Art, Contemporary Art & Illustration

Lisa Stubbs

Lisa Stubbs is a Yorkshire-born illustrator of children’s books, an author and a printmaker with a background in graphic design.

After graduating from Batley School of Art, Lisa initially trained as a greeting card illustrator and her love of children’s illustration stemmed from creating cards, as well as designing toys and games for children.

More recently, Lisa has worked in book publishing; creating and illustrating picture books for young children. In 2014 ‘Lily and Bear’ was published to great reviews. A paperback edition is due to be published in April 2016 and the story is currently being developed into a stage production, with a follow up adventure expected in September 2016.

Lisa’s work is inspired by her love of family life, children’s artwork, the hands on screen printing process and vintage children’s book illustration. She has been involved with the ‘Mr Benn to Miffy ‘ exhibition on Children’s book illustration at The Cooper Gallery in Barnsley and is regularly asked to run creative children’s workshops in schools and libraries.

Art & Contemporary Art

David A Parfitt

David A Parfitt RI was born in Cornwall but lives near Bath. He is a landscape painter, working with watercolours and water-based media. Although David knew that he wanted to draw and paint from an early age, it was many years before he could devote himself full time to painting (working as a civil servant for 27 years).

‘I had no art training and am totally self taught, but managed to paint while working and I eventually started selling my work in local galleries. This encouraged me to make the change to part time working so I could develop my painting further full time as an artist in 2007, helped by the fact that our children had left home’.

David was elected a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours in 2011.

David A Parfitt RI won The Neil Meacher Sketching Prize in the RI 200 Exhibition (2012), the Frank Herring award in 2014 and the Winsor & Newton award in 2016 for ‘the group of paintings judged to be the most outstanding contribution to the exhibition’.

I am passionate about watercolour, with its fluidity and uncontrollable nature; to find how the medium can be used to express and convey a feeling for the moods and atmosphere of the landscape. Although my work is placed within the traditional or representational sphere, my aim is to create something which has a sense of place without looking too contrived or deliberate. The whole approach is about experimenting and developing as I attempt to push the water-based medium as far as I can without the use of opaque or white pigment.

In the past few years, I have found that I spend the majority of my time working in the studio whereas previously I completed around 60% of my work en plen-air. I still believe that it is essential to work on paintings outdoors, with the challenge to get things done quickly and simply, but more often than not these days, I take long walks with my sketchbook, a small box of watercolours and a camera (my phone). I use the sketches and photographs back in the studio to make paintings and monoprints giving thought to experimentation or to work purely from memory.

Art, Contemporary Art & Illustration

Jane Ray

Jane Ray was born in London, studying art and design at Middlesex University. This is where she began her career in art designing greetings cards, book jackets and posters, before moving into children’s book illustration, where she now specialises in fairy tales, mythology and folk tales. Jane has worked with many different publishers.

Notable titles include; Moonbird by Joyce Dunbar, Stories for a Fragile Planet, retold by Kenneth Steven and Zeraffa Giraffa, a lively and characterful children’s book by Dianne Hofmeyr for Frances Lincoln. Original works of art from all these titles as well as limited edition prints are all available from the Watermark Gallery.

Jane’s work frequently takes her into schools where she finds the thoughts and responses of children to be invaluable. Recently this has involved a project creating 200 mythical beasts for a pop-up festival in a London primary school, a set of painted murals for Enfield children’s library as well as ongoing art workshops for refugees in Islington.

In addition to her work as an illustrator, Jane Ray enjoys writing books and we are very pleased to offer original artwork from her title, The Dolls House Fairy, in the Watermark Gallery collection.

Art & Contemporary Art

Tessa Pearson

Tessa Pearson ARWS studied Printed Textile design at UCA Farnham and the Royal College of Art, where she won the Courtaulds Prize and was commissioned by Liberty of London to produce a collection of printed silks.

As Tessa Lambert she opened her own print studio and gallery in London and successfully sold her distinctive hand painted silks around the world. In recent years Tessa has worked almost exclusively on paper creating bold abstract paintings and monoprints using her original woodblock techniques.

Renowned for her exceptional use of colour, Tessa’s current work has evolved from sketches of patterns and colour experienced in inspirational gardens and interpreted in her very recognisable style.

Tessa exhibits regularly in galleries and art fairs in the UK and internationally, and has work in private and corporate collections worldwide. Tessa continues to live and work in Surrey with her family and puppy, Rosie.

Tessa Pearson will be exhibiting her latest work in a solo show called The Artist’s Garden at Watermark Gallery from 3rd to 30th September 2021. Further details here.

Art & Contemporary Art

Robert Newton

Born 1964, Robert Newton studied Fine Art at Sunderland University and is currently living and working in Northumberland. Never afraid to use colour, his work explores both composition and expression, yet always maintains his painterly approach. Robert sees his work as ‘painting nature’ not only in context but as a vehicle to express the medium, its plasticity and how it conveys an illusion of reality.

“I describe my work as ‘painting nature’, as a direct response to my immediate surroundings; exploring colour, composition and expression yet maintaining the very traditions of British painting. Making sketches as well my own visual notes I paint intuitively and expressively with bold sweeping brushstrokes that sum up whole passages of the landscape that is before me. Painting on location and in the studio, I often rework paintings intuitively to produce a completed work.”

Robert’s work has become very collectable over the last few years and we are very pleased to include this new selection of monotype prints. These unique artworks are a great opportunity to buy affordable, original art which captures his painting style and themes.

For information on how Robert created his monotypes read his blog, or visit Robert’s own site at www.robnewton.co.uk.

Contemporary Art

Stephen Heward

Stephen Heward’s paintings are an evolving dialogue with the elements that celebrate the experience of being part of the landscape, often at the edge of daylight.

He combines a loose and spontaneous painting technique with a deep understanding of the landscape from a lifetime of close observation. For more than 30 years he has studied landscapes and skies all over the world as a landscape architect, then as a pilot and painter. He is inspired by the solitude of the sky and the desert, of an empty beach or stretch of moorland.

Most of his work is a response driven by memory and the emotional experience of the landscape, charged by his connection to the ever changing light and weather of the Northern British landscape. It lies somewhere between figuration and abstraction, and is largely concerned with the visual pleasure provided by the interplay of marks, colours, textures and forms.

He works instinctively and directly onto the canvas without preparatory studies or much conscious thought, using brush, knife and hands.

His work is in private collections in the UK and the USA.

Art & Contemporary Art

George Hainsworth

George Hainsworth was born in Leeds in 1937. He studied at Leeds College of Art (1955-60) followed by the Slade School of Fine Art (1960-62) where he was taught by, amongst others, Sir William Coldstream. He was awarded the Gulbenkian Scholarship in Sculpture at the British School in Rome (1962-63).

There followed a 40 year career in teaching, initially at Leeds College of Art then Leeds Polytechnic (now Leeds Beckett University). He retired from his professorship in 2002 and now lives in East Yorkshire with his wife, artist and printmaker, Lucy Hainsworth (nee Rogers). Throughout all this time George Hainsworth has created and exhibited art in a variety of media, notably oil painting on panel and canvas, pastel and sculpture. His work has been exhibited throughout the UK as well as in Holland and the USA. It can be found in corporate and private collections in Europe and the USA.

Art & Contemporary Art

Andrew Farmer

Andrew Farmer ROI was born in 1985 in Rotherham, South Yorkshire.

He studied Fine Art Painting at the University of Canterbury Christ Church (2005-2008) achieving a First Class Honours, followed by a postgraduate, ‘The Drawing Year’ at the Royal Drawing school, London (2008-2009).

Since first exhibiting with the Royal Institute Of Oil Painters in 2014, Andrew Farmer ROI has been awarded 1st and 2nd prize in the Winsor and Newton Award for painting, and in 2019 the Menena Joy Schabe Memorial Award.

“I love to paint the ordinary, analysing simple subjects that will encourage the viewer to look more closely at the many wonderful and beautiful things surrounding us daily.”

Andrew is a member of the Brit Plein Air group, The Northern Boys Painting Group and most recently he has become a full member of the prestigious Royal Institute of Oil Painters (ROI).

Andrew ‘s last solo show was called North Landing (October 22). He is currently painting on the Northumbrian coast in preparation for another solo exhibition at Watermark Gallery in June 2024.

Art & Contemporary Art

Shona Branigan

Shona Branigan discovered the possibility of relief printing wood itself by seeing the work of Brian Nash Gill and she followed his technique of burning the wood.

It is known as Shou Sugi Ban and is used in Japan as a method of preserving wood. Charring burns away the softer wood and leaves a raised surface which makes it relief printable. She clears out all the ash with wire brushes, seals it with shellac and is then able to ink it and print it. The prints are all hand burnished as the pieces are too large and uneven to go through her printing press.

She uses Fine Art Heritage Rag paper which is 100% cotton and archival, and if you look closely you will be able to see the ‘embossing’ which the hand printing produces. Each millimetre of the wood needs to be pressed into the paper to achieve a good print. It takes time and energy! Prints are made to order and as the wood itself dries subtle changes and cracks will appear which will allow the limited edition to reflect the continuing story of the wood.

Shona Branigan knows the provenance of the wood she prints so that you will be able to know its area of origin, and in many cases visit the site where the tree fell.

Shona demonstrates wood engraving and traditional printing at Cherryburn, the National Trust Birthplace Museum to Thomas Bewick, at Mickey Square, Northumberland. She has been featured in Flog It when they visited Cherryburn and Further Tales from Northumberland where she gave Robson Green the opportunity to engrave for the first time.

Category: Contemporary Art

Art, Contemporary Art & Illustration

Lisa Stubbs

Art & Contemporary Art

David A Parfitt

Art, Contemporary Art & Illustration

Jane Ray

Art & Contemporary Art

Tessa Pearson

Art & Contemporary Art

Robert Newton

Contemporary Art

Stephen Heward

Art & Contemporary Art

George Hainsworth

Art & Contemporary Art

Andrew Farmer

Art & Contemporary Art

Shona Branigan

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