CHELTENHAM OPEN STUDIOS 2025
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SIXTEEN GALLERY | 5 - 18 JUNE
CHELTENHAM OPEN STUDIOS 2025 (COS25) SEES ARTISTS FROM ALL OVER CHELTENHAM OPENING THEIR STUDIO DOORS TO THE PUBLIC IN CELEBRATION OF ALL THE VISUAL ART BEING MADE IN THE AREA.
FOR COS2025 SIXTEEN GALLERY PRESENTS THE WORK OF SIX LOCAL ARTISTS WORKING ACROSS A RANGE OF MEDIA FROM PRINT TO PAINT TO JEWELLERY.
FOR TWO WEEKS AT THE GALLERY, EXPLORE THE WORK OF SUE DURKIN, ANNA LANSLEY, ANDY OWEN-SMITH, ELLIE THOMAS, ABIGAIL WADDELL, AND SUSAN WILKINSON.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
SUE DURKIN
Sue Durkin graduated from Cheltenham College of Art with a First Class degree in Fine Art Painting,
and has been painting and teaching since. Her work is all about the landscape. Her response to its ever changing appearance through the seasons and over time. She is interested in the patterns which cut across it, continually shifting and evolving. It is these qualities which she is trying to convey in my work.
The work in this show is based on several recent visits to Cornwall. The landscape has always been her preoccupation and the dramatic coastlines of the South West have inspired many of these paintings. Also represented here are several paintings inspired by the landscape of Gloucestershire, in particular Whittington, where Sue lives and works.
Working across a range of different media Sue likes to experiment with the surface of the work, layering, rubbing back through a series of applications. The process begins in her sketchbooks then to the studio where the painting begins. The early marks are exploratory and she uses acrylic and oil pastel. As the painting begins to resolve I develops into oils which allow for greater flexibility and depth.
ANNA LANSLEY
A self-taught printmaker: Anna Lansley discovered linocut printmaking in 2021. What started as a hobby soon became a full-time passion.
Anna's work draws inspiration from the natural world around Gloucestershire and the UK. She uses traditional hessian-backed lino and Japanese vinyl with oil-based inks. Over the past 18 months, she's progressed from single colour prints to multi-layered colour ‘reduction’ method prints. These limited-edition pieces are created by printing multiple layers of colour from a single piece of lino until it is destroyed.
Her landscape pieces are themed around a sense of space and place, and she is particularly drawn to subjects and places that convey a quiet presence. Her aim is to offer the viewers a moment of pause.
ANDY OWEN-SMITH
Andy Owen-Smith graduated in 1979 from The University of Gloucestershire, where he completed a B.A.Hons in Fine Art.
Painting mainly in oils, his work captures slices of everyday life, using colour and form to create atmosphere, movement, and tension. Using instinctive brush strokes, spontaneity, intuitive mark making and use of bold colours to create a unique narrative in each piece of work.
For Andy, painting is an opportunity to translate and capture an image, to give it presence and longevity.
ELLIE THOMAS
Ellie Thomas is a self-taught artist, whose love of painting was sparked by personal tragedy in 2016, at which time she started painting as a form of therapy. She has since exhibited at several group exhibitions, and in various Gallery Spaces around the Cotswolds, with landscapes being the main subject of her work.
In painting landscape, Ellie's intention is to convey a different ‘vision’ of a (sometimes very familiar) view. She is a passionate about creating eye catching pieces that connect with the viewer on an emotional level. Most paintings relate to her experiences of walking in the Cotswolds.
Within her work, she is always careful to use a limited palette of harmonious colours that will usually convey a sense of joy and calm and is often looking to ‘condense’ the big view, or to draw the viewer’s attention to prominent (and sometimes unremarkable) features.
Mainly working in acrylics, since they provide opportunities for fast working and experimentation, she particularly enjoys their versatility and the opportunities they provide for mixed media work. Alongside these works, she produces drawings, mainly in pastel; excited by the immediacy and tactile quality of this medium as well as the vibrancy and intensity of colour they can offer. Pastels are applied in a very ‘loose’ way and with minimal blending which she find very ‘freeing’.
Ellie currently has work on display at Abbey Galleries in Tewkesbury and at The Gallery, Pershore.
ABIGAIL WADDELL
Abigail Waddell splits her time between being an NHS Rheumatologist and a painter, finding that this is the perfect balance - keeping the scientific and artistic parts of her brain enthusiastic, active and engaged.
She lives in the Cotswolds, and paints mainly local landscapes and scenes related to her favourite places in the UK - in particular NW Scotland, Wales, Devon and Cornwall.
She likes to sketch and paint en plein air, often finishing works or creating larger works based on sketches when back in the Studio; favouring oils for landscapes of land or sea in which the light and in particular the clouds demand an impressionistic approach.
For scenes involving buildings, boats and structures, Abigail utilises collage of local materials, (newspapers, old maps etc.) and acrylic paint and ink, finishing with pen work. She enjoys the challenge of ensuring that glimpses of relevant collage material are still present, and delights in seeing viewers discover elements within layers she has created, which are not always seen at first glance.
SUSAN WILKINSON
Susan Wilkinson creates organic contemporary pieces in silver and semi-precious stones from her studio in Charlton Kings. She has been making jewellery for around 20 years, and starting by attending evening classes, before going on to study jewellery and design. Since then, she has enjoyed experimenting and developing her techniques.
Susan works in recycled sterling silver, occasionally copper and semiprecious stones, sourced from small-scale traders. She is particularly drawn to stones from Pakistan, Afghanistan and East Africa, and aims to know the provenance of the stones she incorporates. Each item is made either individually or as part of a small batch: nothing is cast.
Most of her ideas come when she is surrounded by plants and nature, and rather than try and replicate anything it is the combination of random patterns and textures that she realises in her work, creating pieces designed to be tactile.
Her work has been exhibited in various galleries, including Little Buckland, Broadway; Spring Gallery, Cheltenham; and The White House Gallery, Kirkudbright, and currently her stockists are New Brewery Arts, Cirencester, The Museum in the Park, Stroud, and Take4 Gallery, Ledbury.
CHECK OUT ALL THE SIXTEEN ONLINE ARTISTS TAKING PART IN CHELTENHAM OPEN STUDIOS 2025:
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