2024 Artists

Kate was raised in Hertfordshire before moving to Suffolk over 30 years ago.  Due to her love of sailing, her nautical influenced designs depict the natural srroundings of the Suffolk/Essex coastline and countryside.  She took up lino printing during a weekly art group for school mums.  All of her lino prints are individually hand-printed.

Instagram @BlueButtonInk

Brian Cooke (ARPS, AFIAP) specialises in Hertfordshire and national iconic landscapes and flower portraiture.  He has won national and international awards including sections of the International Garden Photographer of the Year.

Websites:  www.hertsphotos.com         www.briancookephotography.co.uk

Susan paints birds and other subjects using acrylics.  She has exhibited in Hertfords, St Albans and the Peak District.

Robin explores landscapes through pen and ink studies. Shape, texture and colour are key to her work.  She also enjoys portrait painting.

Diana works mainly in watercolours and mixed media. A lively sense of colour is the essence of her still life paintings; while an understanding of the many different qualities of light is apparent in her landscapes.

Diane started painting when she retired and has enjoyed painting ever since. She is inspired by a love of colour and nature.

Heather is self-taught and has been painting for many years.  She has won many awards showing her work in local exhibitions.

Yan is a self-taught artist based in St Albans.  Yan's artworks are exhibited and displayed around Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and London.  One of her painting was chose for the Royal Academy Exhibition in 2023.

Instagram: @yanyun_gao_artist_

Melanie is self-taught, and started painting in 2017. After years of wanting to paint, she didn’t even know if she could; she was a little scared to try. Art classes at school were a very long time ago, though she loved to draw as a child. She picked up a brush and some acrylic paint in August 2017 focusing on animals, and, with kind and generous words from a successful local artist, she was encouraged and felt she could achieve something.  She now works primarily in oils. Her portfolio has expanded, encompassing subjects from still life to landscapes, and waterscapes, whilst still enjoying portraiture of animals and pets. She love captivating mediaeval villages, sweeping landscapes, and the changing seasons as the changing light impacts the landscape.  She feels her own personal style is emerging and her paintings reflect this, in delicate and detailed realistic work, whilst retaining a painterly feel. Over the last few years she has won several awards, and been chosen as peoples’ choice more than once at exhibitions across the south of England.  Her work has appeared in British Vogue Magazine, Abode2, and other Condé Nast publications, and she has exhibited at several locations across the south of England stretching from Cambridge to the Cotswolds, including the prestigious Broadway Arts Festival, and has some of her work currently in a gallery in Cornwall.

website : www.mh-gallery.art                                                    Facebook : @Melanie Harvey Art

Fiona is a self taught artist from Potters Bar, working mostly in watercolor and acrylics. She has recently started her journey with alcohol inks, loving the colours and movement, with exciting results.

Komathy is Sri Lankan born and studied art up to degree level in her home town of Jaffna.  She now specialises in portraiture,  figures and modern/comtemporary styles.  She love experimenting and is experienced at handling a variety of mediums, having formally studied colour-mixing and skin-tone techniques at City Lit College, London.  Komathy is now a permanent tutor at Letchworth Settlement. She has undertaken several portrait commisions, and has developed her skills with other local projects.  She has been invited to ehibit at various private exhibitions within our local community and is 2021, one of her oil painting was selected for inclusion in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.

 Website:    www.komathysartgallery.co.uk                           Instagram: @komathycumarasamy

Paul paints in acrylic mainly and subjects he would describe as a "sense of scape" suggesting seascape and landscape in an abstract manner, relying on loosely recognisable elements to give the painting the atmosphere and feel of  a place Paul has visited, viewed or stayed.  He uses texture and colour harmonies and contrasts to achieve this.

Instagram: @paulushillary

Jenny set up the Polarstar Pottery studio in 2019 and produces handmade ceramics on a small scale. She works primarily in stoneware with an aim of giving each piece a touch of character, and hopes they will make you smile. A wide range of items are made – from the quirky ‘salt fish’, to decorative vases and more functional ware. A variety of traditional techniques are used : throwing , slab work and casting.

Primarily a landscape painter, Anne is attracted by colour, line and tonal contrast in her subjects. Her work is semi-abstract and impressionistic in style.

Website: www.annehignellpainter.com

Judith has successfully exhibited photographic work at local art shows for over seven years. Recently Judith has been using elements of textures, colours, and landscape elements of her photographs to create, in Photoshop, original landscape visions that are memories and ideas of a place. She is particularly excited by the textures and colours of winter and has been working on a series around coastal chalk cliffs. Judith holds the Royal Photographic Society Distinction of Licenciate (LRPS) and is member of both Harpenden’s Photographic Society and Art Club.

Website: judithkellyphotography.com

Rupert is a lifelong amateur artist, specialising mainly in outdoor scenes, landscape and wildlife subjects.  He mostly paints in watercolour, but sometimes in gouache or other media.  He is a long-standing member of the congregation of St Mary's Church.

Sally loves to create vibrant, impressionistic paintings.  Her subjects include seascapes, landscapes and exuberant flowerscapes.  She is inspired by her faith and by the natural world.  She has exhibited several times in France as well as the UK and most of all she hopes her work brings you some inspiration and joy.

Miroslav Mijatovic a.k.a. JEJO ART, is an emerging visual artist based in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, but originally from Serbia. He is working across various mediums – from acrylic abstract paintings on canvas or wood and sculptural (3D) paintings, to small sculptures, home accessories and furniture such as lamps and coffee tables from upcycled materials.

Website www.hvaf.org.uk/galleries/jejo-art             Instagram @jejoart

Andrew is a painter originating from Potters Bar. He works predominantly in acrylics. Areas of interest are the changing built environment and traditional landscapes. He enjoys exploring analogue subjects through a digital camera lens that are returned to analogue through painting.

Mandy Newman was born in Watford and completed a foundation diploma at Watford Art School, then studied for five years at St Albans School of Arts. She graduated with a First Class Honours Degree twice: in Fine Art (University of Hertfordshire 1991), winning a major painting prize at the National Fine Art Degree Fair 1992; and in Creative Writing (Bucks New University 2012).  She won three major awards for Academic Excellence including the prestigious Hewlett Packard-Bell's "Most Inspiring Student" award.  She is an Honourary Fellow of the Free Painters and Sculptors Group in London and was an Adult Art lecturer for the Open College of the Arts.  She exhibits widely.  Her work is in many private and public collections.

Luba mainly works in watercolours inspired by the play of light and colours using differing art techniques. She also experiments with differing media types. She regularly participates in local art exhibitions. Her subjects are animals, landscape, waters edge and more.

Linda lives in Wheathampstead and enjoys teaching watercolour to beginners in her garden studio. Her work, including unique pieces of found objects, are on display here. Trained in St Albans, she now focuses on watercolour and mixed media, with other recent work inspired by travels in Japan.

Website: www.linda-owen.uk

Janet is an artist and printmaker inspired by natural rhythms of nature, including watercolour animal portraits, collagraph & etchings.  She loves painting outside. Her background is in Commercial Art and the Corporate world.

Gill lives locally in North Mymms.  She has been attending art classes at a local college and more recently at an art gallery in Hertford.  She prefers to paint in acrylics, but has recently started to use watercolour.  She paints landscapes and also enjoys painting sea and water-based subjects and silhouettes from nature.

Fiona is a mixed media artist from Shenley. Her style is colourful, abstract and quirky. She mainly works with acrylics but uses a range of mediums to add detail and texture to her work. Fiona has always been creative. She went to art college and studied Fashion at University, fast forward a couple of decades and she is at her happiest with a paintbrush in her hand. Fiona's current collection in the festival is inspired by flowers and wildlife.

 Instagram: @fiona_rheinberg_art

Suzanne is a painter who lives in Northaw.  She took oil painting lessons online during lockdown and is currently enjoying the challenge of portraiture and figurative art.

Peter Whitehead is a local amateur landscape and wildlife photographer who has won awards in international competitions for his work. Peter has exhibited throughout Hertfordshire and his images have featured in ‘Bird Photographer of the Year’ and the ‘British Wildlife Photography Awards’ as well as in many publications. Through photography Peter aims to highlight environmental and conversation issues by showcasing both endangered species as well as conservation success stories in the UK and elsewhere.