light and shadow, shifting and transforming with their surroundings.
WOODMAN’S FOLLOWER
2025
Collagraph print on paper, wire frame
The piece is inspired by my visits to Horner Woods, part of the Holnicote Estate on Exmoor. Now reduced to less than 2% of Britain, the conservation and management of ancient woodlands is essential to preserve their unique habitats. National Trust’s 50 year vision for Horner Wood hopes for a ´flourishing ecosystem’ including, at its margins, healthy colonies of the rare Heath fritillary, commonly known as the Woodman’s follower.
I use these butterflies here as a symbol of hope as they flit around the woodland periphery drawing us in to take a closer look at the printed and embossed paper surface. This work is both an exploration of print and a response to the fragility and beauty of ancient woodlands; to the twisting tree limbs, shifting light, and deep-rooted histories that captivate me.
MELANIE DEEGAN
@melaniedeegan
www.melaniedeegan.com
[email protected]
As a founder member of Hatch I always value the opportunity to create work for the vast and challenging space that the barn offers. This is in complete contrast to my daily sculpture practice which is more conventional and requires significant investment in time to create the level of detail I require. The principal focus of my daily practice is the observation of movement, or more specifically the intention behind the movement. It is a study of anatomy combined with an appreciation of the materials used and their limitations. Whereas at Hatch I can enjoy the immediacy of creating large, temporary structures with no long term purpose.
CONTAINING CREATIVITY
2025
Mixed Media
Positioned inside the box observing the smooth walls there was a compulsion to deconstruct the lining. Using the material to construct new shapes. Randomly locating these within the interior. From a creative perspective this proved unsatisfactory. The limitation of the walls had to be removed. Cutting and sawing until the surface was pierced and light could flood in. Scratching and hacking away the walls, driven to break out and escape the limitations of the white cube.
MELLONY TAPER
@MellonyTaperArtist
www.mellonytaper.com
Following the birth of her daughter a decade ago, Mellony Taper found her practice constrained by domestic borders. Lacking both time and space to make physical work, she began making digital, photographic works that manifested themselves in versions of the memorabilia, fabrics and domestic objects of a home; works that reference family photos, clothing, household objects and linens. Taper refers to this body of works by the umbrella label of ‘Domestic Use Only’: loaded with implicit ambivalence regarding her place as an artist in both the home and the wider world.
A TROJAN HORSE
2025
Mixed media and found objects: inside out dress; entomology pins.
“Motherhood is the strangest thing, it can be like being one's own Trojan horse.”
- Rebecca West
Functions of a Trojan Horse: secrecy, concealment, misrepresentation, deception, sleight of hand. Something that is not what it seems.
MIKE BRADSHAW
I am a visual artist, collector, educator and designer.
In my artistic practice I make playful three-dimensional work by selectively composing and arranging found objects, images and recycled material, which I describe as ‘drawings in physical space’. I use a wide range of media to complement the construction, often recording my progress towards outcomes using photography, to provide visual ‘sketches’ to support development and modification.
Central to this process is recognising the inherent qualities of the items I use, including past ownership, provenance, age and the way I see it now. In some work I am looking for equivalents that I can ‘draw with’; illustrating physical qualities, such as form, structure, texture or changes in scale, with the potential to provoke the viewer’s curiosity.
Collectively composed, these visual elements are crafted to re-imagine origins, offering new explanations and meanings as well as creating new messages, expressions or narratives.
AXON
2025
Mixed Media
Axons are the neuron transmitters responsible for passing on messages within the brain.
Thinking inside the box I wanted to recreate the fundamental elements of thinking that ‘the cell’ implies, through the complexity of it’s construction. The woven organic material is birch gathered after the recent storms. The structure is freely suspended inside its ‘box’. It holds itself, floating within the space, yet literally branching out, reaching outside the box to transmit what ever thought you may imagine.
Changing the scale, the cell can be perceived as rather sinister when you consider this is the source of our thinking. Does the grid cage our thoughts or is it protecting the fragility of their origins?
However you see and read this piece, the axons are positively reaching out, they will transmit and hopefully hold your attention to experience other perceptions about the piece to discuss and question.
NICKY SAUNTER
@nickysaunter
www.throughtheroundwindow.com (under development)
[email protected]
My work is an exploration in a variety of media about connection, understanding and emotion between people, and between people and non-human things. I am interested in the story of our lives, how we tell them to ourselves and to others, and what impact these stories have on us and on those to whom we tell them. As a human I am always aware that I am part of a huge living organism we call Earth. We do not know what other beings call this mega-being. One day we might know more. For the moment we can only glimpse connection between the human and non-human world, sometimes sensing it like perfume left behind in an empty room, sometimes feeling it through other strong emotions like awe, wonder, love and fear. There is a constant see-saw of connection between humans and between humans and non-human things. I include objects, both natural and manmade, particularly where memory and experience has imbued them with emotional connection. Connection can be weak but it is always there.
FREEDOM TREE
2025
Mixed - wood, paper, textile
Freedom Tree is the story of the women of Afghanistan and their connection to each other and to the rest of the world. Since the imposition of increasingly repressive rules on Afghan women by the Taliban, the blend of historic cultural traditions and strict interpretations of Islamic law has left half the nation imprisoned at home with little or no access to education, healthcare, self expression, travel, friendship or fun. Reading a book about the hidden stories of Afghan women, I felt a strong connection to these people and a horror at their predicament. Their lives seem bound and restricted like the bonsai tree that forms the main support structure of Freedom Tree. It is fragile, starting to decay and yet its brave rainbow colours and tiny reaching branches still hold some hope. It grows from this remarkable book. Figures with the faces of real women hang from sparkling threads and feature writing by Afgham women on their bodies. Other faceless figures represent stories untold.
OSCAR BURNS
@oscarburnsart
www.oscarburnsart.com
[email protected]
I am a multifaceted artist specialising in interactive and immersive sculpture, sound and performance. My work explores community engagement, inclusivity in creativity and the relationship between humanity and nature. By using creativity as a form of communication and discovery I hope to engage people in the benefits of art, collaboration and self expression.
DAWN
2025
Steel, Plaster, Motor, Sensors
This piece is about the inevitability of change, learning how to embrace it and looking forward to a new day.
PATRICK BREMER
@patrickbremerart
www.patrickbremer.co.uk
[email protected]
Using found images and drawing from the zeitgeist captured in discarded magazines, I aim to explore the interconnectedness of identities and experiences, as well as the influence of social and cultural contexts. By layering diverse images, patterns, colours, and motifs, the portraits blur the line between realism and abstraction, inviting viewers to look closer and uncover the hidden narratives within.
I have exhibited throughout Europe, USA and South Korea, and produced collages for a wide range of clients such as Cadillac, Google and The New Yorker. I currently work from my studio in Minehead, West Somerset.
LULLABY
2025
Graphite and acrylic gel medium on paper
This piece is a departure from my usual collage pieces, using graphite and paper rather than magazine cuttings, to experiment with a more spontaneous and unpredictable way of working with paper. Hidden in the piece are rubbings of things on the desk, such as old coins, and explores themes of childhood memory via the madeleine moment, or Proust effect, whereby small triggers can involuntarily invoke previously forgotten memories.
PHIL NICHOLAS
www.soundcloud.com/phil-nicholas
[email protected]
I am a musician, composer and creator of sound scapes. Throughout my career I have created music and soundtracks for TV and film. My aim is to create audio atmospheres which directly shift the mood of the place, and so the listener walking through it. This is often without their conscious recogntion. I enjoy playing with music technology and playing its sounds with a keyboard. I am a keyboard player at heart.
1. "INTO THE BOX; 2. "CUBISM"
2025
Sound, plastic tubing, cotton, steel, wood
Part 1
composed music for entering the exhibition coming from speakers inside floating white cubes; Ambient strings/electronica.will send ruff mix in a week or so.
Part 2
composed music to finish your experience of the exhibition, hopefully at the far end of exhibition.this is physically coming from a black cube 1 meter cubed above you.with speakers inside and a sound synced light display.
R.M. SÁNCHEZ-CAMUS
@appliedliveart
www.camusliveart.net
[email protected]
My practice is rooted in participation, co-creation, and psychogeography—methods that challenge traditional hierarchies of artistic production. I am committed to art as a vehicle for social engagement, a means to unearth hidden narratives and create spaces for collective reflection. I explore personal and communal narratives, creating spaces for reflection and dialogue. London-based since 2005 I was born in New York City to parents who migrated from Chile.
I believe art is a catalyst for social change and collective ownership. My projects engage communities in storytelling and activism, transforming public spaces into arenas for expression. Creativity fosters well-being, and I integrate this philosophy into all my work, from art initiatives to storytelling collaborations. I aim to build solidarity through the creative process, bridging divides and fostering empathy.
I run Applied Live Art Studio (ALAS) and teach at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design.
Sound Design with Patrick Furness.
ECHOES OF THE LIVED
2025
Sound Installation
In "Echoes of the Lived", I am interrogating structures of confinement—through the lens of the physically entrapped life of the battery-farmed hen, I explore systems of control that dictate human existence.
The work is an echo chamber for lived conditions, drawing on the repetitive shifting cadences of mechanized labor, monotony, and yearning. This interplay mirrors contemporary existential conditions—where language, expression, and any dissent are often swallowed into the self-replicating machinery of capital and governance. An entrapment that force blooms an imperative to construct meaning from the condition.
The animal in captivity has no free will, which we assume to have, yet we submit ourselves to the systems we were born into, rationalizing our inertia through constructed necessity. Through our relationship with the farmed animal’s existence we can consider our own modern condition: trapped in illusion while holding out for redemption.
ROD HIGGINSON
@rod.hig
www.rodhig.com
[email protected]
My interest in photography started at the age of 10 years and has been a life long fascination,. The techniques i use have evolved without the input of a formal photographic education. Black and white photography allows me to focus entirely on the subject without the distraction that colour can introduce. More recently working with groups of artists has introduced a new dimension into my work. Hatch provides an environment that particularly appeals to my preference for dark spaces and shadows. Observing the creativity of other artists brings a fresh perspective to my view of the world.
NOT NORMAL
2025
Mixed Media
The idea for a photograph fitted to the end of a cube suddenly came into my mind. The concept of a cube defined the photograph for me. The normality of a family camper van outing , they look out to sea surrounded by their dogs. Other components remind me of Hatch, the caravan I have used for previous exhibitions and the pigs in the woods, free to live out their natural life. The black and white figures are inspired by images from a book I have which is written by a Zen monk. Their simplicity appeals to me as they move in and out of cube in a seemingly random manner, they are not limited by the confines of the cube.
SAM COPSEY
@samcopsey_sculpture
[email protected]
The majority of my practice consists of mechanised movements and humorous happenings. Technology and machines are notoriously built for development and progress; my work satirizes this idea of progress. The wheels, gears and chains of my machines allude to some practical, productive process, yet their appearance is misleading: anticipated mechanised functions result in a dysfunctional, often comical perpetual loop, teasing at the premise of what a machine is for.
I find great pleasure in combining and composing found objects; when they fit together perfectly it is as if they were waiting for that moment; their history and context add another layer to my work. I explore the interplay of objects, creating new relationships and tensions: the precise moment of something fitting into or falling out of place.
HOMAGE TO BARBARA
2025
Sculpture, mixed media: found objects, metal, wood, electric motor
The idea for this piece initially came from finding the cast iron drain cover with 'HEPWORTH' written across it. As a fan of Barbara Hepworth's work I couldn't resist creating an art work dedicated to her. I have playfully combined found objects and materials associated with stone masonary, and experimented with their forms and movements.The piece also alludes to the idea of time passing and the meditative making process.
SARAH MEIKLE
@Sarah.meikle.artist
[email protected]
I work with a wide variety of materials, teaching creative crafts to groups across the community. I have a background in Diversional Therapy, using creativity and diversion to help people with terminal illnesses and in recent years I have run a crafts club for people affected by sight loss. I also produce my own work in ceramics, textiles and willow, and undertake commissions. My exhibition work includes recycled materials where possible, as I am conscious of the amount of materials that can end up thrown away.
THE CREATIVE ROAD
2025
This work includes willow, wire, varieties of paper, acrylic and recycled materials.
The Creative Road is an expression of the journey that unfolds before my feet, inspired by the many influences that cross my path. As a traveler in life, I am aware that my understanding of the world around me is changing and this plays a part in my creativity. There is a sense that it continually unfolds and evolves, with the capacity to expand and contract.
The journey is important because it connects to who I am, but it becomes brighter and more meaningful when it is entwined with helping other people on their creative road, no matter where they are on their journey.
SIMONE EINFALT
@simone.now
www.simoneeinfalt.com
[email protected]
Lives and works in Bristol and Somerset, UK
As an Artist, Filmmaker, and Producer, I create work at the intersection of moving image, object and sound art, often utilising new and emerging technologies such as motion capture, augmented reality or 3D scanning to explore place and its human and other-than-human expressions, heritage and future.
With a focus anchored in rural environments, I shed light on architecture, artefacts, and materials as well as people’s stories: My latest projects include Mapping the Rural (2023 - ongoing), and Strawberry Line (2023 - ongoing) through which I dive into archives of North Somerset communities.
In 2024, I started my MA Fine Art (Media) at Bath Spa University, further developing my sculpture and creative technology practice.
I am a resident at Pervasive Media Studio (Watershed), and a member of Bristol Experimental Expanded Film (BEEF). On some days during my week, I work as the Arts + Tech Producer for Bristol-based Knowle West Media Centre.
MAPPING THE RURAL - EMERGENCE I
2025
Ceramic, Video, Audio
The starting point for my research is my family’s former pre (and post) WWII Barn (Lower Austrian German dialect: ‘der Stadl’) situated in Zwettl am Kamp (AUT) which was demolished in 2023 after several attempts to save the desolate building. The deconstruction coincided with my late father’s aggressive neurodegenerative illness PSP and thus emerged as a ‘Sinnbild’, a representation, of memory loss and the transformation of identity. I am now collecting and ‘reconstructing’ the Barn aided by its remaining protagonist, a large home-built circular saw (‘die Kreissäge’) to understand my family’s history and to forge a method set for my speculative and historical narrative-focussed examination of transient place.
What will this place become?
What remains?
SUZANNE PARTRIDGE
[email protected]
My practice is people and witness, visual comunication and connection.
I am an artist who is left to wonder .. "what would the German Expressionists be making now?"
How are we to view the world?
What are we told?
Who is making us argue, and at what cost? because it is true to say -- someone always has to pay the price of free speech.
We are only human -- that is a fact.
I am drowning in social media, and mass miss-information, and AI - when what I really need is to connect with a truth that can be found within the imperfection of human made artworks. The communication of another that says, I am here, I see you and you see me. The ordinary finger print of something that was created because the need to make it was bigger than the lack of skill it took to create. Artwork that allows me to feel and think and comunicate .. "this is a piece of my soul that I hadnt seen until you showed it to me."
NORTH STAR
2018 - 2025
Life Jacket. Inflatable Boat material. Red tape. Cable ties.
People die as a result of our comfort and convienience. Here in the global north the rest of the world is not considered much more than a holiday destination. And beyond that do we really percieve the following as an acceptable truth .. "we have lifestyle, they have war. we have papers to travel, they do not" (?)
Spanning the years 2015-2018, I worked as an independent volunteer artist, alongside the international community in The Calais Jungle, and Pipka Refugee Camp in Lesvos.
I collected life jacket material and inflatable boat material from the coastline of Lesvos, Greece. I made it into bunting, and lashed it together with cable ties. The bunting is a nod to my memory of the 1977 Jubilee. Bunting that now represents Empire, Colonialism, and Capatalism.
"The flowers are the children in the boats" -- after Syrian Journalist Mostafa Tellerfadi.
"Anyone who can see, will see it is a mess" -- after the painting of the same name. Calais Jungle resident 2016.
TINA SALVIDGE
@salvidgetina4
www.tinasalvidge.co.uk
[email protected]
I am an artist who explores past, present and future temporality in my practice. In other words, how we exist within or have some relationship with time. Delving through the perspectives of moving images, sound and display I work with film, ceramics, installation and aural artefacts.
Whilst I am attracted to moments of interplay and interconnection, I find that disjunction, (those leaks and glitches that opaquely intersect histories, memory, and archival presentation) also protrudes. There exists an element of everything being connected, often seemingly by accident, that creates a “not quite rightness” in my work that can be seen as off-kilter.
Often susceptible to science fiction, a ficto-narrative can emerge in my work as it develops, as I am drawn to the interaction of man and environment. Representation of landscape (real or imagined), our relationship with other species, and the connections between science fiction and folk traditions are some evolving areas of research.
I DREAMED OF YOU
2025
Mixed media (including 3D printed, organic and non organic materials
For the Hatch Open Call I wanted to challenge myself to make something distinctive from my existing body of work, and also at a smaller scale . The exhibition theme triggered thoughts of an abstraction of a container - of the element that make us sentient beings, that holds our emotional and intellectual life.
In 2012 my elderly mother suffered a stroke and was hospitalised, fortunately I was with her and able to advocate for a specific treatment. When she revived with all her intellectual faculties intact she told me she had dreamed of me.
The suspended mixed media assemblage is conceived as an interpretation of the box as the framework for the brain within and surrounded by interconnected blackened veins and blood vessels. Despite closing down and creating a membrane, the inner workings of the brain remain alive (shining bright). This isn’t the Soul, and I am not enough of a scientist to explain the workings of the brain but can only offer up my artist’s interpretation.
ZAC GREENING
@zacgreening
www.zacgreening.co.uk
[email protected]
My inspiration comes principally from nature – 'the ultimate sculptress'. I find the sculptural forms created by the sun, moon, waves and trees particularly inspiring as symbols of sustainability.
I works in a wide range of media from discarded plastic bottles to organic matter. Often these materials are fused together to reinforce the aesthetic or narrative that I am looking to express.
A narrative is created that highlights the relationship between man and the natural environment. Common themes found in my work often abstractly express or make a comment on issues such as sustainability, environmental degradation, or consumption; alternatively they may simply be an expression of the marvel and awe he sees in a sunset or the kinetic and meditative experience found in the rolling of sea waves. I try to communicate and remind the viewer of mankind’s inextricable socio-economic and spiritual link with the natural world.
THINKING ABOUT REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE
2025
Repurposed plastic bottles
I think about the fragile state of the natural world and think about the necessity to moderate our daily consumption. My favourite quote being "Consider your consumption"
ZOE SNAPE
@zoe.snape.artist
www.zoesnape.com
[email protected]
Zoe Snape is a multidisciplinary artist exploring transience through bubbles, sea foam, bioart and assemblage to provoke emotional engagement with the climate crisis. Based in East Quay, Watchet, UK, she makes art that examines control, confinement, freedom and psychological resilience.
MOTHER
2025
Plastic ball-pool-balls on aluminium
I am an artist-mother-carer. I struggle to juggle.
Trapped at home, in my head, thinking inside the box of domesticity and great responsibility. I focus on scarce resources.
My kids are gifted a ball-pool-pit. They jump in it, explosions of popping plastics. Unsteady Gran trips over balls. Grandad cradles one in his hands, dementia puzzling purpose. Husband kicks one beneath the curtains. Friends scorn the plastic presence.
I re-fill the pit. The kids jump in it.
Explosion. I shout. Guilt.
I apologise. I tidy them. They spill.
I tidy.
I spill.
Tidy spill.
Tony’s pill.
Tony’s ill.
I cannot solve these problems. I have to think inside the box. Embrace the constraints.
A plastic stalactite. Perverse plastic milky mammary. A clown’s clutter. These guilty plastics, these guilty feelings are not going anywhere. They are non-biodegradable. Incessant. They pour. I constrain. They pour.
A plastic stalagmite is growing somewhere.
