Iva Troj is a Bulgaria-born artist currently based in Sweden and the UK. She creates fine art pieces which seamlessly merge Renaissance aesthetics and techniques with postmodern praxis. Her intensely detailed images achieve astonishing tricks of light and shade, as practiced by the great masters while incorporating dreamlike scenes which challenge cultural norms.
She obtained her first fine arts degree in her teens. After completing two BA degrees and a masters degree from the United States and Sweden, she was awarded an art history PhD title.
In 2016, Troj was named Contemporary Art Excellence Artist of the Year and, in 2013, was the winner of the Towry Best of East England Award. She has exhibited both nationally and internationally and her work is in collections in the UK, France, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Germany, China, United States and Japan. In 2020, two of her paintings were included in the permanent museum exhibit at Haegeumgang Museum 해금강테마박물관] in South Korea.
The painting technique Troj mostly uses resembles the Flemish method of layering thin veneers of paint between layers of varnish. “I start with pencils and/or pastels and varnish. After that I paint a lighter layer with acrylics and finish with a couple of thicker layers using a combination of mediums, often oils, but sometimes gold leaf and inks.”
Born in Wolverhampton 1972.
Caris is a mixed media collage artist from Wellington, Shropshire inspired by theatrical spaces, performers and objects. She works with vintage prints and papers, layering and embellishing with fabric remnants and recycled items to create opulent multi-layered art works.
Aged four Caris visited her local art college degree show and was delighted to discover that you could spend your time just making art so returned to that building fourteen years later to study a Foundation Diploma in art & design, followed by a Fine Art degree at Liverpool John Moores University. After qualifying as an art tutor, Caris taught in a number of colleges, institutions and formerly HMP Parc.
The staginess of her work is influenced by the magic of theatre and performance; memories of stepping into an extravagant world of red velvet curtains and ornate flocked wallpaper, with a strong desire to see what is behind the curtain.
‘Tin City’ is the mixed media brainchild of Bath based artist and musician Jo Nye. Handmade recycled tin shrines, mixed media pieces, diorama, found object and decorative items produced under the Tin City banner, are inspired by Jo’s love of folk art, vintage illustration, religious icons and reliquaries, music and film, pulp fiction and pinup art! Each piece is unique and is comprised of recycled tin and aluminium, carefully resourced and hand prepared acetate digital imagery, up-cycled broken vintage & modern costume jewellery, found objects and scrap store materials to bring you one-off pieces to worship and adore!
Abi Trotman, otherwise known as Tobacco & Regrets, is a full time professional artist, fine art miniaturist and scale-modeller based in Barry, South Wales, UK who uses miniatures as a way to celebrate life and all its quirks and intricacies. Her work is offbeat, often challenging and quietly subversive. You’ll find hidden messages, subtle narratives and intricate stories weaved throughout the scenes and pieces.
Abi not only creates and sells fine art miniature scenes, dioramas, 1/12th scale dolls-house furniture and accessories through the UK, Europe and US, but also celebrates people’s distinct identities, hobbies, favourite films, books or pastimes by rendering them in miniature flat-lays. The next few films she will be immortalising in miniature include Pulp Fiction, Se7en, Blade Runner and The Breakfast Club. She is available for custom artworks, commissions and workshops.
Georgina Smith creates 3D relief paintings of buildings. She studied Illustration at the University of Westminster in the late 90’s and that is when she first started working in this textured relief style. After a trip to Venice she felt that she couldn’t evoke the crumbling, decaying buildings with flat line and colour so she started to layer up with cardboard, fabric and paint to create texture and depth.
Nine years ago, after a successful career in retail display, Georgina returned to painting taking inspiration from her new hometown of Brighton. She has honed her technique, bringing more precision yet maintaining the painterly style. Georgina’s work is inspired by the connections between typography, architecture and nostalgia. She aims to document the architectural history of buildings that are still clinging on despite the encroaching modern world.
Kate Scott likes to walk the tightrope between natural expression and artificial order within her paintings, allowing accidental marks and instinctive colour to pave the way to new unexpected destinations.
She enjoys that sudden feeling when the images come into being; as if containing another world within themselves and evoking partially reclaimed recollections.
She is interested in the conversation between one’s own internal experience, and emotions, and one’s reaction to being present in a physical place, and the internal dialogues resulting from both of these concerns, but she also wants the finished pieces to contain and convey a sense the pace, rhythms and decision making of her very personal painting process.
She has been recently exploring how nature can become expressed as a metaphor for the unconscious, the relief of rain and tears for example, the joy of returning from a refreshing walk, or the palate cleansing experience of a cold sea swim.
Kate studied Fine Art Painting BA, followed by an MA in printmaking in Brighton and have shown in London and Brighton, and Cornwall; taking part in solo and group exhibitions and artist’s Open Houses and a recent two woman show in October.
She has undertaken commissions and has work in private collections in the UK and Europe.
Susanne has always loved Art. Starting at school in South Wales with incredibly inspirational teachers and leading onto the foundation course which confirmed to her that Art and being creative was the path she wanted to go down. She then studied Fashion and Textiles at Leicester Polytechnic.
After leaving college she worked in London for many years in Interior Design companies producing one off hand-painted pieces, Trompe L'oeils, paintings on rugs, designs for fabrics and large canvases for foyers and restaurants.
She has exhibited in many galleries over the years being involved in a large thriving artist community. Susanne now works in her studio in Guildford in Surrey which is a stones throw from the most beautiful countryside with soft rolling hills and Woodlands with views for miles.
She takes her paints everywhere she goes, so she has a huge collection of sketches and drawings which her paintings are inspired by. She often starts the painting as a pictorial landscape whilst out and about but then they often evolve into abstract form in the studio by letting the colours and spontaneity take over enabling the viewer to develop their own interpretation.
A lot of her work comes from exploring the North Downs, Isle of Wight, South Wales, Lake District and sometimes beautiful sunny places if she's lucky enough, but basically whenever she finds herself.
Susanne's aim is to evoke emotions felt when we experience nature. Her work is based on the properties of colour, the effects generated by light and movement which then create the mood and the energy.
Working in an intuitive and spontaneous way means often unexpected things happen with mark making, form and colour which influences how the piece evolves.
Her inspiration is drawn from light and reflection which changes constantly over land, sea and sky. Celebrating colours and how they work effortlessly together.
Her paintings start with the layering process using brushes and pallet knives. She mainly works in acrylics but sometimes adding other mediums like inks and pastels. Susanne uses a vibrant palette, trying to create as much flow as she possibly can so nothing looks overworked.
"There definitely isn’t a better feeling than finishing the painting, standing back from it and thinking Wow!!"
Sstutter is an independent brand that makes innovative and intense statement jewellery. The intricate designs are laser cut in acrylic and assembled in my home studio in London. Creativity and passion are core values which are infused into everything I do. Sstutter is about making statements and self-expression.
I am influenced by Anime, 80’s cartoons, pop culture, pop art, branding, SFX and graphics. I especially find inspiration in toys like Transformers and products like the Sony Walkman. For as long as I can remember, I found joy in the way they move and function. I have spent most of my life drawing, painting and creating. Making and holding items has helped me feel closer to them. I graduated in 2001 with a BA (Hons) degree in Creative Model Making and worked in London for 15 years. During my career, I worked with award-winning architects bringing their ideas to life. I find purpose taking a concept from sketch through to an object that you can hold, admire and enjoy. For me, the process of making things is communication and story telling.
Sstutter is for individuals who have a distinct style and an incredible story to tell. They deserve beautiful and imaginative statement jewellery that speaks their language. Self-expression is a human need. When people wear my creations I hope it brings confidence in communicating the way they want to be seen.
Inspired by the gaps in life we tend not to notice, Peekys’ work is about paying attention to the strange and funny details of the mundane. To find beauty and relief in the overlooked and exploring the possibility for narrative in the everyday. Ramen noodles, communal bins and laboriously hand drawn phrases found on social media and kicking about round the back of lazy conversations are exposed and reappraised as almost twee studies. Recently moving into 3d sculpts, this work pulls themes from his painting into tangible objects, taking a swipe at the pop icons which inspired his earlier work decades ago and exploring these overexposed characters in his own colourful way.
Jon Welsh has worked as a Photographer for over 30 years.
Initially studying Art and Graphic Design, he later worked as a Graphic Designer, notably in the Art Department of a Feature Film, 'Running Brave' in Canada during the 80’s. The story of a Native American, who entered the Olympics as runner.
Self taught he began in earnest, using a 35mm Yashica FXD Quartz, and 12 rolls of Kodachrome 64, while traveled in Mexico back in 1983. From this point onwards, the decision to become a photographer was affirmed.
Rob Turpin is a designer and illustrator working in traditional media – pens, ink, pencil – he spends his time drawing robots, spaceships, castles, and imaginary places.
He has illustrated a children's book on castles and is currently writing and illustrating his first children’s picture book. Rob has a love of the colour orange and is addicted to pies. A Yorkshireman, now living and working in the leafy suburbs of London, Rob lives with his wife, a cat, and a growing menagerie of old stuffed animals.
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