Artists Open House Brighton

Welcome to the Nature House

The Nature House has finished for another year, and thank you to everyone who came and supported us.

If you have any questions about the work you saw during the festival, or would like to arrange private viewing to see my original work, please send me an email on hello@elliehipkinart.com.

All the contact details of the guest artist are below.

We will be back for May 2024.

Best wishes

Ellie x

Meet the Artists & Makers

Ellie Hipkin

I will be sharing my new ‘Wild’ collection of original textile artworks inspired by wild botanicals and to ‘rewild’ as nature intended. This new collection has taken me in a slightly different direction – you’ll notice some pieces are on cotton rag paper as well as fabric – but it still retains the textile media art techniques we both love so much…

🎨 fabric painting
🌿 nature as inspiration
🧵 mixing paint with stitch

My garden art studio is also open for viewing and I will be demonstrating my techniques from time to time.

Sarah Rickard

Sarah studied a BA (Hons) degree in Contemporary Crafts where she specialised in ceramics and textiles.

Working from her studio in rural East Sussex, Sarah creates beautiful heirloom pieces imbued with an air of magic and wonder and always inspired by a deep love of nature.

Website: www.sarahrickard.co.uk

Instagram: @sarahrickardceramics

Botanical Expressions

Kelly has combined her love of pressed flowers and stained glass to create one off handmade wall hangings and frames. She’s inspired by the wild beauty of nature, using a mixture of clear and coloured glass that gives each piece it’s uniqueness. She uses the Tiffany stained glass technique along with traditional pressing methods to create all her pieces.

Website: Botanical Expressions Etsy Shop

Instagram: @botanical.expressions

Nina Newman Ceramics

Informed by her background in illustration and landscape photography, Nina’s hand-built ceramics reflect her love of wildlife and passion for nature. Pencil sketches of natural forms are transformed into unique, contemporary designs. Her beautifully timeless pieces, with echoes of 1960s ceramics, playfully utilise glazed and unglazed areas, and instinctive surface decoration, to create distinctive patterns and finishes. Colours are muted and tonal in earthy, natural shades celebrating nature–the sea, coastal landscape, gardens, countryside and native flora.

ninanewmanceramics@icloud.com

Vannucchi

A slow fashion jewellery brand. Using a contemporary blend of woods and metals. Handcrafted in her Sussex studio.

Website: https://www.vannucchi.co.uk/

Instagram: @Vannucchijewellery

Jan Irvine

Jan has always been mainly a figurative artist/illustrator but likes to experiment with different medium.

The shells (which are, as she explains…another surface to draw and paint on..), she finds locally and hand-paints to create unique pieces of jewellery.

Instagram: @jan.irvine

Chris Murphy Ceramics

Hand makes one-off pieces of Ceramics for the house and garden. Inspired by his love of nature and the natural world. He will be showing a selection of handmade dishes and wall pieces depicting ocean and land animals.

Instagram: @chrismurphyceramics

Lugna Home Fragrances

Lugna Home Fragrance creates scandi inspired + eco conscious candles, designed to bring you calm. our candles use relaxing + natural feeling fragrances, to keep you grounded + give support when in need.

Website: https://www.lugnahomefragrance.co.uk/

Instagram: @lugnahomefragrance

Rachel Rogers Textile Homewares & Accessories

Rachel Rogers creates a range of eco textile homewares which make lovely unique gifts. Using crochet and knotting techniques, Rachel works with premium recycled cotton ropes in gorgeous colourways to suit the modern home. Joining The Nature House, you can expect to find plant hangers, hanging and storage baskets, perfect for popping a plant into or as storage solutions for small items around the home.

Rachel will be running macramé workshops see details for more information and to join.

Website: Rachel Rogers Etsy Shop

Instagram: @rachelrogersmakes

Martin Sculpture

Teresa and Abby believe in family teamwork, casting and creating forms, that transform gardens into a space for the imagination to explore. Their sculptures draw you in, often with intriguing textures and exaggerated scale. These curious weatherproof objects, cast in stone or metal resin, work well with natural plant structures. The flora and fauna in your garden also take on the sculptures as part of their territory.

So whilst some sculptures reflect natural and animal forms, they are also useful for birds to perch on and creatures to explore, shelter in and drink from. Left uncleaned they will grow the same lichen as the rocks and walls around them.

Jane Pinder

Jane has been designing and making jewellery for over ten years from her home workshop in Worthing. Her work involves a synergy of creative ideas using a variety silversmithing techniques. The collections of contemporary silver and mixed media jewellery draw influence from the varied fauna and flora, organic texture and natural landscapes of the Sussex Coast. She is currently working on some new textural silver pieces with sea pottery. Jane exhibits her work at local art trails, galleries, craft fairs and artisan markets.

Website: www.janepinder.co.uk

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jane_pinder_jewellery/

Emma Harris – Natural Light Still-life Photographer

Emma is a fine art photographer, heavily influenced by the bounty of the seasons and the subtle changes in light that accompany each month. Her still-life work captures quiet, ethereal scenes, and her background as a stylist, and passion for floristry is prevalent in her work. Each scene is carefully composed to echo the time of year and then photographed using only natural light, which can sometimes involve days waiting for the perfect moment.

Emma tries to capture each scene so that minimal editing is required, believing that the colours found in nature are at their most beautiful when left as they are. Each photograph is printed on fine art paper, Emma then carefully sources vintage and antique frames which are individually chosen to enhance her work. The prints are professionally framed in these, using art glass for minimal reflection.

Website: www.aquietstyle.co.uk

Instagram: www.instagram.com/aquietstyle

Paula Kirkwood

I’ve worked in fashion and textiles for the past twenty five years and have always placed craftsmanship and environmental ethos at the centre of my practice.

For ten of those years, I worked with Traid, a textile charity that turns clothing waste into funds and resources that reduce environmental impact.

I ran their in-house studio TRAIDremade, creating clothing and accessory collections for both men and women from reclaimed fabrics and industry end of rolls. This position embedded a sustainable mindset into everything that I create.

Website: https://pkirkwood.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pkkirkwood