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Eau de Nil, Iona, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 cms, Kim Jarvis copy.JPG

Celtic Memories

Paintings and Ceramics inspired by Britains most dramatic natural landscapes


1st February - 7th March 2025

Opening their 2025 schedule of exhibitions, The Sanctuary Studio & Gallery present Celtic Memories, a showcase of paintings and ceramics by artists who draw inspiration from the dramatic Celtic landscapes of the British Isles, from the Isles of Scilly to Eire, Wales and the North West of Scotland. 

Sharon Harvey

Sharon Harvey is a painter living and working in Gloucestershire, England. Her paintings are inspired by memory and the concept of a contemporary landscape genre. Sharon studied at Winchester School of Art, graduating with a First-Class Honours degree in Fine Art. Exhibiting widely throughout the UK, Sharon is currently represented by London based Artiq, Greenstage Gallery in Herefordshire and The Sanctuary Gallery in Gloucestershire. Sharon has attended residencies with both Brison Veor and Allenheads Contemporary Arts and has been shortlisted for The National Graduate Prize, The Royal Art Prize at London’s Mall Galleries, the Bath Open at Victoria Public Art Gallery and Mottisfont Open with The National Trust. Sharon is also a graduate of the yearlong mentoring program with Newlyn School of Art. In addition to her commercial painting practice Sharon has taught both adults at the University of Southampton and secondary school pupils both in life drawing and contemporary art history. Sharon has been an associate member of CAS focusing on experimental and community projects and has also collaborated and acted as a visual recorder through drawing on a community mental health project in the Forest of Dean. Sharon opened The Sanctuary Gallery, a new contemporary art gallery in Newnham in December 2022, Providing 7 curated exhibitions yearly featuring painting, ceramics , jewellery and textiles from both emerging and mid career artists.

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Kim Jarvis

Eau de Nil, Iona, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 cms, Kim Jarvis copy.JPG

Kim Jarvis is a landscape painter working in oils. Her love of the sea draws her to many extraordinary and beautiful places which inspire her to tell their unique stories through her canvases.Kim Jarvis’s love of the British coast inspires her paintings of remote places where the sky, sea and land meet, from the Isles of Scilly to Scotland’s wild Atlantic edge. Her training as a stained-glass artist can be seen throughout her paintings, which explore ever-changing colour, form and shifting patterns of natural light. 

Kims ability to depict traditional seascapes makes her work both intriguing and captivating. Her modern seascape paintings combine the same elements making her art highly desirable and collectable.

Whilst she is represented by several galleries throughout the

UK she has also been exhibited by The Royal Society of Marine Artists and The Society of Women Artists at The Mall Gal-leries, London as well as The Royal West of England Academy of Art, Bristol.

Ann Johnson

Ann Johnson’s expressive paintings are notable for their soft palette and luxurious, painterly marks. Her works embrace the act of painting as much as the landscapes that inspire them, and her skill in the interpretation of colour means that every image has the shimmering quality of raw nature in real time. Historic Welsh places, including the Neolithic remains of Carreg Sampson burial chamber near Abercastle, are referenced in this new collection.

Researching Celtic Memories Ann says: “Visiting Anglesey and St David’s, I became enchanted with these enigmatic lands of Welsh history, much of which remains at rest beneath our feet.” 

 In Anglesey, Eflyn Owen Jones, the daughter of William Owen Roberts, head groundsman of RAF Valley told Ann the story of her father who, in 1943, discovered a Celtic trove when he was overseeing ground being cleared for a runway extension. Some of these paintings include veiled, suggested fragments of Celtic art.

Ann’s work has appeared in books, magazines and galleries around the country. Several of her paintings have been hung at Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions. In 2016 she published Wild Margins, Drawings and Inspirations' and in 2024 'Wild Margins 2, After the Storm’, a signed, limited edition which explores the River Wye and beyond. 

What Lies Beneath Ann Johnson copy.jpg

Sylvia Wadsley’s new paintings are inspired by a ten-day retreat in Eire in the spring of 2024, taking in the Wild Atlantic Way between Cork and Bantry Bay. Drawing on ‘plein air’ sketches and her own photography, Sylvia has created a collection of semi-figurative paintings that use heightened colour and powerful compositions to convey the emotive impact of natural places, whispered folklore, and Celtic myths.

​Sylvia graduated in 2004 from Bradford Art College with a Fine Art degree (BA first class hons). She has and continues to exhibit widely throughout the UK. Now living in Gloucestershire Sylvia travels widely but is particularly motivated by both the landscapes and coast lines of the South West.  

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Sylvia Wadsley

Painter Bron Jones lives and works in the spectacular landscape of Carmarthenshire, South Wales. Her mixed media works combine liquid marks with vivid colour, to capture what she calls ‘fleeting, but magical’ moments in the landscape. Each work is built through a process of layering, glazing, scratching and sanding back the surface to expose subtleties of texture and colour beneath. 

Following a degree in Enviromental Science and a successful teaching career Bron now makes her living as a full time artist, combing her love of the natural world with her passion for art.

Bron is represented by several galleries in Wales and we are thrilled she has agreed to join us at The Sanctuary

Bron Jones Rock rise tumultuous Acrylic on wood panel 40x40cm.jpeg

Bron Jones

Janet James

Cheltenham based artist Janet James takes an experimental approach to oil painting, creating semi-abstracted works inspired by the rolling landscape of the Cotswolds, and her travels in Scotland, Wales and down to Cape Cornwall on the far west tip of the British Isles. Working from ‘plein air’ sketches, she creates works which allude to her deeply spiritual appreciation of the natural world. 

Calgary- Mull £590 Oil on a Deep Wood Panel. 40x40cm .heic

Rachel Sudworth

Artist Rachel Sudworth lives and works in The Golden Valley on the border of England and Wales, painting from a studio which overlooks the beautiful Black Mountains. Her intuitive responses to the surrounding landscape are process led and combine textures, movement and sound with emotions inspired by what she sees. 

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Sue Mundy

Sue Mundy is a ceramic artist specialising in hand built, sculptural pieces. Each work responds to the simple beauty of natural forms and colours. Her tall, willowy vessels and bottle-like forms are elegant and understated, and are detailed with etched surfaces and subtle angles created by the breaking and re-joining of clay. 

 

Sue is an elected member of The Craft Potters Association and from August 2018 to Mar 2020 Sue was Artist-in-residence at the University of Reading. Sue has both taught and exhibited widely throughout the UK during her 30 year career

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Hannah Day

Hannah Day is a ceramic artist based in Ledbury, Herefordshire – she graduated in 2022 from Hereford College of Art, with an MA in Contemporary Craft, having previously completed a BA in Contemporary Design Craft as a mature student. 

Hannah’s work often relates to archaeology, and to objects and the stories they tell in their use and wear.  Her more recent pieces are also influenced by her love of nature and landscape, especially the beautiful environment of the orchard surrounding her workshop, and she is currently exploring the way in which traces of the past are visible in the landscape all around us.

The finished ceramics are made by slab building stoneware clay, using the resulting forms as canvases to produce abstract pieces using a number of techniques to apply texture and colour with slips and glazes.

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