Peter Messer
'My paintings are mostly on a domestic scale, resolutely figurative and, by implication, narrative. I paint in the historic medium of egg tempera which I prepare in the studio using egg yolk and raw pigment.
The work is frequently set in, around or parallel with my home town of Lewes. Whilst the settings are often recognizable, the implied narratives and tensions create an idiosyncratic world that sometimes unsettles and occasionally amuses.
The paintings themselves often contain arrested moments in which ghosts, voices and unexpected creatures are confronted or sensed, all pinned down within a luminous deadpan egg tempera technique.
I hope that these are intent and watchful paintings which, for all their quiet ‘realism’, imply that the unseen exists and has properties.'
Paul Newland
'I studied at the Slade School of Fine Art. After a year abroad on a French Government Scholarship I established a studio in London, as well as teaching there and in other parts of England. During a year in Rome in the mid-seventies I took up the use of watercolour, which became my chief means of expression for many years. I became a member of the Royal Watercolour Society in 1990 and of the NEAC twelve or so years later. (At the RWS I served as Vice-President and as Honorary Curator.)
While a lecturer in painting and, later, art history at Roehampton University I travelled frequently across London, along the river east to west: the Thames and its embankments and the hills of South London gradually supplanted the themes of still life and figure which before predominated. Then, in the noughties I moved to East Sussex, to Lewes. Subject matter was extended and oil painting became important to me. There have been several exhibitions over the years, both in London and elsewhere and work is found in many collections here and abroad.'
Rosie Good
Rosie lives and works in Lewes. She is a graduate of the Royal Academy Schools and has won several awards. She draws imagery from the landscape, both urban and rural and is interested in the way things change over time, including erosion and dereliction. In the last couple of years, she has spent time looking at well-known abandoned structures, including Shoreham cement works, the North Street quarter, Horsebridge Mill and Black Rock Gas works. These old industrial landmarks hold stories from the past and are monuments to a different time and ideas of change. She is also a member of Salt Edge Arts, an art group interested in depicting the changing coastline and area surrounding Cuckmere, Sussex.
Mark Munroe-Preston
Mark, originally from Yorkshire, studied photography at Wolverhampton Polytechnic before moving to London, where he worked as a still life photographer. His interest shifted to digital illustration and CGI, leading him to become a children’s illustrator. In 2001, Mark relocated to Sussex, where he rekindled his passion for landscape photography, particularly in Ashdown Forest and the South Downs National Park. By 2017, he began transforming these photographs into artwork for his first exhibition. After going full-time as an artist in 2018, he exhibited widely in the UK and beyond.
His work blends photography, painting, and collage to create atmospheric pieces inspired by nature. Focusing on trees, Mark captures their complexity and importance to ecosystems. His art often incorporates themes of windswept landscapes and interconnected natural systems. Each piece is titled with GPS coordinates to encourage viewers to visit and experience the locations firsthand, with works presented as limited edition prints on brushed aluminium.
Marc Gooderham
I find an attractive melancholy in street corners and interiors that exist within the urban landscape. Where we may pass by without a second glance, I’m drawn to the unique architecture of the city, capturing the singular beauty found in buildings from another time. For this collection I’ve focused on the quietness of the interior. Empty seats in empty rooms, representing the past and present. Evoking a sense of loneliness or the prospect of an encounter. The stillness also invites contemplation, of the lives once lived here and the new lives that continue to do so.
I am a member of The Society of Graphic Fine Art - founded in 1919 and recognised as the only foundation in the UK dedicated to drawing. I’m also a member of The Pastel Society of America based in NYC.
John Ball
My background is in Art and Architecture with complete focus now on painting, drawing inspiration from the structural aspects of nature and incorporating unusual perspectives into my work.
I produce work mainly in oil but also in watercolour, acrylic, graphite and conte.
My interest lies in subject matter related to botanical, wildlife, animal studies, horse eyes, and landscapes with the detail of raw nature and its landscapes providing infinite inspiration for ongoing work.
Work is shown in Sussex and has been exhibited in the Mall Galleries, London
Sarah Money
I live in the village of Iford near Lewes. Throughout my adult life I have worked in physical theatre and contemporary dance, gained a BA (Hons) in Dance with Visual Practice, qualified as a therapist and taught Pilates for over 20 years.
A lifelong fascination with the human form led me back to clay and paint. I first discovered sculpture at 16 during school art classes, but it would be another 30 years before I returned to working with clay. My sculpture explores movement, texture and colour, while my paintings carry the same sense of energy and physicality.
Artists who have inspired me include Brian Taylor, Emily Young, Elaine de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Joan Mitchell and Vincent van Gogh.
A recent highlight was exhibiting The Sea Witch in Odyssey at Hastings Contemporary, exploring themes of the sea, environment and mythology. The work was sold and remains in Hastings, a place deeply connected to my family’s fishing heritage. My recent solo exhibition at the Star Brewery Gallery was both a pleasure and an exciting challenge.
Amelia Rowcroft
From her studio in The Star Brewery, Amelia produces fine art alongside commercial and private commissions. She went to Central Saint Martins and Wimbledon School of Art in London before also graduating from The Florence Academy of Art in 2004.
If you would like to discuss a project with Amelia, she is open to all types of sculpture commissions. She has a background in working in film and television, and for wax museums. She also welcomes portrait commissions, which involve the subject being available for a brief photographic reference sitting.
Amelia shares her knowledge through accessible and affordable online courses. Her courses on portraiture, anatomy and figure sculpting are highly respected and sold worldwide.
Amelia seeks to represent what it is to be human through her sculptures.
Nichola Campbell
is a Sussex-based artist working in Indian Inks, an ancient and luminous medium whose intensity suits her instinctive, memory-driven approach to painting. Her practice spans panoramic triptych’s where landscape unfolds across three connected panels, capturing the shifting light of the Sussex coast and Downs - alongside her intimate “Framescapes’ - in which the landscape flows seamlessly across painted wooden tray frames, dissolving the boundary between image and object.
Working always from memory and feeling rather than direct observation, Nichola captures the atmosphere of a place - particular quality of dawn light, the moment before a wave breaks, the hazy warmth of high summer - rather than its literal likeness.
A consistent presence in Sussex galleries for over a decade, her work is held in private collections across the UK and internationally. She works from her studio near Ditchling Common, drawing constant inspiration from the landscape and the ever-changing coastline.
Peter Kettle
The ‘dreamtime’ that operates between the imagination and reality is the origin of my own - sometimes complex - images. A text is just as likely to bring an image into focus. I don’t wish to sound pretentious but my pictures often jump out after reading a text, or listening to music. It can happen after reading something I do not clearly understand. I was reading an article on Wittgenstein by Bernard Harrison, and in the background was a Miles Davis album called Kind Of Blue. The combination of complex argument, gentle humour, and vigorous rhythm brought this image to mind.
Marcus Cherrill
Marcus Cherrill is a Sussex artist whose paintings explore the familiar landscapes of the South Downs and Sussex coast. Working primarily in acrylics, he builds layers of translucent colour to capture changing light, atmosphere and the quiet character of places we often pass without really noticing.
Marcus has exhibited across East Sussex, including his recent solo exhibition, The Familiar Landscape, at the Star Brewery Gallery in Lewes. His work was also longlisted for the 2026 Jackson’s Art Prize.
For Artwave 2026, Marcus presents a selection of recent paintings inspired by the Downs, villages and coastline of the local landscape.
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Claire Hoskin
Claire’s work is based on objects from the Pitt Rivers Museum which houses the University of Oxford’s anthropological collection.
The founder of the museum was interested in what he called “The evolution of design”, and the collection consists of “Common objects” concerned with utility and practicality.
Using photography, drawing and collage as a process of abstraction, the original artefacts are “evolved” into small scale mixed media sculptural pieces.
They are made using natural and repurposed materials to reflect the nature of the objects that inspired them, and the resourcefulness of their makers.
These makers are largely unknown, or unnamed, so the pieces are titled by the museum’s accession number to acknowledge their skill and ingenuity.
Hiroko Lewis
Sussex-based Japanese artist Hiroko Lewis creates semi-abstract mindscapes using a unique technique that combines oil paint, metal leaf, and patination.
After graduating with a degree in Fine Art from Kanazawa College of Art, she pursued a career as artist, porcelain pattern designer, and illustrator in Japan, exhibiting widely, including at the prestigious National Art Centre in Tokyo.
Her first UK solo exhibition, Kodama: Echoes from the Forest, was presented by Forest Gallery, Petworth in 2023, and her work has also been displayed at the ING Discerning Eye, Society of Women Artists, Wales Contemporary, Sussex Contemporary, Worthing Open, Guildford Arts Summer Exhibition, and the Affordable and Fresh art fairs, among others. In 2026, she was invited to exhibit alongside Lee Miller in Forest Inspired at Farleys House.
A major commission, Resonance, comprising ten panels and measuring 1.5 x 5m, can be viewed in the lobby of Cripps LLC in Tunbridge Wells.
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Rachael Stedman
Rachael Stedman is a landscape and portrait artist working from her studio in the South Downs near Lewes.
After graduating in Illustration from Brighton Art College, Rachael began her career in London as a background and development artist in animation, working across feature films, children’s television and advertising. This experience continues to influence her approach to composition, storytelling and visual atmosphere.
Returning to painting after raising her family, Rachael has developed a distinctive language of rich, jewel-like colour, intricate mark-making and luminous light. Recent exhibitions have been at the Mall Galleries, Petersfield Museum, Guildford House, Atelier Gallery, and Rye Art Gallery and she was a Wildcard winner on 'Sky Arts’ Landscape Artist of the Year 2023 and a contestant on Portrait Artist of the Year 2024.
David C Nix
Fascinated by the narrative possibilities of object and place, histories lived or imagined, David is a photographer, painter and printmaker who finds equal inspiration in a monumental landscape or the dusty corner of an abandoned room.
An experienced practitioner, studying Fine Art at university led to becoming assistant to an interior designer, then working as a photographer and model maker for archaeological exhibitions. A 35 year teaching career in further education followed, after which David established his own studio and darkroom at the Star in Lewes. Here, he works to extend his own practice and share his knowledge with others through 1-to-1 or small group workshops.
Photographic work explores the use of large format cameras and a range of ‘alternative’ ways of working dating back to the Nineteenth century. By contrast, his painting and printmaking takes on a more abstract form, exploring landscape and still life through techniques such as collography, mixed media and encaustic.
Carolyn Watson
I began painting seriously about 10 years' ago after retiring from a very different working life.
Over the last year, I have had the opportunity to spend more time painting and exploring my creativity.
I have painted a series of expressive seascapes in oils. I try to create a sense of emotion and mood on the canvas.
Painting has become a way for me to reflect, explore and express myself.
I have also found an interest in printing and like to produce atmospheric collagraphs and etchings.
As a relatively new artist, I am excited to be able to exhibit my work in the Star Brewery Gallery.
Philippa Futrell
After a fulfilling teaching career, 2022 saw Futrell refocus her attention to her own creative journey. In 2024 she launched herself as an artist exhibiting from her own studio and has been part of a number of group exhibitions and Art Fairs throughout Kent and East Sussex. Recalling through the use of water based media the uneasy balance achieved between nature and the man-made environments of our country, it is the narrow, wild corridors across the United Kingdom which entrance her the most, whether that is woodland, moor or mountains where the juxtaposition of nature’s response to man’s manipulation or intervention create fascinating conversations in light, texture and shape. In her most recent work she has been drawn to the bright dancing light of waterways - the East Sussex coastline laced with history, and the jewel-like tumbling waters of the Lake District. - places where the power of nature still prevails.
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Yvonne Coughlan
Yvonne is an artist who lives and works in London. She studied sculpture at Chelsea College of Art .
Her studio practice spans painting, constructing, mono printing, collage and drawing. Her work has been shown and collected in the UK and abroad.
Yvonne works through an instinctive process that combines colour and texture. While her initial inspiration often comes from the shapes, textures, and colours of everyday life, her works evolve primarily through an intuitive, layered approach.
The work exhibited for ArtWave 26 - “Peachy series” relates to the soft texture and colours of peaches, and was conceived from traditional drawings of fruit. Using this starting point the work has abstracted and developed into monochrome work that is as much about the materials and colour as initial theme.
Neeta Pedersen
Danish/British/Indian artist Neeta Pedersen’s vision comes from her unusual heritage, her extensive travels and her rich visual imagination. She has studied film at the New York Film Academy and hold a BA (Hons) in Animation from the University of Westminster in London.
She has developed a strong style of her own and has created a substantial body of original work expressing herself in many media including paintings, sculptures, digital art, animation and she uses her designs to produce bag, scarves, cushions and mugs.
Since 2006, Neeta has been working as an artist, illustrator, graphic designer and website builder.
In February 2020 she became the owner and director of the Star Brewery Gallery in Lewes and has curated a wide variety of successful exhibitions by established and up and coming artists.
