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Committee
Committee
Molly is a freelance creative based in Morecambe. She works with collage, printing and digital design to bring playful responses to a wide range of projects and briefs. She aims to aid creative activity in the area through community rooted projects.
Priscilla is an artist, designer and lecturer.
After completing her studies in Embroidered Textiles at Manchester Metropolitan University Priscilla became a freelance artist and designer exhibiting her work in galleries across the UK and overseas including Sweden, Germany and the USA. Her work is also held in the Embroiderers Guild Educational Archive. Working with thread, wire, silk, wax, porcelain and found objects her work stems from a deep emotional connection to memories of family, places and personal objects from her childhood. Priscilla describes her practice as...
"trying to make sense of the world through the process of re-assembling found fragments that may be lost in need of a new identity".
Priscilla has taught in FE & HE for over 20 years and now lectures for the UCA in Farnham through their partner OCA on the BA Textiles Programme. She delivers a variety of workshops for schools, colleges, guilds and teaches at the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal. Priscilla also has an ongoing working relationship with charity Kendal Window on Arts working with them as an artist in Primary Education across Lancashire and Cumbria.
Priscilla is also a founder member of 'Decorum Textile Artists' who are a group of exhibiting Artists and Alumni from MMU Textile Department.
Siân operates in the strategic planning/project development aspects of arts, culture and tourism. She has over 30 years’ experience earning a living through her advice in the sector, including 11 at Deloitte. She has worked from Morecambe since 2000 and finds she also enjoys supporting charitable/not-for-profit projects, as the former Chair of The Dukes, a Trustee of Venus & Cupid Arts Trust and on the Committees of Morecambe BID and the Artist Colony. She took over the planning and delivery of Morecambe Bay’s Time and Tide Bell and has recently been advising the Eden Project North team in their bid for government funding.
Kathryn is one of our founding members and is currently Chair of MAC. She is also the Executive Director at More Music.
Pete is another of our founding members. A local legend and world's "fastest one-man band", Pete was the founder of More Music. After 25 years at the forefront of community music in the UK, Pete is now working as a freelance musician and activist!
Anthony is an award winning artist, a dance teacher and a writer with an MA in the Theory of Contemporary Art from Wimbledon School of Art. His public sculptures are sited nationally and internationally.
Anthony lives in Morecambe and his current workspace is at the Birley Studios (Preston). Recent projects are "A Year With Van Gogh 2017" and "A Year With Picasso 2018/19".
His "Praying Shell" is sited near Hest Bank and his "Millennium-Angel" is sited at Leighton Hall. He is also a Lancashire Representative for the Artists Union England."
My current work is about raising awareness and asking questions. In the 1940/50s woman were very resourceful, still in the make-do-and-mend mentality and often staying at home to look after the family rather than working full time. Whereas now in most cases but not all, women are treated as an equal and either want to work full time or need to so that they can pay the bills.
Associates
Associate Organisations
Deco Publique is an art and culture company making original new work, based by the sea in Morecambe and working around the North. We make public art that animates coastal spaces, rural landscapes and urban centres.
Our portfolio includes the National Festival of Making and Vintage by the Sea; the commissioning programme - Art in Manufacturing; co-design programme - The FOLD; the World Record Breaking Very Big Catwalk and the co-production of landscape artworks, Headlands to Headspace.
Based in Morecambe’s West End, we are a friendly, approachable independent, commercial gallery providing fine art to North West England and beyond.
We carry paintings, mixed media, drawings and high quality, limited edition prints of selected originals.
33 Yorkshire Street Morecambe LA3 1QF
Opening Times: Friday and Saturday: 10am - 4pm
We can also arrange ad hoc viewings to suit you - please contact us with your requirements. We also have late night openings throughout the year, please subscribe to our mailing list for times and dates.
Members
Members
Born in Blackburn, Jill moved to Lancaster some years ago, and finally to Morecambe in 2016. A keen sailor, she loves living close to the sea, and the innumerate photo opportunities afforded by spectacular Morecambe Bay. She studied photography at Blackburn College back in the 1990s but it wasn't until 2013 - with encouragement from local creatives, and from More Music in Morecambe - that she produced her first exhibition there, with a further four following in various locations throughout the North West. Portraiture and street photography are her main focus - her aim is to capture the 'thing' behind the eyes - in locations with an unexpected viewpoint.
Wyn Abbot is an award-winning Sculptor & Ceramic Artist, her work is inspired by Ancestors & Ancient Cultures and from the nature around her. Story-weaving her magic into the clay from the mother earth itself, Wyn creates wonderful and meaningful pieces which are sold worldwide. Every single piece is individually hand sculpted and filled with symbolism and the energy of the earth.
James makes amazingly intricate papercut pictures. He would call like to call it art but actually thinks of it more as a craft. Each picture is cut from a single sheet of paper using a craft knife. They take a while to create, especially now that he is getting more adept at making little cuts.
Mark Attwood is a documentary photographer whose work primarily focuses on socio-economic issues and community in modern day Britain. His work aims to tell a cohesive story that acts as evidence to support the statement he makes within each body of work. The genre of documentary photography can be very broad in its subject matter, and is often perceived as voyeuristic in its nature, and so his current work aims to take a more 'socially engaged' approach, to place the subject on a more equal level of importance in the production of the work as him, the creator.
Mollie is interested in the holistic creative process through a variety of mediums, although professionally, primarily through writing.
Johnny is a founding member of MAC and former Administrator/Treasurer. A full-time professional Photographer, Johnny's previous jobs have included being a DJ, a dishwasher, a handyman, an Admin/Finance Manager for Lancaster Litfest and Bookshop Manager at the ICA. Johnny is also Administrator for LAP - the Lancaster Arts Partners and Secretary for The West End Million.
I am a mixed media artist, in that I am constantly experimenting with different ways of using art materials in my work. I often work in a semi-abstract manner, but I also like detail. Colour and pattern, are always a key factor. I am never short of ideas for subjects to paint – far more than I will ever have time to develop in my lifetime.
I continue to be inspired by my experiences of travelling in Asia. This year I have been concentrating on experimenting with the many methods of print making.
I regularly exhibit my art work and textiles.
Janet runs the wonderful Stone Jetty Cafe on the Stone Jetty, Morecambe Promenade. The Cafe has been and continues to be the home to many of MAC's exhibitions.
The cafe opens 10am-4pm Tues-Sun during the summer.
I am local but lived abroad and travelled for many years, finally coming home to roost about ten years ago. I still like to escape the winters as much as possible. I've been felting for quite a few years. I love the texture, colours and versatility. I use pure merino wool, using brightly coloured fibres to 'paint' a picture, adding silks, bamboo fibres, soya bean tops and even camel down, as well as fibres, threads and pieces of fabric. I live in Morecambe and take inspiration for the pictures I make from the surrounding countryside and the purple and orange sunsets of the Bay. Each piece I make is vibrant and original.
Now have time to take my art seriously! I’ve completed many short courses and the London Art College diploma in Drawing and Painting and I’m now establishing my own style. I love watercolours and especially acrylics but also printmaking - all inspired by the landscape. I’m a regular member of South Lakeland Urban Sketchers
Her creative experience includes product design and development, design and trend forecasting, sourcing, curating, and merchandising.
Having retired from the day job, I have been exploring drawing, painting, photography, printing, music and video, and trying to pull these various media together with a slant on social comment. I continue to do pro bono work for charities and small start-up companies who cannot afford professional fees.I am a member of Film Morecambe and Lancaster Photographic Society, as well as the Royal Photographic Society.
I help artists secure media coverage - print, broadcast and online - for their work, publications and exhibitions through effective, affordable PR. I am also a copywriter, editor and proofreader who can help you create first-rate copy for brochures, websites, blog posts, exhibitions and funding applications. Does your CV need an overhaul? Contact me to find out how I could help. Art clients have included the Hannah Frank Art Project, Glasgow (15 years), John Elles, Graham Lowe, Peter Layzell, (Lancaster), Steve Rostron, (Ribble Valley), and Serbian-born artist Diana Zwibach, as well as music, literary and heritage-related clients.
I have worked as a journalist, have a Certificate in Periodical Journalism from the University of the Arts, London, and a degree in English Literature, BA (Hons), from Lancaster University. I was an editorial board member at Lancaster & District Chamber of Commerce for many years.
Please visit the Judith Coyle Editorial website to find out more.
R Simon Dalton is a photographer based in Morecambe, U.K. Simon has had an interest in photography for as long as he can remember but it's become more serious over the last few years. Initially, this came through the practice of street photography, but this has developed into a broader interest in the urban environment.
My little business was born three years ago, after moving to Morecambe Bay and becoming totally inspired by the beautiful bay and discovering the treasures that each new tide brings. I love turning the pieces of driftwood, sea glass sea pottery and pebbles that I find into fun and unique creations. I started by selling at craft fairs, but as my confidence has grown I am now making pieces for exhibitions. I didn't really consider my self as ‘an artist’, until I sold my first exhibition pieces. In 2017 I held a joint exhibition with my photographer husband. 2018 sees my first solo exhibition. It is to be held in the Bay, at The Stone Jetty Cafe in Morecambe. I cannot think of a more fitting venue.
I was born in 1942 and am a former art, design and technology teacher. A member of Morecambe’s Pier Writers, my work, prose and verse, has appeared in anthologies, specialist journals and the local press, sometimes as Pierre Le Gué. My creative work is 2D and 3D, with an enthusiasm for cast pewter and constructed jewellery on a motorcycle theme. I contribute regularly to local spoken word and open mic events, as a reader and R&B harmonica player. I am enjoying the current Morecambe renaissance, as I have happy memories of the Forties, Fifties and Sixties here.
David has developed his art over the past 20 years, influenced by his life in a seaside resort and love of the coast and sea. His work has a subtle undertone of escapism, the constant search for secluded coves and apparently undiscovered beaches, depicted from a raised perspective, describing a dream that may be within grasp.
His work has been exhibited in venues across the northwest of England including the Storey Gallery Lancaster and Harris Museum Preston. He has also exhibited at the Manchester Art Fair and the Mall Galleries London.
Paintings of the Morecambe Bay Area can be found in Crescent Gallery Bare and paintings of St Ives in the Art House Gallery St Ives (www.thearthouses.com)
Gillian is a Glasgow based performance practitioner. She makes rigorous attempts to build and control her environment over hours, and sometimes days, by undertaking physically demanding and mentally exhausting durational performances. Gillian’s interest lies in the fleeting moment where her will to succeed meets her diminishing physical ability to complete each task.
Adam is a scientist, games designer, typesetter, comic artist, film-maker and Visual Artist. His practice reflects each of these disciplines, often combining them to create novel areas of exploration, using his background in creating scientific investigations as a starting point for artistic explorations and methodologies.
Together, their practice seeks to explore the notion of ‘the imagined ideal’ through subjective performance, objective experimentation, documentation and observation.
Chris is a multidisciplinary artist; a creative player and experimenter extensively focused on promoting community arts and music, delighted in seeing barriers to art and the imagination crumble. He plays with different mediums, as time, tide and energy allow - never feeling the need to confine himself to a single material, style or theme – although themes become apparent naturally over time.
Since March 2017 he has been freelancing as a graphic designer, musician, photographer and animation workshop instigator. His present creative incarnation is inextricably and passionately linked to the haven for all things artistic – The Exchange CIC - and to Morecambe.
Pat studied fine art at Doncaster College of Art and the University of Central Lancashire, graduating with honours in 1980. Her work is held in The House of Lords Permanent Art Collection, in the Head Office of Cadbury and in private national and international collections in Europe, America and Australia. She is represented by galleries in the North West and takes part in exhibitions in the region and across the UK, with shows in N. Yorkshire, Newcastle, Edinburgh and London. In 2004, she represented artists from the North West of England in the Summer Exhibition in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden.
She is available to give talks and runs workshops for art associations and social groups.
I grew up in Manchester and have lived in Skerton for 25 years. I am a graduate of the former Manchester Polytechnic and have a studio space in The Storey in Lancaster. I currently work in paint, pastel and charcoal and am principally a colourist. My art is wholly based on observation; I walk to the studio, to the shops, to the various things I do and most of the paintings I make spring from some aspect of these walks. I also spend time on the traditional discipline of life drawing. Studying the human form is endlessly fascinating and will always be relevant to contemporary art.
My art hero Bonnard said “What I am after is the first impression - I want to show all one sees on first entering the room - what my eye takes in at first glance” and that pretty much sums up what I try to do as well.
Artist, Production Designer, Escapologist and Flaneur, Paul was born in Leeds, educated by nuns, Jesuits and amazing parents After studying fun and Fine Art at Leeds and Bournemouth Art Schools, he graduated with a first in fun! He has designed over 100 productions for theatre, opera and dance and was joint Gold Medal winner at the Prague International Theatre Design Quadrennial. Paul also had a trial for Leeds United and auditioned for The Wombles!
Ginny is a photographer, specialising in family photography and business, and with a keen interest in creative portraiture. Ginny also runs smartphone photography workshops and offers 1:1 photography tuition.
Hazel Leech is an artist and community volunteer, living in Morecambe. She is in her second year of study at University of Chester to become an Art Therapist.
I have followed several different careers in addition to those involving Art, and have lived in several parts of the UK, resulting in having exhibited comparatively widely over time and place.
Nowadays, my work is about what is around me. Life, during the Covid restrictions, has given me a different perspective.
The ordinary takes on a new significance. I have been recording moments which in themselves are everyday, but take on special meaning when considered in their new context.
I am drawing and painting at the moment, after years of employing a variety of media and methods which I shall no doubt turn to again as and when.
Having completed her architectural studies to Masters level in the UK, Petra moved to Paris to study art at several artist-led ateliers in city. She developed a passion for painting, bronze casting and clay modelling before moving to Ireland to learn the art of bog-oak carving at an atelier of Zimbabwean master carvers. After a year she returned to the UK to study Fine Art at Bretton Hall (Leeds University) where she achieved a first-class degree. She has exhibited her sculptures at the White Gallery (Meltham), Green Dragon Yard Gallery (Knaresborough), Headingly Gallery (Leeds) and the Adzak Atelier (Paris). She then trained as a milliner, applying sculptural techniques to the art of hat making, winning several NVQ gold medals, as well as the Haberdasher’s Guild medal and bursary and a Gold Lions award for Innovator of the Year. She has showcased her hat collections on catwalks in London and Yorkshire and her millinery creations have been highly placed in several international hat competitions.
Petra has always had a passion for writing and moved back to the UK to study Creative Writing at Lancaster University where she completed her Doctoral studies and was awarded a PhD. She taught at the university for several years. Currently, Petra divides her time between Lancaster and Fontainebleau, south of Paris where she teaches Creative Writing, works as a book editor, paints abstract landscapes, exhibits her work and is developing her skills as a stone carver.
Richard is a hand weaver. He weaves and spins 100% natural UK wool from native and rare breed sheep, and specialises in hand spinning and hand weaving wool to create unique and bespoke clothing, accessories and art using heritage skills that you can’t replicate in a factory. Richard is passionate about making a stand to protect the planet as well as creating beautiful, ethically produced, pure wool products.
Richard lives in Bare, Morecambe and has a studio at Farfield Mill, Sedbergh.
Linda studied graphic design and illustration at the Norwich School of Art in the late 1970s and early 80s.
She has awards from the Society of Industrial Artists and Designers and the International Wool Secretariat.
She moved to Morecambe 14 years ago and began to enjoy the experience of painting and illustrating once more. The pace of living in Morecambe is conducive to absorbing the views and environment, unlike city life.
She has found many amazing subjects, mainly architectural, to paint in her own style and particularly delights in producing paintings of the Midland Hotel.
Linda has an exhibition planned at the Midland Hotel in June 2018.
Carol graduated from Cambridge School of Art in 2014, with an MA in Children's Book Illustration. Since then she has produced her first book, Banjo Billy and the Bullies, for primary school aged children. Other projects have included a village sign in Oxfordshire and children's murals in Guatemala, Taiwan and Lancaster!
Emma Rucastle is a freelance Creative Practitioner who works as a facilitator, director, writer and performer in a wide range of theatre, educational and community settings.
I’m a textile designer/maker working with farmers in the Morecambe Bay area to promote the use of wool. I buy fleeces direct from the farms and work closely with the farmers and the UK based spinning mill to ensure we have beautiful yarn and I produce a wide range of textile work that shows the versatility of wool... a wonderful, readily available natural resource! My designs tend to reflect the unique beauty of the area and incorporate driftwood, sea glass and shells, plus acorns and leaves. I weave wool tweed to make into bags, throws and ruana/ponchos. I also felt the wool for hat making.
Gilli's work is mainly inspired by the beautiful landscape of the Arnside and Silverdale area. It comes from an imaginative recollection of the textures, light and feelings she has experienced, rather than true life. Her pictures can be seen in local galleries, cafes and exhibitions. She has also undertaken several private commissions and run textile art workshops for schools, art groups and artist’s studios.
Gilli has lived and worked in this area for 40 years. After retiring from 25 years of teaching she found time to follow a more artistic path. This had been lying dormant since she gained a degree from Southampton University in Textile Art and Education in the 1970s.
I am a self taught artist born in Lancaster, now living in Torrisholme Morecambe.
I got a lot of my inspiration from my art teacher Sidney Passmore at my secondary school, Castle County Secondary School which is now called Central Lancaster High.
I have painted and drawn for as long as I can remember and now use various mediums including oils, acrylics, pastels, graphite and charcoal.
I also enjoy photography.
In the past I have had small exhibitions in Lancaster’s Sun Hotel.
I now tend to create realistic artwork so being retired helps as a lot of hours are required.
Julia is a painter and printmaker based in Lancashire
My artistic practice investigates the truths of identity and memory, in relation to the context of time and space. All my drawings are ephemeral - they are stuck in a constant process of creation and erasure - negotiating conversations between my memory and environment, to tackle the issue of displacement that arises from immigration early on in life.
Graduated with First-Class Honors in Fine Art from Lancaster University in 2020. Co-founded the artist collective "The GAP Studio" in Morecambe's Arndale Shopping Centre. Currently is part of a group show "False Memory" at Rugby Art Gallery and Museum.
I am a contemporary visual artist whose primary medium is printmaking, sometimes combined with other mediums. I work out of my studio a few miles south of Morecambe and I’m a resident artist at Art Lab Contemporary Print Studio’s, UCLan, Preston.
My work is abstract but with a human presence and heavily influenced by the natural world. It is underpinned by psychoanalytic principles and the notion of the unconscious, using the sea as a metaphor to represent this.
My work is exhibited across the UK and internationally.
It feels odd writing a bio of my work as an artist because I’m not sure that’s what I am. I enjoyed drawing when I was a child/teenager and have an Art O-level (my only artistic qualification). However, when work and later a family came along I no longer managed to make space to draw. When retirement came along I found time again. Moving to Morecambe and being near to the bay and its bird life gave me inspiration. Seeing a wire and paper sculpture on Pinterest and then being given some wire to ‘play around’ with set me off. I started by making shapes of the waders I saw on the bay. I just enjoy the making. I started to sell my creations mainly to make space at home for new ones! I have to say that selling my first bird (at Leighton Moss with the Bay Craft Collective) was amazing; the fact that someone liked my creations enough to part with their money and put my bird in their house was a real joy.
I am a 63-year-old retired geography teacher who wishes to spend his dotage looking at and trying to create nice things. I am pretty new to woodcarving and woodblock printing but in the last few years have been able to concentrate on developing these new skills. In the past, I have worked with watercolours and exhibited many years ago in Watford. I have tried my hand at woodturning and sold some items locally. It is my intention to continue with woodworking and would like to exhibit in the future.
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