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Trisha is a multi-media fine artist who has recently completed her MA Fine Art at the University of Brighton. Currently, her working practice includes drawing, making in clay and recycled materials and photomontage/filmmaking. From an autoethnographic perspective, she is aiming to use these practices on multiple levels. Being the subject of her own performance takes the work beyond making, realised through the physical materials, to a place of shapeshifting subject/object. This work is informed by her investigations into surrealist female embodiment through cultural, historical and psychological lenses. She aims to develop experimental filmmaking and video to use these media to inform ways of extending its universality. This involves developing ‘environments’ and includes building filmic sets and making objects which become “characters” in her narratives leading to installations for exhibition as well as stills and projections. Her background has been textile skill-based from which she aims to subvert its practice through translation via varied media and practices.
trisha@trishastone.info
Instagram: trishastoneart
Painter
Tracy Roberts is Brighton born and bred.
Having graduated from the University of the Creative Arts ( through the OCA - Open College of the Arts ) with a BA (Hons) Painting 1st class, starred, she continued her studies with the Turps Banana, correspondence course, based in London.
‘My current practice seems to me a cross between colour field and action - The tension between autonomous flatness and the illusion of depth. There is a duality with acrylic washes and thick impasto oil to create an atmospheric space. Using raw canvas makes the acrylic washes integral to the piece. Marinating is important, key aspect, layering, texture and depth with vigorous application of paint to enhance passages I want to excite. Colour is a main concern, justifying one colour against another or the multiple variations and nuances of one colour.
If I have a hard surface or substrate to paint on, I'm often impulsed to go straight in with oil paint.
Painting is a release of the psyche, exploring the areas between abstraction and representation. Motifs are free flowing, can be semi-autobiographical, themed, individual or in a series. The paintings can be experienced as objects and an experience in their own right.’
Textiles & Fine Art
Rebecca Angel studied fashion and textiles at the University of Brighton in the 1990s, and has been working in the fashion and textile industry ever since. In her art, Rebecca acknowledges the wasteful processes of the fashion industry and the fact that she, as a textile designer, is complicit. For this reason, Rebecca eschews virgin paper, trying instead to repurpose the materials and surfaces that are both source and byproduct of her own textile design work.
In recent years, Rebecca has begun to diversify her practice, engaging with new opportunities to develop her own multi-disciplinary approach to art. She is based in the Red Herring Cooperative in Portslade.
"When the pandemic slowed the industry and paused the constant turnover of designing, I took time to create art works for their own sake. I felt I was allowed an opportunity to experiment visually without commercial influence or customer direction so I used what I had available in the studio to build pieces using collaged colour: old portfolio mounts, leftover paint, backs of drawings.”
From a distance, her colour-based art suggests clarity and pureness of form; a closer look reveals subtle memories hidden in rough edges and layers of paint. Rebecca finds that collage offers her structural opportunities where the process is as important and significant as the end result, which can sometimes be re-translated yet again into a new and original textile.
Painter
Nick Gardner is a painter based in Brighton. He studied at UEA and painting at Norwich and Sheffield Schools of Art before completing post-graduate studies the University of Brighton. Lecturing at Sheffield of Art and at the National College of Arts, Tanzania, preceded his move to Sussex where he taught theatre designer/makers becoming in time Head of the Department of Visual Arts , Theatre and Music at Northbrook College.
Nick’s early practical experience, which included training as a boatbuilder in Lowestoft, work in theatre and as a jobbing artist informs his exploration of a range of materials which include oils, dry pigments, wax mediums, dirty stuff - dusts and grit.
His paintings explore territory between the abstract and the figurative, drawing on landscape and still-life.
‘I am excited by the range of possibilities and ideas suggested within the paintings which often start with random gestures or simple divisions of the canvas. Forms are arrived at and departed from as the layers of paint build; some are rediscovered, most are lost. The paintings are I hope, oblique observations on the world we live in.’
'Catch Me’ - 67 x 47 mixed media on canvas
’Slow Seas’ - 141 x 141 mixed media on canvas
‘Safe House’ - 100 x 100 mixed media on canvas
Paper Collage & Montage
I have worked as an artist and designer for the past 20 years, producing work that has varied from digital editorial illustrations for magazines and collage record sleeve artwork, to hand drawn graphics for the fashion industries. Since joining Red Herring Studios in 2018, I have concentrated more intensely on my own collage works for galleries and exhibitions, patiently honing a particular style of surreal, by utilising colours, textures and images born out of my dusty collections of books and ephemera from c.1870-1970.
I primarily employ art as a tool to reveal parallel worlds that exist side by side one another –highlighting the often-ridiculous past/present, technological/biological, analogue/digital clashes that increasingly ripple throughout society.
Addressing contemporary popular culture’s strident desire for ‘perfection’, I combine sourced materials from ephemera spanning across the 20th Century, in the form of photography, graphics and advertisements (the glorious imperfections of yesteryear) and send them into battle against current trends and obsessions that often seem driven by lunacy and self-promotion.
As such, I have developed into an ‘image editor’; turning existing visual narratives on their head – exploring humanity’s reliance on chance and the serendipitous seconds that give rise to sudden revelations of character or twists in a tale. The anomalous storytelling of my collage artworks speak of immediate/sudden narrative clashes, the fragments of images aiding me to propel the past into the present, and championing their new found life as works of art-anachronisms.
As much of the source material as possible is retained within my collage projects, whether these are paper-margins, borders or credits; sometimes the presence of such details are essential in the act of anchoring of them to their analogue heritage whilst also directly acknowledging the beauty of the source material itself.
Get in touch at louis@louistf.com or visit louistf.com for more examples of Louis’ work and to purchase artworks.
Painter
Christopher McHugh trained as a painter at Bath Academy of Art and Manchester Metropolitan University (later completing MA studies at the University of Sussex).
He has pursued painting as his central practice ever since, while building a portfolio of other art activities including teaching, writing and artist-led projects.
He was a founding member of Manchester Artists' Studio Association (1982), Red Herring (1984 – artists' cooperative establishing studios and galleries in Brighton), Artonic (1990 – temporary public art projects), Video Virus (1992 – AIDS video art collective), and Fabrica (1995 – contemporary art gallery in central Brighton). He was an initial advisor and later a board member of eta (Empowering the Artist).
He is currently Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at the University of Chichester and Convenor of Art at the Centre for Community Engagement, University of Sussex.
Sculptor
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There are two interwoven strands to Andy's art, research and teaching interests:
• Art education, visual art practise as research and making
• Transdisciplinarity, collaboration and a dialogic approach
His artistic practice includes sculpture, film, objects, drawing, print in an installation or in situ context. More recently he has collaborated with neuroscientists enquiring about the brain, depression, dyslexia and (dis)location.
Ceramicist
Duck Ceramics is an independent pottery studio run by me, Alice Duck. Originally founded in a small attic room in my Bristol flat, I now make and finish each piece by hand in my Brighton studio. The technique I use is called slip casting. Commercially this process is used, along with machines to reproduce identical copies of one product, churning out hundreds of 'perfect' duplicates. There is something satisfying about imitating the machine - but with the ability to make every product individual. It might be a drunk mug, or a wonky vase, or the lines may not be as straight as they 'should be' but this is why I fell in love with handmade ceramics. Simplicity and function are at the core of the work I make. I like to re-imagine classic shapes and divert them from their original purpose into a design piece. A camping mug has been transformed into an object of delicate craftsmanship, and its natural ‘mistakes’ have been left on show to celebrate the process, just as I believe they should be.
Painter
My work looks at the relationship between illusionism and abstraction - I play with the spatial properties of the painting through formal decisions of division, colour and light. I am interested in achieving optical illusion through the placement of flat geometric architectural shapes, fused with more organic forms and structures: underwater plants, internal cell like structures, costume, fabrics, decorative patterns, the tropical and exotic.
My paintings tap into a sense of otherness; worlds within worlds, mirroring and yet upsetting what is outside. I am keen to create spaces that cannot easily be contextualised, exploring settings that convey artifice; they are mysterious, disorientating, and kaleidoscopic. Through a use of vivid colour, rhythm and depth, I confront the viewer with an ambiguous sense of place.
The handmade and sense of touch play a critical part in my process. Each painting is a performative act and an enquiry into unknown space. I am not certain of what the outcome will be but interested in creating a particular type of environment through colour and shape, following an intuitive process. I start the painting freely with gestural mark making using acrylic paint, then overworking this with more geometric hard edged abstract forms. I use a specific kind of layering, inviting the viewer to look through each to the next, almost as a series of screens so that each layer of paint contrasts in style to the next and creates a dialogue between them.
I am interested in exploring the possibilities and limitations of paint - how applying it in particular ways can create a sense of dislocation, calling into question certain fundamental concepts such as space, time and identity. This questioning of pictorial structure, the layering that creates a tension in the work, also serves to break open and question structures in a wider sense; political, social and artistic. The work evolves ultimately from a genealogy of twentieth century abstraction, but I strongly believe that seeking new forms can create new meaning and relevance in contemporary painting.
Ceramics & Design
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Helen’s work embraces the crossover space between art, craft and design. She makes objects that play with our sense of what is familiar, functional and beautiful. Each piece, or collection of pieces, is a balance between exposing the materiality of clay and glaze and an object’s function or purpose. Helen searches for the material origins of objects and explores how they are presented and perceived in our culture today. Molten and cooled glazes form the surfaces of Helen’s pieces. Glazes fuse chemistry compositions. Surfaces reassemble like aquascapes and horizons, or places where scale and form are less perceptible. This gives way to an exploratory feel, both sensory and mental. Current works explore what a vase form is using slip casting, slab ware hand building techniques and ever evolving glazed surfaces.
Recent commissions have included works for Aberdeen Standard Life, Chateau Villepreux, a design collaboration with UK fashion designer Olivia Ruben and several media have featured Helen’s work including most recently; Channel 4’s Inside Out Homes, Etc Magazine and Landscape Magazine.
Painter
Elizabeth Bourne is a fine Art figurative painter based in Brighton. She graduated from City and Guilds of London Art School with a degree in Fine Art Painting. Lizzie is currently developing her studio practice and creating a series of paintings to further a career in the arts. Her paintings are mostly oil on canvass and drawing mediums include charcoal, pastel, pencil and pen and ink.
My subject matter is of the human body painted with bold brushstrokes and a colourful palette. Imagery is often taken from life drawings and self portraiture. The paintings are intentionally conspicuous emphasising the power and drama of emotion and sexuality. I want to compel the viewer to relate to the raw force of human nature and our existential place in time. My work is an exploration of individual perspective, giving rise to the contemplation and questioning of topics such as 'male gaze' and objectification, femininity and suppression and release of sexuality.
Fashion, Costume and Textiles Designer/Maker
Bryn is a clothing and textiles designer/maker based in Brighton who makes costumes for theatre and opera and has his own clothing brand. He studied at Kingston University where he did his MA, and Falmouth University, where he did his BA.
Bryn also mends vintage garments and textiles with patchwork and darning and traditional hand-stitching. For his own brand, he makes sustainable unisex clothing. He also works with artisans in India to create a mix of hand-woven and naturally dyed textiles, hand-stitched quilts and patchwork.
Photographic Artist
British photographic artist Mark Vessey is best-known for exploring and celebrating icons of pop culture. Lovingly curated, the subjects of his images include magazines, books and vinyl records that have had special significance within the popular cultural heritage of the 20th and 21st Centuries.
Painter
Born in 1955 in Lincolnshire, if you had asked Julie’s primary school classmates what they predicted she would do when she grew up, the answer would have been “an artist”. With the encouragement of her teachers, she was allowed to paint while they were forced to slave over their sums.
Several years after school, and A level art, Julie attended a Saturday painting course at Goldsmiths’ for two years under the tutorship of Keith Walker in the early 80s and discovered oils and painting directly from nature.
Studying medicine and bringing up children meant an artistic hiatus of over 20 years until she enrolled on the Chelsea Art College “Friday Open Studio” which rekindled the artistic juices. Julie has attended the Friday Open Studios for over 10 years under the tutorship of professional artists: Peter Fleming and latterly Enver Gursev.
During this time, Julie has developed from simple landscapes using primary colours to more nuanced works still using bold colours but with more attention to the quality of the mark making.
Julie prefers the rich, sensuous quality of oils to other media, and is drawn to unsentimental landscapes evocative of Lincolnshire and cityscapes – representing alienation and familiarity simultaneously.
Having recently discovered portraiture, Julie enjoys the challenge that this demands, where a tiny brush stroke out of place can ruin the results.
Now having the good fortune to be able participate in the Red Herring artistic community Julie intends to explore images of the unique Sussex landscape in more depth and to learn from other artists in the collective.
