Artists and Makers
Have a look at our continually growing number of artists and makers
Artists and Makers
Our range of artists and makers is continually growing. Below is a selection of artists and makers we have in the Gallery across a range of media.
Click on our on-line shop to see the works for sale by these and other artists and makers we currently have, or preferably take time to come and visit us here next to the wonderful Upper Falls here at Aysgarth to see our full range.
ARTISTS
Artist
Lynn WARD
Lynn is a full-time commercial artist known for her murals and also her landscape painting. Her work has been exhibited around North Yorkshire and can be seen at her own studio in Leyburn, North Yorkshire.
Being born and bred in Yorkshire, Lynn’s artwork is strongly inspired by her stunning surroundings. She mostly uses acrylic or oil in her work which is primarily landscapes but not the traditional ‘view’.
“I am drawn to contrasts whether it be stormy skies or shapes and shadows created by a gate or a stonewall of which the Dales provide in abundance”.
Artist
Jo Garlick
Jo is a North Yorkshire Artist who has lived in the Yorkshire Dales all her life and is fascinated by all elements of the natural world, especially wildlife.
Jo works predominantly in soft pastels and loves the versatility that the medium offers.
With the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors on her doorstep she has a wealth of inspiration on offer and uses the medium to create vibrant pictures, not only of British wildlife but also of a broad spectrum of landscapes inspired by the character and heritage of the area.
Artist
Nolon Stacey
Despite never having any formal art training, Nolon has been drawing all his life. As a child it was a passion he followed throughout school, and after taking a different turn to gain a degree in Mathematics from The University of Warwick, he soon returned to drawing. He began by specialising in human portraiture before moving onto drawing dogs. After a few years, Nolon decided it was time to move onto a subject which would give him more artistic freedom and so began drawing the local wildlife.
Gaining inspiration from living in the Yorkshire Dales and the picturesque surroundings and varied wildlife around him, Nolon has gone on to create a large portfolio of work of both domestic and wild animals.
Working as a full-time artist based at his gallery in Masham in North Yorkshire, Nolon exhibits throughout North Yorkshire, attending many shows and exhibitions in the area. With an ever- growing collectors base, both for his original artworks and limited-edition prints, Nolon’s work can be found in homes and galleries throughout the UK.
Artist
Sue Dewhurst
Sue developed her artistic style experimenting with stained glass, print-making, acid-etching and textile design, but always returning to her first love – painting.
Sue’s work is shaped by all her past experiences which has taken her around the world. She uses a bold palette, painting in acrylic on canvas. Her Yorkshire Dales’ work celebrates this vibrant area, exploring its barns, landscapes, peoples and agricultural heritage.
Artist
Kath Lockhart
Kath is an artist printmaker living and creating art in Dentdale, South Lakeland, following a thirty- year career as a secondary school teacher of Art and Design in London and the North East.
Kath says “For me, making art has always been an itch that has to be scratched. I get my ideas from everywhere, mostly landscapes.
What interests her as much as the image made is the process of making it, using lino cut techniques and tools, some conventional, some not. However, as always, when the paper is about to be lifted, there is the anticipation and then the moment of surprise when the image is revealed.
She is a member of the Green Door society of Cumbrian Artists and Sedbergh and District Art Society.
Artist
Liz Salter
“My paintings reflect those landscapes that I enjoy exploring, especially the wild remote hills and moors in the UK and Ireland. I trudge these places armed with a sketchbook and a few basic drawing materials. Back in my studio I flick through the sketchbook until a drawing or series of drawings seem to speak. Then the adventure begins, exploring possibilities much as I explored new terrain. Images are built up, maybe using collage or liquid graphite, and layers of thin acrylic paint are intermingled with line. When is the painting finished? When it speaks back to me of that remembered experience.
I exhibit widely in Britain and in Ireland and in 2012 received the award of “South Yorkshire Artist of the Year”. My work is in private collections in this country and abroad”.
Artist
Gillian Munro
Gillian Munro is a fine artist who lives in Harrogate. She investigates the dynamics of landscapes and water, including the power and manipulation of its efforts and what it means to us.
Her works establish a link between the landscapes and reality and that imagined by the viewer.
Her paintings isolate the movements of locally found waterfalls which she found emulated her own life. The ups and downs, the flow of life, the cleansing of the soul in sound and movement.
Her works are noticeable for their attention to detail and tactile nature. This is of great importance and bears witness to great craftmanship.
Artist
Julie Edwardson
Julie has been an art teacher in the North East of England since ‘87 and since leaving teaching has been a member of The Bank art group in North Shields having two exhibitions with the group in 2019 and 2020
Moving to Aysgarth in 2021 to start a gallery at Yore Mill with partner Steve fulfils a lifelong dream.
Julie is drawn to details in the landscape working mainly with acrylic paint and mixed media collage taking inspiration from nature and the effects of man on the landscape.
Artist
Nicole Dickinson
Nicole’s inspiration comes from her love of nature. She is especially
attracted to the rugged countryside of the north of England and its
coastlines. Her paintings depict moods and atmospheres created by
the ever-changing English weather.
She finds oil paint a wonderful medium which brings depth,
luminosity and transparency to a painting. Nicole also enjoys
experimenting with acrylic, watercolour, collage and mixed media.
She likes building up texture and depth with several layers of paint
which she often partially rubs or scrapes back in order to leave some
of the lower layers exposed. She likes using sand, which she collects
during her journeys.
Her landscape paintings are mainly semi-abstract. Nicole likes to
create works that are more suggestive and atmospheric than
descriptive. The intention is to let the viewer search for meanings in
her paintings
Artist
Judith Bromley
Judith has lived and worked in Askrigg since 1973.
She is inspired by the contrasts of wild empty moorland and flower filled meadows, high rushing waterfalls and slow reflective rivers, walls encrusted with mosses and lichens, and quiet secretive woods.
Judith uses a variety of media – oils, pastels, gouache and watercolour, to express her deep love of the Dales countryside and all its seasonal moods.
Artist
Bill Oakey
Bill has painted for as long as he can remember and has been a picture framer and gallery owner in the Dales for 18 years. He now paints full time using acrylics on heavy watercolour paper.
He is interested in painting anything that is in front of him. This can be the usual people and places but can also be images from books, photographs, in museums and on the television. Although seeming to be a diverse collection, when seen together the paintings are like a diary.
The Dales are an obvious and constant subject, especially in the snow.
Artist
Hannah Kerwin
“Living in Yorkshire, I am amidst some very beautiful landscapes. It is these landscapes which are the inspiration for my paintings.
I am particularly drawn to the changing light and how the landscape is coloured and softened, especially as the sun rises and lowers.
I have a fascination for changing light as it falls on mists, clouds, water, moorlands and woodlands. These are recurrent themes in my paintings”.
Artist
Rachel Morrell
Rachel Morrell creates abstract and semi-abstract paintings in acrylics, oils and mixed media. Her inspiration comes from the east coast, moorland, gills, wykes, abbeys and former industrial ruins in North Yorkshire.
The many layers in her work represent the textures, patterns and strata of the landscape.
She has a particular interest in the way nature will return and take over derelict and ruined buildings given little or no encouragement.
CERAMICS
Ceramics
Gemma Whitaker
“A designer-maker creating a range of contemporary porcelain tableware, homeware and jewellery from my studio in the market town of Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire.
A self-confessed pebble collector, I’ve always loved scouring the beach for interesting rocks. My work was born from an aim to mimic the fascinating patterns and striking lines of ‘wishing rocks’, pebbles which contain an uninterrupted line or stripe that runs around the whole surface.
Each piece is created by marbling stained and unstained porcelain on the wheel. The technique hovers between controllable and random with me able to manipulate the outcome to a certain extent but with each piece remaining a mystery until the excess liquid clay is removed from the pots surface.
The patterns which run both through the pot and across its surface are often reminiscent of stormy skies and seascapes. Every piece has its own unique landscape and character, some subtle others bold.
I aim to create simple pieces which add beauty to your home and can be enjoyed for years to come”.
Ceramics
Suzie Wright
“My Tall Tree pots are inspired by the wooded gill where I run. They are decorated with slips and glazes made with local Wensleydale clay that I dig from the ground and process myself. The tree picture is made flat with layers of different coloured clays. The pot is then hand built putting the elements together. The pots are high fired stoneware and waterproof.
The design is inspired by my love of the Arts and Crafts movement of the early 1900s”.
Suzie’s Tall Tree ceramics are exclusive to Yore Mill Craft Shop and Gallery.
Ceramics
Emmeline Butler
“For me it’s all about texture – you have to feel it to fully appreciate it.
I love the feel of clay when throwing, and enjoy the rhythm of the wheel. Throwing also demands a focus that concentrates the mind and blocks out other distractions, which I find is calming in an ever more hectic world.
My love of nature, the countryside and the beauty of its many textures has a great influence on my work. Cracked limestone pavements, tree bark, dry exposed peat, are reflected in the surface patterns of my work which are created using a sodium silicate technique. My latest work includes moorland colours with deep fissures and some gold lustre to add sparkle.
I use a finely grogged clay which, although can be a bit rough to work with, gives a wonderful feel to the finished piece, and compliments the textures created on the outside”.
CERAMICS
Fiona Mazza
I am a ceramic artist living in Yorkshire and I began my journey into ceramics in 1998 on a part time course at college.
The core of my work is based on nature, in particular the amazing butterfly world, enabling an exciting development of colourful forms.
Inspired by the fragility of nature and mans impact on the natural world, these forms have been created to impact on the fragile nature of the environment to which we all rely on. The combination of materials reflects the constant battle of survival.
Recently experiments into electric kiln fired work, has produced a new body of work on the environmental impact on the monarch butterfly, recreating clusters of this beautiful insect by stacking ceramic wings. I enjoy the challenge of designing and making individual pieces, using many techniques, this allows me to explore clay in many areas.
CERAMICS
Ingleton Pottery
Ingleton Pottery is a small family run business making high-fired, hand thrown Stoneware pottery in the Yorkshire Dales village of Ingleton, by the riverside. It’s the longest established working Pottery in the Yorkshire Dales.
Ingleton Pottery make a wide range of extremely tough tableware, electric and oil lamps, candle lights, vases, wine sets etc. Everything is dishwasher, oven and microwave safe.
All clays & glazes are from their own recipes, ensuring an absolutely unique product & style, and are entirely lead-free.
CERAMICS
Phil Magson
Philip produces hand thrown stoneware ceramics for the home – planters, bowls, vases, jugs and mugs. He makes two ranges – each distinctively decorated and glazed in a contemporary style.
After studying for a degree in ceramics, Philip initially began producing terracotta garden pots in Liverpool. Following his return to Yorkshire, he gradually moved to predominantly making colourfully decorated domestic pottery in white and red earthenware. He currently works from a shared studio on the edge of York using a stoneware clay.
Ceramics
Emma-Louise Wilson
Every piece of Emma’s work is meticulously hand crafted and would make an ideal present for someone who appreciates something unique and handmade.
Emma’s contemporary ceramics are made predominantly from porcelain. She occasionally works in crank or stoneware clay. Pieces are finished with various glazes and lustres.
Her mixed media art work is inspired by nature and every day observations. Each piece is created using a variety of materials and art techniques which are layered to create the final composition.
CERAMICS
Kit Hemsley
Fascinated by clay in its multitude of colours and textures Kit creates using delicate, flowing, semi-translucent, coloured Parian and porcelain.
Growing up on the North Yorkshire coast and with a degree in Physical Geography she is inspired by the sea and land formations.
The work is sometimes functional, often sculptural but always visually exciting. The processes mean all her work is as individual as a fingerprint.
Ceramics
Katie Braida
Katie makes sculptural vessels and forms using a variety of hand building techniques.
Working with soft clay and allowing the material to move and suggest direction for development, the forms grow during this “collaborative” process.
The surfaces can be layered with pattern and texture inspired by discovering the rhythms and patterns within the natural and man-made environment.
CERAMICS
Creatively Occupied
Creatively Occupied is the creativity of ceramicist Michelle Freemantle
She aims to create objects that enhance the users’ life, as they become part of their daily lives.
The ‘Landline’ is Michelle’s most recent range. Living in the East Yorkshire Wolds Michelle is inspired by the changing field colours throughout the seasons.
Lots of undulation goes on with the valleys and plenty of chalk, forming her palette of yellow, green, white and grey/black.
Ceramics
Anna-Marie Magson
Anna-Marie finds inspiration in the world around her, such as ancient structures, their weathered surface and the evidence of human mark making.
She hand builds her ceramics using stoneware slabs and layers of coloured slips. The flattened surfaces of the vessels provide a canvas to work upon.
Anna-Marie creates fine detail by revealing shapes, lines and marks through wax resist and sgraffito. She uses a restrained palette of colours and a satin glaze to give a tactile, silky finish.
CERAMICS
Oknytt Ceramics
Oknytt Ceramics are sculptural and functional pieces.
Swedish ceramicist Hanna Salomonsson grew up close to the untamed forests of Småland (southern Sweden) and the ‘oknytt’ that were said to be residing there. Her ceramic practice explores this enchanted natural world in clay, and also probes the way in which our natal landscape are imbued with emotions and fleeting memories.
Echoes of the gnarly branches, moss covered boulders and bottomless bogs of the southern Swedish woodlands can be distinguished in her pieces, and often these traces are paired with glimmers of urban wilderness found in decaying London surfaces, structures and spaces.
Ceramics
Lisa Ellul
Lisa Ellul is a ceramist based in the beautiful Peak District National Park.
From her workshop she designs and hand makes sculptural vessels and forms inspired by the natural world.
She has been a designer for nearly twenty years and has exhibited nationally and internationally.
CERAMICS
Nettleton Pottery
Having taught Sculpture, Ceramics and Fine Art for 13 years, Laura works as a full-time ceramic artist in West Lancashire.
All of Laura’s work begins life as a direct response to her surroundings using drawings and photography of the world and the objects she loves to collect.
Working mainly in porcelain, the inspiration for Laura’s hand built sculptural ceramics, vases and framed relief panels is derived from ever changing seasonal landscapes and environments, finding beauty in the textures, colours and patterns that are revealed through the world around us to evoke memories and emotions.
Ceramics
Judith Glover
Hull-born and Edinburgh-raised, Judith Glover is now based in York. She specialises in handbuilt sculptural ceramic pieces that often suggest landscape, seascape and beachscape.
Her work – using the age-old coiling technique – is largely inspired by the work of painters such as Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964) and Joan Eardley (1921-1963). The skyscapes of John Constable (1776-1837) also inspire her.
Each piece takes around six weeks from start to finish, and Judith produces only about fifteen pieces each year.
We currently don’t have any pieces by Judith. In the meantime please check Judith’s website for her current pieces, exhibitions and fairs.
CERAMICS
PJB Ceramics
Connecting her love of the earth with her love of clay, Pamela has developed her own style using a range of bare clay techniques such as horsehair raku, smoke firing and the ancient art of kintsugi.
Pieces are formed from the synergy between found wood and roots gathered from the rugged valleys of West Yorkshire and unique hand-built or thrown forms.
Ceramics
Allison Wiffen
“I delight in pattern, particularly the convergence and crossing of lines, and patterns formed by repetition – for example looking up or down a staircase that accesses several floors. My work is often quite graphic, and I have a particular fondness for the graphic qualities of fifties fabrics especially those of Lucienne Day with their blocks of colour and linear patterns.
I am also a big fan of illustrator Ralph Steadman and his free use of black splashy text.
I am now based in Gargrave in North Yorkshire, where I combine making jewellery with throwing and hand building vessels”.
CERAMICS
Katy O’Neil
Katy is based in Lancashire and from her studio creates contemporary ceramic vessels, bowls and wall pieces, as well as a range of handmade ceramic jewellery.
Katy’s ceramics are decorated with slips before being impressed with marks which are inspired by photographs taken whilst travelling. Katy uses splashes of colour to highlight the texture and mark making before firing to stoneware.
Each piece is unique and is slab built with black clay, and are a celebration of form, material and mark making.
Ceramics
Howard Gardiner
Following his retirement from being a lecturer in Studio Ceramics, Howard has set up a studio in Otley, West Yorkshire.
Howard’s work is mainly produced in stoneware using a variety of ceramic techniques. His thrown and hand-built pieces are influenced by a variety of historical ceramic connections.
Howard has an interest in classical Greek, Roman and Chinese ceramics as well as twentieth century studio pottery
CERAMICS
Kirsty Adams
With a delicate style of throwing, poured and dipped glazing techniques, Kirsty has created an award-winning, unique collection of tableware and studio ceramics. Each piece contains an element of individuality and spontaneity, with refined throwing lines, combined with the incidental marks and story of the glazing technique.
Her main inspiration and methods of working were developed whilst living and working in Japan. She became particularly inspired by the Oribe style of glazing and this has influenced all her subsequent work. She is listed in the collector’s handbook of ‘British Studio Potters Marks’ and now work from her studio in Newcastle upon Tyne.
She was selected by the Crafts Council to produce a bespoke collection for the National Trust and subsequently introduced her Icelandic collection of moon jars, inspired by the otherworldliness of Iceland’s landscapes. She is a member of Design Nation UK and of the Crafts Council Directory. She has recently been selected by the Europewide Michelangelo Foundation for representation in their ‘Homo Faber Guide’ for excellence in craftsmanship.
Ceramics
Lucy Crisp
Lucy is a former Head of Art and designer-maker who draws inspiration from the countryside, seashore and time spent in the open air with her young family.
Her work explores the textures and colours created by the natural world. Working in porcelain clay allows her to push the boundaries of the material and celebrate the beauty of handmade.
The porcelain is combined with volcanic glaze in the ‘Conversations with Barnacles’ wall panels to create a sea foam textural effect whilst velvet underglaze creates the subtle colour on the hydrangea inspired wall panels in the ‘Bloom and Blossom’ series. The wooden sculptures are made using reclaimed fence posts and other foraged wood with tiny porcelain fungi creating miniature magical worlds.
CERAMICS
Jill Ford
Wheel thrown bowls, vases and sculptural forms highlighting the beautiful whiteness, smoothness and slight translucency of porcelain.
Bowls and vases are thrown on the wheel into large simple bowl forms and skinny vases that are often joined together to make tall Standing forms. Energetic sweeps of thick porcelain slip are applied to create intriguing jagged edges and deep textural surfaces. Other forms are pierced and bored into whilst leather hard when masses of ridged holes can be formed – like colonies of barnacle shells on coastal rocks. Rims and edges are pinched to wafer thinness to encourage a feeling of lightness, delicacy and translucency.
New Grounded sculptures are formed by joining together tapered tubular forms to create an organic form. The pointed ends of the tubes graze the ground or are suspended like shoots and enable the rims to reach upwards.
Ceramics
Roos Eisma
“I am a Dutch ceramicist based in Dundee. After a career in science, I fell in love with the possibilities of clay. My interest in how things work, both in the natural and in the man-made world, guides me in trying to capture processes and movement in my work.
My sculptural vessels are each individual, with the shape partly planned and partly allowed to develop organically.
I hand build in stoneware. I use techniques similar to those in dressmaking, using shaping and darting to create a curved shape out of flat pieces of clay slabs, before fine modelling and trimming to enhance the shape and sharpen edges.
I love texture, sometimes adding a layer of textured slip to a piece, and using ‘dry’ glazes and volcanic glazes to further create interesting details in the surface”.
GLASS
GLASS
Jane Charles
“Welcome to the world of Jane Charles Studio Glass. I am a studio glass artist working in the traditional methods of hot glass. I produce a wide range of bottles, bowls, paperweights, vases and sculptural works in an array of vivid colours, textures and finishes. Each piece has its own character and personality.
My inspiration comes from the patterns and moods of the natural world along with the wonders of the molten material that I have worked with now for 40 years.”
GLASS
Settle Glass Studio
Angela divides her studio time developing two signature lines which reflect her love of nature. Her landscapes are created through the layering of coloured glass, frits and stringers before being fired several times; whilst the manipulation of glass in the kiln produces individual poppies, each one as unique as those found in the natural world.
The fluid nature of melting glass adds a natural energy and an organic feel to both her landscapes and flowers.
METAL
METAL
Quirky Metals
Since graduating in1989 from Sheffield Hallam University Jim & Laura have been working in the metal industry in Sheffield. Their experiences include education in conjunction with designing & making including public art installations, sculptures, items for the hospitality industry, and more recently, designing and manufacturing Designer Homewares, in cost effective ways, for well-known High Street Stores.
Recently Jim & Laura’s designs have won acclaim at a National level at The Worshipful Company of Pewterers Open Live Design Competitions. This led to them starting up Quirky Metals in 2015.
Jim and Laura design and make quirky pieces in a range of metals including pewter, copper, steel and silver. Their designs include giftware, jewellery and quirky homewares. All pieces are individually handcrafted using traditional silversmithing & metalworking techniques and made by Jim in his little workshop in Sheffield.
WOOD
WOOD
Rachel Thornton
Rachel lives and works in the rural North Yorkshire town of High Bentham. She graduated from a Fine Arts Degree in 2013 where she was awarded with a First. During her studies she exhibited worldwide and had work accepted into exhibitions such as the Wrexham International Print Exhibition which toured the UK. She was awarded with the ArtLab Fellowship Award for her degree show, this was well received as it allowed her free access to the universities print studio for a year after graduation.
Rachel now works with ambitious and experimental printmaking methods to create unique pieces that engage the imagination. Her illustrative style translates seamlessly into print methods. Rachel continuously experiments and expands on the methods and materials she uses. This love for experimentation has brought forth her own unique ways of creating, this in turn allows her to develop a unique style and form. Combining printmaking, painting and wood carving methods to create one off natural artworks.