Meeting May's makers at Mortimer Hill

In May, Mortimer Hill Studios will be showing a variety of paintings, mixed media and glass work.

Sue Bartlett’s work is permanently shown in galleries across the UK. “I came from a family of ‘makers’ – my father, grandfather and great grandfather were all master upholsterers – the whole family were artisans of one kind or another from French polishers to dressmakers. I always wanted to carry on the tradition,” she says.

Following her degree, she began experimenting with all sorts of materials and pigments until finally settling on beeswax and a type of glass resin. From these materials, she began creating the colourful textured paintings of semi-abstract florals and landscapes which have now become synonomous of her style.

“Making still has the capacity to thrill and inspire me – I can’t imagine my life without it.”

Jonathan Newey was born in Reading into a family of artists and was encouraged to draw and paint in his childhood. At 16, he began work as a trainee illustrator and general artist for a packaging company.

Throughout the following years he worked in a variety of roles in design and print and continued to draw and paint in his spare time. In 1996, he started to run his own art courses in adult education which he continues today.

“Throughout my life I have constantly experimented with various techniques and mediums. My work has always been influenced by nature resulting in work that depicts the natural world in drawings and paintings.

“Over the past 10 years I have been experimenting with a looser, more abstract expressionist form of painting which is still influenced by nature. My latest work is an amalgamation of sketches from life and imagination alongside experiments with colour combinations which are then worked up into the larger paintings using either oil or acrylic.”

The winner of the Open Studios 2022 award for best in show at the taster exhibition INSIGHT, Julie Pearson, is inspired by a mix of the greats of classical and surreal art such as Bosch, Dali, Rubens and more contemporary artists such as Barbara Hepworth, Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons and just a touch of Mr Francis Bacon.

She aspires to work that has beauty, pushes boundaries and encourages a human connection, a response, a feeling, an instant appreciation or perhaps not?

Her work is a mixture of intuitive abstraction, enabling paint to go where it desires and controlled accuracy of fine art and/or photographic images. She mixes and manipulates them digitally to create unique, professional quality, limited edition giclée prints inspired by the world and events around us, designed to bring beautiful and meaningful art into any home.

A member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors, Sadie Brockbank has lived and worked in Mortimer for some years.

Her work “is concerned with how we interact with other life forms with whom we share our world”, an expression of connectedness and her love for the natural world. She says: “I like to bring a positive energy to the environmental dilemma we find ourselves in.”

She has always been an experimental maker using a wide variety of mediums; ceramics and bronze, textiles, paper pulp and other mixed media. She also makes lino cuts and collages.

The show at Mortimer Hill Studios, will be open from Friday, May 12, to Sunday, May 14, 11am to 5pm. There will also be work by several other artists, including Tracy Micklethwaite and Jason Leggett, so it’s well worth a visit.

Visit www.open-studios.org.uk for full list of Open Studios artists