Exhibition at the Five Arrows Gallery, Exbury Gardens
8th April to 10th June 2012
open daily from 10am to 5.30 pm

VPS WA,tel.: 02380 243017, www.chrissiewbirchall.co.uk

Chrissie Birchall VPSWA is a painter of still life and flowers. She works mainly in oils and some work in pastel. She takes inspiration from the great still life and flower painters of the 18th & 19th centuries, in particular Chardin and Fantin Latour and her work reflects her innate feeling for timeless arrangements of fruit, flowers, china and glass, painted with a particular quality of light.

She exhibits widely in London, Jersey, Bristol, Norfolk, France and Cowes. She was made a member of the Society of Women Artists in 2003 and Vice President in 2005.

M.A., ASGFA, tel.: 01794 301833, www.ruthbaronezra.co.uk

Ruth creates finely worked graphite drawings, many of them reminiscent of etchings and illustrations. She enjoys zooming in to what she sees as the exquisite detail in a myriad of subjects from nature. She loves to explore the minutiae of shapes and contours, textures and tonal ranges in those subjects, highlighting  the striking qualities of dark pitched against light. Sometimes the material is rendered in her own stylised way, resulting in strong elements of pattern and design.

Ruth studied Art and Design for B.Ed Hons at Wall Hall College, Hertfordshire in the 1970s,specialising in drawing and painting. During the 1980s she had a number of teaching jobs in the London area, always using art widely.

In the early 1990s Ruth gained an MA in Art History of the Modern Period from Goldsmith`s College, University of London. She taught History of Art during the 90s running a variety of courses for `Artscope` and at Adult Learning Centres in Kent. More recently, Ruth has returned to her distinctive and intricate style of drawing that she first crafted back in the 1970s.

return to top

BA Fine Art (Hons), MA sculpture, SWA
tel.: 01794 301356, www.bridgetdumper.co.uk

Bridget Dumper's life-long love of colour and form is brought out in her unique sculptures. Working with the lush colours of Zimbabwean stone and local stone from Chicksgrove Quarry, Bridget reveals the inate tactile qualities of the stone and encourages the viewer to connect with her pieces. Her sculptures are suitable for indoors or outdoors; small enough to sit on a window ledge or large enough to enhance a garden.

Bridget was the winner of the Mayfair and Cavendish Award for Sculpture 2008. The Award was presented by Lady Gabriella Windsor and Barbara Penketh Simpson the President of the Society of Women Artists.

Bridget also uses mixed media and inks in her life drawings and paintings. She held a successful Solo Exhibition in The Tour de Mole in Sauve, South of France, in July 2009.  

return to top

tel.: 01590 610 484, www.sheilahope.co.uk

Sheila studied Architecture and Interior Design in Melbourne, Australia and at Bournemouth College of Art. During a career in design, drawing and painting have been the most important elements of her creative life, evolving from beyond what is obvious towards the abstract. Acrylic, mixed media and gouache landscapes, oceans, shorelines and horizons often observed from an elevated viewpoint. Australia and British coastlines are a major influence and also working with the English National Ballet painting theatrical abstracts of dance movement and colour. Exhibitions include London, Regional Galleries, the RWA Bristol, Southampton City Art Gallery, Paris and Melbourne, Australia, Also the annual Hampshire Open Studios in August. Sheila, has been a member of the Lymington Palette Club and a former Chairman since the 1980's.

Sheila's work is best described as factual with a good measure of drama, mystery and sensitivity towards things experienced, observed and remembered.

return to top

FSBA, tel.: 02380 897670

Marianna Kneller, F.S.B.A. is a Botanical Illustrator and Flower Painter and a Founder Member of the Society of Botanical Artists.

For 24 years she had a studio at Exbury Gardens, home of Mr Edmund de Rothschild. Here she developed her love for, and extensive knowledge of, rhododendrons and azaleas, which she illustrates with extraordinary skill. Her superb paintings have won worldwide acclaim and she has regularly exhibited at the Royal Horticultural Society's shows in London. The RHS awarded her the complete range of Grenfell Medals for Botanical Art and the Lindley Medal in recognition of her contribution to Science and Education in the field of Rhododendron species. In 1991 she also received the Society's prestigious Gold Medal for her Rhododendron species leaf studies.

In 1993 she was commissioned by the RHS to design and paint the 1994 Chelsea Flower Show Plate. In May 1995 her superbly illustrated book entitled "The Book of Rhododendrons" was published by David & Charles. In 1990 a special commission for the Blackie Homeopathic Foundation in London led Marianna into the new sphere of homeopathic/medicinal plants and herbs, which has become an important extension to her scope as a Botanical Artist.

In 2001, the Society of Botanical Artists, honoured Marianna by giving her the Joyce Cumming Presentation Award, a sterling silver Almoner's Plate crafted by Garrard & Co, The Crown Jewellers, London, in recognition of her outstanding exhibit of "Rhododendron Hodgsoni" at their Annual Exhibition at The Westminster Gallery, Central Hall, London.

Marianna's new book "Clare's Seasons" will be completed this year.

return to top

tel.: 02380 445577, www.ckart.co.uk/woodlanders

Tony is well-known for his paintings of the English landscape, recording the peace and tranquility of our beautiful rivers, countryside and forests - also the bygone days of the Romany gypsy and their caravans. In recent years he has depicted the cultural life and spiritual ways of the North American Indians, portraying their lifestyles in his inspired paintings. These have become very popular with art lovers and collectors.

Tony, an accomplished intuitive artist, has been painting since 1971 and is self-taught, working in acrylics. He is a qualified teacher for adult education and is much in demand for his popular demonstrations to art societies and clubs.

He exhibits widely in the UK in both open exhibitions and galleries and his paintings are in collections throughout the world.

return to top

SBA, tel.: 01425 476127, www.joan_osborne

I paint flowers, butterflies and birds in watercolour sometimes on unusual papers i.e. Indian handmade papyrus and also on vellum. I very much enjoy trying to capture the delicacy and details of my subjects.

Since I was a child I've been drawn to nature. Taking up wild flower photograpy in my late forties reawakened the pleasures of my childhood walks. Next came trying to capture the subjects with watercolour, and with the help of some expert tuition I began to get the results I wanted to achieve. Twenty years on I enjoy many challenging but therapeutic hours painting, also helping a small group of like-minded artists to get as much enjoyment as I've had.

Each year I look forward to exhibiting with the 4 Seasons Art group in the lovely gallery at Exbury, also in London with the Society of Botanical Artists.

return to top

SFP, tel.: 01590 644811, www.barbararousseau.co.uk

Barbara started painting when she moved to the New Forest area in 1996 having had previous careers as a riding instructor and a landscape gardener.  She is a member of the Society of Floral Painters and local art groups. 

She has had pictures hung at the Westminster and Mall Galleries in London with the Society of Women Artists and the Royal Society of Marine Artists and locally at open exhibitions with the Salisbury Playhouse and St. Barbe Museum, Lymington. She was the SAA (Society for all Artists) Artist of the Year 2006 having beaten over 4000 entries into first place with her painting of a Sally Lightfoot Crab.  Barbara has a passion for thetactility and vibrancy of pastels.  Her subjects are gathered from extensive travels around the world and includewildlife, marine life and all aspects of nature.

Barbara has just had the picture "Storm over Dubrovnik" accepted by the Pastel Society for their Annual Exhibition 2012 at the Mall Galleries in London between February 14th and 25th.  As Barbara paints in pastel she regards this selection to be the pinnacle of her career.

return to top

One thing common to most Animal and Wildlife artists is that they start young. Ann was no exception. As a child she could always be found sketching animals and horses. But a career in nursing and bringing up two children meant that the drawing was put to one side. In 1996 following surgery Ann started painting as a way of rehabilitation.  She is basically self-taught, gathering as much information as she can from attending workshops by artists she admires. Last year she visited Italy to study under the tuition of Anne Shingleton, a wildlife artist trained in classical art.

Ann works in both oil & pastel but recently has concentrated more on her pastel work trying all the different pastels and papers that have come onto the market.

In recent years Ann has won many awards for her work and was particularly thrilled to be chosen as Amateur Wildlife Artist of the year in 2006 and 2009 by Wildscape Magazine. She exhibits with several national art societies including Wessex Artists, NEWA, MIWAS and the Society of
Equestrian Art at the Mall Galleries in London, where she attained A.S.E.A. in 2010.

Earlier this year I was absolutely delighted to have my pastel "Feather Light" accepted by the Pastel Society in London for inclusion in their exhibition from 14th -25th February.
I am really looking forward to the preview and feel honoured to have my painting
hanging with some of the best pastel artists in the country.

return to top

BSc Special Botany (London), PGCE, SBA, SFP, tel.: 01202 735517

Mary was born in Dorset returning there with her husband in 1955 having graduated in Botany and Zoology. After thirty years of teaching A-Level Biology, she retired as Deputy Head of Parkstone Grammar School in Poole in 1989. Since then she has devoted much of her time to botanical art and more recently to teaching workshops in watercolour painting of wild flowers for the WEA and Kingcombe Centre in West Dorset.

Since 1990, Mary has exhibited annually in London with the Society of Botanical Artists and the Royal Horticultural Society, where she is a Silver Gilt Medallist. In Britain's Painters Exhibition at the Westminster Galleries in 1991 she won the Osborne and Butler Award for the best flower painting.

Locally, she has had four solo exhibitions of over sixty paintings at the Dorset County Museum and exhibits regularly with the Society of Floral Painters and other groups in Wessex. International recognition came when Mary's work was bought by the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation in the USA and the Shirley Sherwood Collection: "Contemporary Botanical Artists". Mary's originals can now be seen in private homes throughout the world, while her range of wild flower greeting cards sell in many parts of Britain.

As a member of the Society of Botanical Artists and on the committee of the Society of Floral Painters, she is involved in selection and hanging of exhibitions and has continued her own artistic studies attending classes in etching and miniature painting. Mary's work was founded on the accurate observation required in botanical science, but has been much influenced by her love of field studies in Dorset and her inherent talent for design.

return to top

SBA, tel.: 01424 812447, www.anniesoudain.co.uk

Born near Dover in Kent, Annie studied art for four years at Canterbury College of Art and took an art teacher’s diploma at Brighton College of Art.

She exhibits with the Rye Society of Artists, the Sussex Guild, the Society of Botanical Artists, the National Society of Painters, Sculptors & Printmakers (Annie’s ‘Warren Glen’ linoprint won their 2008 Matthew White Ridley Prize for Printmaking), Four Seasons Artists, Hastings group SOCO and at local galleries. Her work is in private collections in Britain, France, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand and the USA. She has staged one-person shows at the Casson Gallery, Eastbourne College, the KirstenKjaers Museum, Frøstrup, Denmark, the Stables Theatre Gallery, Hastings, London’s Barbican Library and the Metropole Arts Centre, Folkestone. She regularly features in Henry Paddon’s Eastbourne gallery ‘Paddon Contemporary Art’, in Rye’s ‘Turtle Fine Art’, at ‘Florum’, an annual exhibition of floral, botanical and landscape painting held in Sevenoaks and at the renowned ‘Birdscapes’ gallery in Holt, Norfolk. Her work is permanently on display in the Sussex Guild shop,Lewes.

Annie was winner of the Frisk/Talens Purchase Prize at the 1992 ‘Art in Nature’ exhibition. She is a regular artist-in-residence at Nature in Art (the International Centre for Wildlife Art), Gloucester. Annie has alsopainted 6 large panels for the cruise liner Saga Rose as well as doing work for the National Trust.

return to top

FRICS, tel.: 01202 511687, www.peterthwaites.co.uk

Peter Thwaites is a Land Agent /Chartered Surveyor by profession. For most of his life he has lived and worked in Cornwall painting and drawing the natural world around him from an early age. His watercolour paintings have been exhibited at the Royal Institution in Cornwall.

His many watercolour sketchbooks of fungi and wild flowers have been built up over the years. In 2005 he was commissioned by the British Mycological Society to illustrate their new leaflet on 'Common Fungi' and in 2008 a poster of Common Fungi illustrating some 68 species.

Teenage years spent sailing on the Carrick Roads in Cornwall have given him an appreciation of the sea and tidal estuaries and in the mid-1990s happy times were spent sailing his Drascombe on the Fowey River in Cornwall. Peter is a skilled and enthusiastic watercolour artist but also enjoys the freedom of acrylic and, occasionally, oils for larger canvasses.

return to top

SWLA, SBA, tel.: 01425 652100, www.richardtratt.co.uk

Richard Tratt is a painter of British landscape and wildlife. As a young boy he developed a consuming interest in Natural History, with a particular fascination for butterflies and moths. He began painting in his teens, and attended Northwich College of Art, Cheshire, and Dartington College of Arts, Devon (1970-1974).

Richard spends a great deal of time observing and sketching his subjects in their environment. Most of his wildlife paintings are finished in the studio, but much of his landscape work is painted outdoors. He works mainly in oils on canvas. Richard has been painting full time since 1979, and was elected a member of The Society of Wildlife Artists (SWLA) in 1981, and The Society of Botanical Artists (SBA) in 1986. He now lives at Fordingbridge, Hampshire, on the northern edge of the New Forest.

Richard exhibits at many galleries and venues throughout the country including the Royal Institute of Oil painters and the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. He shows regularly at the annual SWLA and SBA exhibitions. Richard has an international following; in 1995 he painted two giant murals in The Royal Palace of Oman. His paintings have also become popular in Japan, resulting in one man exhibitions in Tokyo in 1998 and 2000.

return to top

©cmtdesigns 2012 (all images on this site are and remain the copyright of the artists concerned. No unauthorised copying is permitted)