Kit Glaisyer's mesmerizing West Dorset landscape paintings bring a contemporary twist to the traditional genre of the romantic landscape. Kit uses oil on linen & canvas, built up using multiple glazes to capture the subtle & sublime character of this unique corner of Wessex.

Works in Bridport

“My current body of work is a meditation on the existential concept of human mortality and extinction, in particular the effect of this knowledge on our sense of place and belonging.

The paintings are composite landscapes, that have a nocturnal appearance. Built up or layered from elements, either invented or observed separately in different places, creating a gentle slightly romantic, melancholic atmosphere.

Corners of the natural world come together amongst the detritus of our species, where I look for evidence of new growth that transform into emblems of hope where dreams and reality merge.” Ruth Piper

Ruth uses acrylic and watercolour on canvas and paper.

Works in Lyme Regis

A widely respected artist who has exhibited in New York, London and across the UK since the early 90s, Jon’s distinctive oil paintings express an emotional interpretation and abstraction of the natural world around him, using hand ground pigments to maximise depth and luminosity and intensify the emotive response.

Works in West Bay, Bridport

Grace Crabtree is an artist based in Bridport, West Dorset. Her paintings, often made using the ancient techniques of egg tempera and fresco, are grounded in the experience of walking or swimming through a place, while unearthing folkloric, geological, and mythic narratives.

Works near to Bridport

“John Charlesworth is an [un]conventional easel painter, employing acrylic paint on canvas or wood. He blends the harsh, unnatural acrylic spectrum to a softer, warmer coloration and tonality, more akin to oils. He never uses raw, unmixed pigment. Even his whites have a small admixture of other colours, principally red and yellow, otherwise they would look stark, cold and unbelievable.” John Charlesworth

Formerly based at St Michael’s Studios, Bridport, John now lives and works in Appleby, Cumbria.

“I am a British artist and live and work in Dorset and London. Ever since I can remember, I have been happiest with a pencil or paintbrush in my hands. From early childhood, I was obsessed with nature and would spend every spare minute in the garden, studying and drawing plants, flowers and insects. Primarily a landscape and portrait painter, my work is my visual diary; a recording of the light, colours, space and form found in the objects and places that make up the living world. The act of putting charcoal to paper and oil to canvas is a compulsion that gives me great joy.” Helen Lloyd-Elliot

"Indigo; ocre; turquoise; umber; cadmium and terracotta; a mantra of pigments. Blended and burnished, these pencil strokes take on a life of their own."

The movement of light is a recurring theme throughout Liz's collections of intricate coloured pencil drawings. Each work in this delicate medium is precisely planned and created over many hours, with layer upon layer of pigments.

As well as an Art Foundation with Distinction from University of the Arts London, Liz has a degree in Building Surveying, and is a Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. Her experience of translating designs from paper to constructed buildings, and working both precisely and more creatively at her drawing board, has been a constant throughout her career.

Based at her studio in West Dorset, Liz has a stunning environment on her doorstep to inspire her collections of drawings.

James Ursell is a visionary artist with a deep spiritual connection to the environment. Well known for his large-scale outdoor installations, he is now concentrating exclusively on paintings that are at once pastoral, figurative and mythical.

At his family home in Wales and elsewhere, Ursell has created large-scale installations including ‘Garden of Love’; a giant wicker bowl set into the earth that mirrors the map of the constellations. This work attracted the attention of Spacex Gallery in Exeter and is also featured in 100 Dream Gardens by Andrew Lawson. However, because of their time-consuming scale, Ursell has now rejected installations and instead adopted painting exclusively; building on the basic tools of poetry and theatre he developed as an installation artist.

“I became much more interested in the space that painting offered – it seemed like a whole new world was opening up, and immediately available to me.”

Ursell’s paintings take ecology and fable as major inspirations. The title of one of his works, ‘The She-Bear of Old England Awakes,’ is a line from Alistair Mackintosh’s book Soil and Soul, covering the first environmental case to be won on religious grounds. The bear represents a reawakening of an ancient yet new balance between humankind and nature, a reverential custodianship of the earth.

“Nature remains rich and deep in the subconscious. It’s an evolving language and it’s only in inspiration that you can find the next way forward. I allow themes to emerge in my work naturally. Ecology runs through my recent work, which I see as a metaphorical language in itself.” James Ursell

Ella is fascinated by observing people, their behaviour, temperament and clothing, questioning display and social ‘performance’. Painting semi-fictional portraits in real and imagined scenarios, she plays with fact and fiction in an attempt to understand her own sense of being.

Works in Bridport

Belgin Bozsahin creates sculptural ceramic work by drawing on the themes of existence, self, and identity.

Born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey, Belgin has lived in London for more than three decades and exhibited in both Istanbul and London.

Her work can be found in private collections both nationally and internationally. She is an Arts4Giving artist who supports peace and humanitarian projects worldwide.

“I can draw on personal understanding and knowledge that helps me relate and communicate with others. My work examines the notion of continuing evolution and changes that things are not perfectly smooth, spotless or still. It is about the contrast between inside and out and the tension this creates.”

In recent years, Belgin has been working to create surfaces with layers and textures, in order to capture a sense of accumulation and to bring a sense of sight into the hidden spaces on surfaces. This has evolved into several collections within the category of wall pieces.

Works in London