Star Brewery Creatives
The Exhibitors
Rachel Ward-Sale
Rachel studied Art, Design and Bookbinding at The University of Brighton.
Since leaving college she has worked as a self-employed bookbinder, co-founding Bookbinders of Lewes in 1992. She undertakes a wide variety of projects and commissions including designed fine bindings for commissions and exhibitions.
She teaches bookbinding at her studio and other venues, including West Dean College, Chichester.
In 2005 she was elected a Fellow of Designer Bookbinders, serving as President
From 2019-2021.
Rachel has been awarded prizes in national and international competitions, including second prize in the Designer Bookbinders International Competition in 2017. Her work has been exhibited at venues in the UK and abroad, including Collect in London and Windsor Castle. Rachel's work is represented in collections around the world including the Getty, Bodleian and British Libraries as well as the Royal Collection.
While primarily working in leather Rachel also explores other materials including acrylic, paper and velum in her bindings creating contemporary alternatives to the traditionally bound book. Texture, both natural and manufactured, has been a recurring influence on her work. Recently she has been concentrating on this element of design using a variety of found objects, natural and man-made as well as collagraph and printing blocks to impress into leather and paper creating unpredictable and tactile results.
Hayley Brown
​Artist and tutor Hayley Brown has a BA and MA in Education. She has exhibited in Kent and Sussex for over over 25 years. Having a long career in the Arts, including studying Indian Miniature Painting at The City Palace Jaipur, teaching at the Victoria and Albert Museum and writing various press articles on ancient history. She has a long career in curating solo and group shows. Private tuition in London, Lewes and Uckfield including venues such as Paddock Art Studios, Private groups at home, and at Charleston. Currently mainly working in oils Hayley has been inspired by historical architecture, atmospheric interiors and contemplative portraiture after her many visits to National Trusts and Charleston Farm House. Hayley still tutors privately and is a member of Buxted Art Group. Recent commissions include Atmospheric Portraits in oil, Indian Architectural scapes, botanical paintings in egg tempera and also painted decorative furniture.
Lynn Gayford
Lynn grew up in Cambridge and studied Fine Art at Winchester School of Art and the Facultad de Belles Artes in Barcelona. She has an MA in Museum and Art Gallery Education and an MSc in Science Communication. Her career has included working at the Lisson Gallery, Chisenhale Gallery and on site specific installations in London and Madrid. Lynn currently works at the National Gallery carrying out audience research and teaches at The Royal Academy of Arts. Her work has been shown in Winchester, London, Breda, Netherlands and Lewes.
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In her recent paintings, Lynn creates shifting spaces that seem both evocative and intangible. From one perspective, an interior appears, while from an alternate viewpoint, the image changes. Moving around the painting, the viewer’s experience can become quite personal. Her rich colours are overlaid with shimmering nets, creating a disconcerting light and movement that demand a closer look. There’s a stillness and focus in the work which echo Lynn’s approach to painting.​
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. Those practical experiences led to a 35 year teaching career in further education, after which David established his own studio and darkroom 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, including salt printing, cyanotypes and orotones on glass plates. By contrast, his painting and printmaking takes on a more abstract form, exploring landscape and still life through techniques such as collography.
Kirsten Norbury
Light—and the way it transforms colour—has always been my inspiration. Its elusive quality can turn the ordinary into something beautiful, and my aim is to capture those fleeting moments.
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Whether painting a portrait, a still life, or an interior, I am drawn to the beauty in the everyday—the quiet intimacy of familiar spaces and places I’ve visited. My approach is one of simplicity and economy, making every mark count in pursuit of light’s poetry and the sensation it evokes.
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​I teach painting in oils in my weekly classes at Star Brewery. If you’d like to find out more email: kirsten@kirstennorbury.co.uk
May Everett
May is a painter and printmaker. She currently works in the Star Brewery, Lewes, and teaches printmaking in venues across Sussex.
Her work begins with loose ink drawings on the canvas or printing plate, which are blotted with semi-transparent papers to create an interesting surface residue. This provides a framework of serendipitous marks that are developed with oil paints, printing inks, or collage. She tends to discover the image whilst working although recurring themes often emerge. Sussex landscapes, gardens, foliage, textiles, window frames, archways, and vessels shift and dissolve, resulting in artworks with recognisable elements but also a sense of ambiguity.
Everett studied Fine Art Painting at the University of Brighton and later completed a Masters Level Art & Design teaching qualification. Her work has featured in many exhibitions and open studio events, notably ‘It Rose & IT Fell’ curated by Terrace Gallery in London, Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair, and ‘FairGround’ at Glyndebourne Opera House.
Scott Brenman
Scott Brenman’s Post-it Note Paintings explore the tension between appreciating nature and managing everyday responsibilities. The works are playful and consolatory, reflecting the difficulty of fully engaging with a scenic landscape while also being distracted by mundane thoughts—such as the milk that needs to be bought or the water meter that needs to be read.
At the same time, the series suggests that post-it notes form a kind of landscape of their own. They map out our daily lives, filled with annotations of tasks, obligations, and fleeting thoughts. The paintings invite the viewer to reconsider what constitutes a 'landscape,' proposing that the layered, fragmented nature of reminders and to-do lists is just as revealing and complex as the natural scenes we attempt to admire.
Scott painted this series at The Star Brewery. He lives locally and is available for landscape commissions.
Carolyn Watson
I began painting seriously about 10 years' ago after retiring from a very different working life. What started as a quiet, creative pastime quickly grew into a daily practice.
I have also found an interest in printing and like to produce moody, atmospheric prints. I enjoy experimenting with monoprinting and other techniques.
I have painted a series of expressive seascapes in rich, textured layers of oil paint. I try to capture the movement, stillness and emotional pull of the ocean.
Painting has become a way for me to reflect, explore and express myself.
I hope my work brings some of that feeling - of calm, wonder and possibility - into the spaces where it's seen.
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 very 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.​
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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.