Louise Connell
After school Louise Connell attended York college of art to do a years foundation course and later went on to study conservation and restoration at Lincoln college of art. The course was very varied but what really inspired her was gilding and surface decoration taught by the brilliant Nigel Leaney. Techniques such as woodgraining, marbling and oil and water gilding were practised.
On leaving college Louise worked in a partnership and did a number of architectural gilding jobs including St James R.C church in London and St Phillip Neri in Mansfield. The partnership was dissolved when she became pregnant with her first child.
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She moved to South West Ireland two years later. Whilst there as well as bringing up two wonderful daughters she worked as a painter and decorator with her husband, designed and painted murals and restored and
re-gilded antique picture and mirror frames. She worked at Castle Hyde in co Cork for Michael Flatley, gilding with a team of three others. When asked in her local credit union if
it was thee Michael Flatley's name on the cheque, her husband replied "Yes Lou's up there giving him dance lessons"
She has lived back in the UK since 2016 in Robin Hoods Bay, a beautiful village on the north east coast of North Yorkshire.
Nature has always been a huge inspiration for her paintings and sculptures and she feels lucky to have lived and worked in some stunning parts of the British Isles. She admires the work of Sir Alfred Munnings a painter of horses and David Curtis is a modern master of oils and watercolours whose paintings inspire her.
Trish Connell
Trish Connell was born in the East Riding of Yorkshire. She has drawn and painted since she was young but chose to be a nurse rather than pursue art as a career. Her three daughters and one son were encouraged to be creative as soon as they could hold a crayon, each of them have creative hobbies and Louise her youngest child has made art her profession.
Trish has made her home in many parts of the British Isles, from the north west highlands of Scotland to the southernmost county in Ireland. Her love of wild places and sense of adventure has led her to a number of holidays including Canadian canoeing down extremely remote rivers in Canada. In 2011 she finally settled in beautiful Robin Hood's Bay and it's position between the moors and sea is a constant inspiration. She enjoys walking with her husband Dave and dog Jack and the tranquility of her garden gives her other opportunities to be creative.
Trish paints mainly in oils, often with a palette knife when in the studio but her most recent challenge is painting outside.
She tries to bring atmosphere to her paintings by capturing the immediacy of the moment, concentrating on the light and shade and her emotional response to her surroundings.
Trish greatly admires the work of Turner, Sorolla and David Curtis.
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Joan Newton
One painting of the seawall sold to a person who told Joan she owned a piece by Damian Hirst!! this was a break through moment and a big boost of confidence.
It took Joan Newton a whole year to pluck up the courage to join the arts group, With no knowledge or concept of perspective and composition and having never drawn or painted before, apart from at school, it was a huge challenge.
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After trying different mediums it was oil paints that suited, within a year of classes Joan sold her first painting. Over the years she has sold a number of seascapes and landscapes.
The seawall has become a keen subject for Joan and she has painted commissions for people with the same passion.
Continuing to learn is the challenge and painting outdoors is becoming a regular habit now. "Putting the first mark on a blank canvas would set me off in hot sweats" admits Joan. She now loves to paint, after nine years with help and support from her fellow artists in Robin Hood's Bay Arts Group that blank canvas no longer holds any fear.
Joan's mantra is "If I can do it then anyone can.
You just need to give yourself the time".
Enid Allen
Originally from Durham, Enid Allen, her husband Ron and three girls lived in various places before settling in Robin Hood's Bay in the 1980's. She worked as a PA and in Human Resource and latterly in the voluntary sector for a local disability group, part of which was teaching chair based exercise.
Physical exercise has been constant throughout her
life, including running, free weights, yoga and, over
the last ten years , Tai Chi and Pilates.
Having loved art at school, retirement allowed Enid to pursue this once again, when in 2011, professional
artist Lynne Wixon opened her studio to the local community - Enid was hooked.
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Ten years on she is one of a group of female artists who run the studio and facilitate it's use for the local and wider community
Working mainly in oils Enid takes inspiration from Robin Hoods Bay and the North
Yorkshire coast. During the 2020 lockdown
she discovered, to her surprise, enjoyment in still life painting. However her earlier more emotive work depicts a past era of the
Durham mining area she grew up in and has been known to make people cry.
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The artists Haidee- Jo Summers, Peter Brown aka "Petethestreet", Antony Amos and David Curtis continue to be important inspirations for her work
Pam Hoyle
Pam Hoyle studied Landscape Architecture at Lancaster Art College and Gloucestershire College or Art and Design. She worked for several years as a Landscape Architect in Durham and this has lead to her great love of painting trees, skies and the scenery of the North York Moors.
She then established Bobbins a successful wool, crafts and antiques business in Whitby , designing unusual knitwear and knitting kits with hand painted and textured yarns.
Pam likes to work with acrylic paint and mixed media. She has produced work incorporating yarn, beads , sand, and stones to give her work a 3- dimensional twist sometimes carrying pictures over the frames and mounts. She is also interested in shape and the spaces between things when developing her work.
Some of her paintings have bold bright colours but she also likes to use a restricted palette to create a certain mood.
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Pam has exhibited at the Pannett Art Gallery in Whitby, various small local galleries and regularly with Robin Hoods Bay Arts Group.
Sadie Hepburn
Sadie Hepburn worked for 27 years in furniture retail in her family's firm Agars in Whitby,
going on to manage it with her brother. She has taken her creative interior design skills, the instinct of knowing when something just looks right into composing paintings.
Sadie has spent her whole life living in or around Robin Hoods Bay. Exploring this beautiful location has inspired her love of nature reflected in her paintings of landscapes, seascapes sunrises and sunsets. She loves to travel and images of the wild western isles of Scotland and Co Galway where she goes to visit her aunty Mary, crop up from time to time.
A botanical painting holiday in Greece produced beautiful watercolour and pencil studies in the
finest detail of fruit, flowers and seed heads.
Sadie's latest pictures are in a
much looser style as encourage by her fellow female artists she has started painting plein air. The challenges of painting outdoors make for firmer more definite strokes not realised in the warmth of the studio. The weather, seasons and changing light make for interesting studies and
opportunities to learn a new way of painting.
Sadie exhibits twice yearly with Robin Hoods Bay Arts Group and annually with the Whitby Arts Society at the Pannett Art Gallery in Whitby.