Michael Flint.
Michael Flint’s first solo exhibition was of ink and watercolour paintings of flowers at the Aldeburgh Cinema Gallery in 1997.
It was after that show that his mentor, the artist Tim Fargher, suggested that etchings might suit his style. Fargher was right - in etching he has found the pantechnicon of means to suit his ideas. Since that time he has exhibited mainly etchings: landscapes, mainly of East Anglian coastal views, and what he calls the Remakes & Sequels series.
Michael Flint has had a lifelong interest in archaeology – he is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. Whilst in Orford Castle in Orford, Suffolk, England, he noticed an image scratched in the wall of the Castle. It was a sparse, seemingly abstract image, and he decided to use it as the basis of an etching. When the etching was completed, it was identified as a drawing of the eighteenth century signal station which stood near Orford Castle. But the etching was a work of art in its own right and it inspired him to seek out other graffiti in medieval churches. Thus, in his series of etchings, Remakes & Sequels, medieval graffiti found scratched on the columns and walls of churches and castles have been the starting point for a fascinating journey of delineation to the edge of abstraction charged with colour.
His etchings, which are now his preferred medium, have been in numerous exhibitions.
In 1999, he was commissioned by the Château de Montcaud Hotel, Bagnols-sur-Ceze, France, to make an etching of the hotel as their millennium present to their guests.
His etchings are to be found in private collections in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Canada, the USA and Australia.
Michael Flint was a lawyer and a film production executive, being at one time head of feature film production for Paramount Pictures in Europe. Throughout his professional life as an international lawyer, he travelled the world collecting and accruing the resources to develop his artistic abilities beyond the commonplace, evolving a language of his own.
Michael Flint lives and works in Orford, the village in which he has his roots.
Marjoke Henrichs
Born in Haarlem, The Netherlands. Currently living in Orford, England. I paint, am a photographer, write and illustrate children's picture books and design for theatre.
The inspiration for my work comes from arable landscapes, exploring the balance between the natural and the cultivated, in addition to the River Orwell. My paintings depict the underlying energies; above and below, the stories seen in rock, soil, vegetation and water, and the memories and signs left by people over time who used the land and the river from ancient time to present.
Later work shows the transition from living in an environment surrounded by fields and close to the river, to the centre of town, combining different energies, colours, textures and sounds with memories of large open skies, ploughed fields and the river.
Antonia Hockton
Born in the West Midlands, Antonia had an obsession with drawing from an early age and was certain her future lay in making with her hands, preferably a messy process. Art school introduced many new materials but it was not until she started working at Lincoln Cathedral that her passion for stone really developed.
Antonia uses a direct carving method to keep the work alive and exciting. Working from her sketch book she gives life to the characters within, often using the natural surprises that a raw material like stone can provide.
After initially studying fine art sculpture, Antonia took the offer to train in stone conservation at Lincoln Cathedral. Subsequent to her work on their Romanesque frieze, she was recruited to work for a French company as a conservator. Mostly working on Notre Dame La Grande in Poitiers and other fine buildings, until the pull of creativity drew her back to England to set up her workshop creating bespoke sculpture.
Antonia has been in business for over twenty years making art for galleries and commissions, both public and private. The other side of her business is the repair of ancient stone sculpture with clients including New College, Oxford and the Victoria and Albert Museum and many parish churches around the country.
Craig Hudson.
Hudson’s work, like the artist, is quiet and yet cool, immersed in popular culture references that are instantly engaging. Hudson was a skater, loved and still loves Star Wars, the emblems of his passions adorn his studio and creep into his work. Raised and living in Ipswich, he is an urban artist making work that seems incredibly street-wise in a studio that is, by stark contrast, a pastoral dream in the remote Butley Mills, on an estuary in Suffolk. It is a great place to work, with a community of artists and a foundry on-site, but Hudson’s sculptures are not about this place, their contexts and influences are somewhere and something else.
Caro Burberry
Meryem Siemmond
I especially enjoy the physical act of carving and sculpturing stone. Surface textures affect the material and give it sensual forms, allowing human expression to be unleashed onto it. Often I let the raw materials guide me, choosing to harmonise my design with what’s already there, though sometimes it’s a design idea that leads me to pick the right materials.
I have found working with stone intensely enjoyable and deeply engaging, whether that’s representing living creatures or exploring more abstract relationships in symbolic, philosophical form. It is almost a process of meditation, which encourages a more intuitive approach within an understanding of nature itself. Each stone, slate or wood has a beauty of its own.
Edward Murray
Ed graduated from the London Art Academy in July 2009 having previously studied history at Edinburgh University. He has fulfilled a variety of commissions both private and public including a pair of boxing hares for Queen Mary’s Hospital, Roehampton. His latest body of work is cast in bronze and explores the theme of the interaction between man, technology and environment. Ed has demonstrated at Art in Action & exhibited with the Curwen Gallery & the Royal Society of Portrait Sculptors.
Nicola Atchley
Collecting objects is important to my work, old tools from markets, rusty hooks from boatyards, these are my souvenirs. I take them home, study, draw, etch plates and print them. The process of etching plates itself creates similar eroded results to that found on these pieces and it’s in this that I seek to reproduce and represent, reflecting where possible their history. This is an act of translation.
I gather stones whilst walking on the beaches of Suffolk, Portugal and the Outer Hebrides. I am interested in the textures of these rocks that have been weathered and eroded that make up the coastlines.
Ceramic to Bronze: Geraldine Gerard
Geraldine Gerard
Through out her life she was a prolific ceramicist and creator of porcelain sculptures. All of these works were her children and as such were never for sale.
Now, with help from Craig and Gus they are made extraordinary in Bronze.
