Ann Kelson is a North Somerset artist and maker. Her paintings are focused on landscape in a semi abstract way and concentrate on the meeting of the sky, sea and land. They are inspired by the Cornish coastline and are painted using acrylic on canvas. They often incorporate metal leaf and glitter to add sparkle to the joyful colours. Ann works on canvas, wood and slate and has prints available. Ashe also has prints available on aluminium which are very successful displayed in gardens. Commissions are also available.

Renée Kilburn is a professional ceramic artist originally from Sweden but now a British citizen living in Weston-super-Mare where her studio is open to visitors by appointment. She creates brightly glazed stoneware sculptures that bring colour to the garden all through the year and a smile to the viewer who might stop to remember a loved one. Renée has been commissioned to make flowers, especially for this purpose. Her pieces are either coiled, slab-built or press moulded, then handmade details are added to give a narrative and movement. The designs are loosely based on nature to evoke a feeling of happiness and wonder, just like a walk in a garden would. The material used is a high-fired white stoneware clay, making every piece frostproof and suitable for display outdoors. Hand-painted with shiny, brightly coloured glazes the pieces come to life in the 3rd and final firing.

I am a wildlife watcher, conservationist, painter and printmaker with a passion for our local salt marshes. In our increasingly fragile world conservation and education is now a key part of my work. We are lucky to have these precious places but they are in decline and their future hangs in the balance. My hand-pressed, woodcut prints tell the stories of these wetlands and their endangered wildlife. I often inscribe messages into the woodcuts so people know why they need protecting. It is only when we understand the problems that we can help to protect the world around us.

Teän Kirby makes makes decorative and sculptural ceramics using stoneware and porcelain clays. She is influenced by the natural world that surrounds her, living in a woodland area next to the Severn Estuary offers much inspiration. The colours and textures of this special environment are reflected in her work which often feature abstract forms of birds and fish. For the 2025 Arts Week Teän hopes to take a deeper, freer approach to reflect a long life working with clay and observing the world and our place in it.

Aga is a fine artist and printmaker based in Weston super Mare, Somerset, the United Kingdom. Dedicating herself to mostly botanical motives for the past few years Aga has created a unique and extremely high detailed recognisable style. She's discovered printmaking in March 2021. Aga is one of the Associated Members of Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers /Election 2022/. Her 'Green House' Large linocut Print has been added to the RE’s Diploma Collection held in trust at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. In 2024 she has opened her ART GALLERY & STUDIO in Weston-super-Mare. Aga specializes in the style of old engravings, dotwork (pointillism - graphics composed of dots), she is in love with traditional bookbinding and plants photography. She uses hatching technique, using black ink, a lot of lines and dots and hundreds of hours.... Aga is endlessly fascinated by the old engraving style of Albrecht Durer but also Hokusai Katsushika and Alphonse Mucha. In 2018 she moved to the United Kingdom, North Somerset, she continues to specialise in plants and architecture, specifically England landscapes, sea monsters and old buildings.

Rose Lafferty from Portishead creates pictures using needle felting and wet felting techniques. She uses a variety of wools, silks and other fibres including rare breed fleeces that she prepares and dyes herself. The pictures are usually inspired by nature with ocean waves being a regularly recurring theme.

My name is Gemma Lane. I studied Fine Art at Oxford Brookes University in the early 2000’s and then became an Art and Photography secondary teacher for 15 years. In the evenings I would explore and experiment with acrylic paint and had one of my pieces accepted in the Bath Fringe Art Exhibition in 2011. I became a mother to 2 boys in 2013 and 2016. After my second son was born I started my business Green Fox Workshops, offering art workshops in Bath, Bristol and Somerset. I now run this full time, teaching people of all ages from ages 7 up to 87. I have returned to oils and some early conceptual ideas from my university days. Preservation, the beauty in decay and that death is inevitable. The painting ‘Beauty in death’ depicts this well and is an area I am going to explore further in my own work. I am interested in the vulnerability and fragile aspects of nature and how this can be shown. I really enjoy being outdoors and seeing the changing seasons and painting with acrylics, watercolour and chalk pastels landscapes that surround me. I love the contrast of the seasons, the intense lushness of the summer, compared to the winter, where everything is dormant and more barren. I take my own reference photos or paint plein air.

Brontë uses natural dyes and fibres to create clothing and decorative items. Every piece is dyed by hand with colour extracted from the flowers, roots, leaves and bark of plants. Using traditionally inspired techniques like bundle dyeing, shibori and resist printing, she draws both her inspiration and her materials from nature - taking influence from organic form and texture; the beauty of pattern, colour and geometry within the natural world.

Hannah Leigh is a ceramicist & jeweller working predominantly with porcelain and silver. She draws inspiration from natural and organic forms in combination with architectural straight lines and edges, translating these themes into her work to create contrasting forms that could be seen as part of a larger landscape. Hannah is particularly interested in the tactility of an object and how it can be interacted with, creating pleasing textures and forms. Hannah makes a range of homewares, ornaments and jewellery including - cups, vases, tea light holders, rings, earrings, brooches etc. Every piece of jewellery and ceramics is hand-made by Hannah in her studio using traditional silversmithing techniques alongside slip-casting and hand building.

Michelle Lucking is an award winning, international pastel artist specialising in realism to create large scale, beautiful seascapes and underwater portraits. Her art explores the contrasting raw power and calm serenity of the differing states of water, and the technical challenge of capturing both its translucency and movement. Lucking’s interest extends to both the anatomy of water and the human form, and how the 2 interact; how light and water refracts the human form into abstract shapes dissected by light and shadow that still resemble a person. A keen sea swimmer and photographer, Lucking draws on her own reference photos and immediate experiences of the sea and swimming to recreate and convey the emotions and narrative of water, using both realism and scale, and capturing light and movement, to draw the viewer into her paintings. Her work is collected and exhibited internationally and in 2017 she won the prestigious Annie Longley Award at the annual British Pastel Society exhibition. She is brand ambassador for the internationally acclaimed pastel company Unison Colour, and has been featured in several magazine publications including Artist and Illustrator. In 2024 she was approached by the acclaimed whiskey company The Macallan and produced 6 paintings for their estate collection, one of which was then featured on the packaging of a limited edition whiskey.

Eric is an acrylic landscape artist from North Somerset who transcends traditional depictions of scenery through his adept use of colour and texture. His ability to convey movement, whether it be the rustling of leaves in the wind or the undulating flow of a river, enables him to breathe life into his canvases, capturing the essence of movement beautifully. What sets Eric apart is not just his technical skill but his intuitive understanding of how colour and texture can communicate emotions. The warmth of a sunset, the tranquility of a misty morning, or the intensity of a storm are all translated onto his canvases with a masterful touch. Through his acrylic landscapes, Eric invites us to feel the beauty and movement inherent in the natural world; more than static scenes, they become living, breathing expressions of his connection to the world around him.

Julie is an award winning professional artist with a lifelong passion for painting. She was born in Bristol and has lived in the area all her life. Her Mother was the earliest artistic influence and her passion for painting in Watercolour started in her mid-teens studying briefly alongside her Mum with Stained Glass Artist James Crombie. They moved on and discovered the medium had a whole lot more to offer from Yatton based Watercolour Artist and Tutor Brian Parrish. It was at this point that her passion was truly ignited and throughout her life she has pushed boundaries and tried to get inside this enigmatic medium. In the mid 80’s Julie started work as an Audio Visual designer and soon progressed to managing the in house AV team for a large Financial Services company based in Bristol. Her career progressed and when the team expanded to include all the creative services for the group. She managed the whole team of designers who were also responsible for the design and print of the company’s whole suite of literature. Alongside her career, Julie continued to paint and exhibit locally and at craft fairs across the South West and she became an active member of both Clevedon and Clifton Art Clubs. 22 years later, when changes to the company structure were brought in, Julie took the opportunity of redundancy and set up an Arts & Crafts business based in Nailsea. It was here that she started teaching. The shop soon became a Winsor & Newton Premier Art Centre due to the range of products stocked and Julie was able to use her knowledge and experience to guide and advise customers. Sadly a recession and rising overhead costs meant that the retail side of her business had to close. She continued painting, teaching and exhibiting alongside caring for her Father until he passed away. In 2016 she attended a workshop with Trevor Waugh and enrolled on an Atelier style Foundation Course. Under Trevor’s guidance her painting skills flourished and her style developed and finally in 2017 she took the step to become professional. Julie is currently a member of North Somerset Arts and takes part in the biennial North Somerset Arts Week. She has become known locally for Watercolour knowledge and her love of painting en plein air where she feels in touch with nature – the South West coastline has a special place in her heart. She is always searching for the story in her subject and her intuitive style is loose yet traditional with contemporary influences. Whilst Watercolour remains her greatest passion, she does explore other mediums, mixing them up if the subject calls for a more experimental and adventurous approach to tell the story. Her art is led by her heart not her head. She tries to portray how the subject makes her feel rather than getting too bogged down in accuracy. Julie’s own classes are now based at Portbury Church where she is also the artist in residence. She also visits other art groups around the region to teach ad hoc sessions and run workshops. She is one of the founding members of @art6explore – a collaboration of North Somerset Artists who formed online during the pandemic to explore monthly creative themes and try different ways of sharing their art, processes and inspiration with a new audience. Now they also hold regular live events, exhibitions and workshops. They often use their talents to raise money for deserving causes and particularly in support of environmental causes. Follow them on Instagram and Facebook to find out more. You can view more of Julie’s work on her social media pages:- on Facebook: Julie Mainstone Artist and on Instagram: @juliemainstone as well as on her website juliemainstone.co.uk For more details email: julie.mainstone@hotmail.co.uk