Curiosity regarding the possibility of a feminine sensibility to materials and evidence in my own practice of certain behaviours revealed in the process, began the research. Recognition of this feminine sensibility within the selection, handling and manipulation of objects and materials, continues to drive the practice. Physical experimentation into the nature and behaviour of materials and processes, affords a naturally rich, cognitive space in which ideas can be tempered. Whilst stressing the materiality of the work, it is the behavioural processes that define it rather than the end product, making necessary a multimedia as well as mixed media categorisation.

To touch, caress, feel To mould To embed To repair To heal To nourish To nurture To conserve To cleanse To polish To secrete To arrange To beautify To disguise To ritualise To give

Location: Broadstairs
Website: www.ruthgeldard.com
Contact: ruthgeldard@hotmail.com

I am a Kent based artist. My paintings, printmaking and sculpture and more recently textiles are based on my surrounding area.

Location: Whitstable
Website: http://tomswift76.blogspot.com/
Contact: tomswift76@yahoo.com

My education as an artist can be traced as far back as 1980 as seven year old. I entered a Nationwide Building society competition to design a moneybox and came second.

In 1996 I qualified from Portsmouth University with a BA Hons Environmental Design Degree. My journey in art continued and after moving to London in 1999, I enjoyed successful shows firstly as a painter and later as a curator.

My career continued with directorships in galleries & studios in Hoxton, Dalston, Camberwell and Brixton. Over recent years I’ve dedicated more time to exploring other media including sculpture, pottery, photography, film and video.
Having moved out of London, I’ve had more time to enjoy and create new work. 2010 is going to be a really good year and am looking forward to achieving a number of exciting and wide ranging projects.

Come along to the “day off” exhibtion during the Whitstable Biennale.

Location: Faversham
Website: www.d-a-o-f.blogspot.com
Contact: stevenjknowles@hotmail.co.uk

The imagery in my paintings and the form of my sculptures inhabit the rich territory between abstraction and figuration.

I am from the first generation of artists for whom the landscape of our visual horizons started with the world changing Apollo mission photographs of the earth from space. I am influenced by Hubble’s beautiful images of emerging nebula and haunting photographs of sub-atomic particles. I am also inspired by the pastel colours of Odilon Redon; the Petri dish colour studies of Ellen Altfest; the skies of Turner and Nolde; and the wet on wet techniques of Frankenthaler and Xingjian.

My paintings are abstractions from the world around me: dark skies; looming presences under a quarter moon; silhouettes of black against darkness; moonlit kipper clouds against the backdrop of the milky-way. Horizons are hinted at if not always present; they are studies in light and colour. My sculptures evoke dry and twisted bone, fossils and slumping flesh. Both give space for the audience to fill in gaps and use memory and imagination to see the whole.

Location: Little Chart
Website: www.harrietgifford.com
Contact: harriet@hgifford.co.uk

Jennifer Price is an artist intrigued by the association of art, artist and viewer, and the interaction between these elements. She takes man-made objects that perform a task for us in modern society and inks them up and prints them. Two main elements underpin her work; the first of these elements concerns dimensions. Jennifer takes a recognisable object, such as a television, that is three-dimensional and prints it so that it is splayed out flat onto a canvas; turning the 3d into 2d, and removing its purpose and function. The second element underlying her work is its association with stereotypical, psychiatric “Inkblots”. The concept behind this aspect is the creativity of the viewer as much as the art or artists themselves. Similarly to a psychiatrist’s inkblot, the imagination is invited and the accidental can become a whole new image: the emergence of creativity.  By using a recognisable object to begin with it challenges the viewer further, asking them to look beyond the obvious. Their interpretation is their own, and not the artists: they become the works meaning.

Jennifer sees artist, art and audience as all part of a piece of work. In her work they are inseparable.

Her aim is to take this idea further, constantly refining it and reacting to society and her position in it. The work will always be evolving.

Price has recently received recognition for the exhibitions she has been organising in her hometown. Tackling the issues of art recognition outside of London Price began with her local area around Maidstone UK, organising non-profit “THE/RE:Generation” exhibition in a vacant shop in the heart of the town. Bringing together local artists at all stages of their career, local and national celebrities, the town council, local businesses and trades people, both local and national press and media recognition and the public she began her aim of creating a local network, with art as its catalyst, that all members can benefit from. Life was brought to a desolate area affected by the recession and opportunities were created for artists. The main aim Price is working towards with shows like this is rejuvenating and creating vibrant art scenes outside of the traditional areas such as London. She is creating new opportunities for artists, and refreshing a buzz about art in areas that are often overlooked by the art clique. Jennifer wants to bring art back to all the public.

Location: Maidstone
Website: www.jenniferpriceart.com
Contact: art-at-heart@hotmail.co.uk

I am a multimedia schitzophrenic. I work in any medium that will enhance the experience of creating, and seeing. I paint, draw, make beaded items and chainmaille, create felted images and would be nothing without my beloved  photography…
Why stand in front of someone else’s shop window, yearning- create your own!

Location: Dover
Website: www.sjs-artandsoul.com
Contact: sharon@sjs-artandsoul.com

I examine traces of memories by deconstructing and reconstructing images using digital print and screenprinting. I am interested in the surface of the image and how, by breaking the image down into layers, I can create an image that allows you the feeling of space to move between the layers. This can allow different aspects of the image to be explored that may have previously been considered unimportant.

In digital printmaking I enjoy exploring processes ‘incorrectly’. I am particularly interested in inkjet transfer from one surface to another using water and pressure. I have explored four-colour prints this way as well as using a surface printed with block-printing ink to absorb the ink and transfer it onto a different surface.

My more recent work has seen a shift into print and 3D work, especially with the use of ceramics and slip casting.I am currently exploring printing onto clay using a relatively unknown technique known as the gum viscosity transfer method.

Location: Sandwich (Studio at Crate in Margate)
Website: www.caronottewell.co.uk
Contact: caronottewell@googlemail.com