Award-Winning Hove photographer Tony Bowall FRPS produces his stunning images as prints and canvases, and his photography is well known throughout the city and beyond. He has been taking ‘proper’ photographs since 1982, and in 2009 was awarded the Highest Distinction from the Royal Photographic Society, which makes him a Fellow of the Society (FRPS). In 2009 and 2010 he was awarded highly respected medals from the London Salon of Photography, for images of Hove and Brighton respectively. In 2009 only eight medals were awarded worldwide, with 10 awarded in 2010. His work has been selected for the past five years consecutively, including 2011, for the Salon’s Annual Exhibition.

Martin Harmes lives in Hove and specialises in HDR landscape photography of the South East Coast. He grew up in Brighton and has worked in the photographic trade for more than 22 years, beginning at the age of 15 working for the Hove Camera Company. While working in the trade has provided Martin with a wealth of knowledge and experience in photography, his real passion is for the dramatic results achieved with HDR photography. With the advent of the HDR process, Martin is able to truly capture stunning landscape photographs that are rich in atmosphere, depth and colour.

mike eddowes is a specialist theatre, dance, music, circus and visual arts photographer. He also shoots portraits of artists, actors and those in the visual and performing arts. Mike is a registered contributor to The Times and Sunday Times newspapers. His work has been shown at the V&A Museum and he has also exhibited in Greenwich, Marbella’s Orange Square and Cape Town. In a past life Mike was PR to Elton John and Paul McCartney. Now Mike is increasingly spending time working on his own photography exhibition projects, usually with a distinctly surreal feel.

professional artist Mark Allin is best known for his striking ‘Anaglyph prints’, art which adds an extra dimension when seen with 3D glasses. His most recent collection is a series of vibrant original paintings with a colourful representation of life and energy. Mark has nurtured his graphic style over the past 16 years working in broadcasting, after founding his own animation studio. He has now returned to his original artistic roots. By blurring and twisting the boundaries between digital and traditional methods and exploring mixed media, Mark has a unique voice in the contemporary art field.

Luella is a painter and printmaker working full-time in her studio at Phoenix Brighton. She exhibits at various galleries and art fairs in the South East and describes what she does as still life and landscape. “My work has a strong personal narrative – the objects I paint have been collected, given or inherited, and the landscape could be the one I see when I take a walk or perhaps the memory of it.” Luella’s work will be on show at Pelham House, Lewes, from 29 March to 8 May.

Lesley’s landscapes are imbued with memories, concentrating on the spirit of the place and its resonance for her. They are unpopulated, wide open spaces filled with air and light. She works energetically and intensively on one piece at a time using a wet-in-wet process. Her fascination with details of the shape and structure of plant and rock forms provides the inspiration behind her abstract paintings, in which she uses a form of mark-making and blending with oil paint on very smoothly primed canvas to create the illusion of 3-dimensionality. Visitors are welcome to visit her Lingfield studio by appointment.

Kelly’s screen prints and paintings begin as pen and ink drawings taking from the curiosities nature provides for inspiration. Using her imagination and obsession with detail, the work forges the realistic with the fantastical and planned execution with spontaneous mark-making. Her screen prints are often worked into by hand as part of a process that makes each one an individual part of a limited series fusing the practices of printing, painting and scribbling together. She is currently working on a body of work for her first solo show at The Hop Gallery, Lewes, which opens in November 2012.

James Reid is a professional photographer and visual artist, whose practice specialises in industrial, architectural and infrastructure enviroments. His visual arts practice allows him to work in Europe, Middle East and Asia, and has developed into an ongoing series developed for publication and exhibitions.

Ian is a collage artist, not a great painter, although he uses paint, digital and conventional drawing tools in his work. He has a film-making background where he used to inhabit worlds large and small – some real and some purely imaginary. He also brings a mix of influences and inspiration to his work – from Dali to Opie – which can often be seen in the results. 2011 was a year of great exploration for Ian. It began with him exhibiting a collage at the Catto Gallery, raising funds for the Willow Foundation, and culminated with two of his limited-edition prints shortlisted in the National Open Art Competition.

frances’ work explores the narratives of dreams and the ‘improbable’ scenarios that we unconsciously construct. Each piece is made from a variety of materials and objects; some found, some recycled and others rediscovered. Sometimes the work is the actual model itself – a Dreambox. Often they are photographed to further explore their scale, drama and atmosphere; these are available as limited-edition prints.

After several months in the studio, I have been concentrating on entering art prizes up and down the country.

Geoff’s paintings record a response to the natural environment, developing a sense of the ‘sublime’ through its contemplation. During the past year he has worked mostly from the local coastline, especially in Brighton and towards Shoreham. His recent work expresses the seascape with an awareness of passing time and also the physical action of making paintings. “I’ve always understood the ‘sublime’ to suggest a sense of what is greater and more powerful than humankind – which is nature, of course. If we are in awe of a sunset so be it! We shouldn’t fool ourselves into thinking that we are too sophisticated to be impressed and moved emotionally by what we can all see and experience.” Geoff will be opening his house during the Brighton AOH Festival in May 2011.

look forward to a feast of visual stimulation this autumn as venues around the city play host to the Brighton Photo Biennial 2010. It’s one of the most important festivals of international and contemporary photography in the UK, with renowned photographer Martin Parr as its guest curator. Programme highlights include: - Commissioned works from Alec Soth (USA), Rinko Kawauchi (Japan) and Stephen Gill (UK), who will each present their own responses to Brighton & Hove

As a beautifully conceived and executed example of what husband and wife team Patrick and Sara Morrissey are hoping to achieve with their latest venture, Unlimited’s Fontmap is spot on. (I’m not sure I’d recommend navigating your way around Brighton with it, though). Both are talented designers with a penchant for type – Patrick graduated from the London College of Printing while Sara is an award-winning illustrator who studied at Central Saint Martins then went on to complete an MA in Typo/Graphics at the LCP. They moved to Brighton from London around six years ago. “We were working from home anyway, so we thought we might as well do it from a nice place!” Sara says.

From the artist and illustrator aka ‘Woody’. www.zarawood.com

Peter Morris paints like a composer, creating variations on a theme. “Mostly I make three kinds of painting; landscapes (Peter divides his time between Queen’s Park and the Dordogne), people eating and drinking; and musicians.” He works quickly from drawings made on the spot on to the canvases that fill his home – and garden. IMPLIED NARRATIVES Having originally studied art at Cardiff Peter emigrated to Canada where one of his works was selected for the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Summer Exhibition. Used to working in the environment of abstract expressionism, he experienced a ‘culture shock’ on returning to England in 1962, instantly rejecting the pop art vogue.

In the Yellow Pages Paul Harrison is listed under ‘Painters & Decorators’. Big mistake. “When you’ve had that done, if you want something beautiful on top of it, I’m your man,” he’s explaining down the phone to an unwitting enquirer who was really only after a couple of coats of Dulux.

What inspires the beauty of Jessica Zoob’s painting? Visiting her studio on the outskirts of Lewes, a horse from the neighbouring field peering in, the answer seems too easy. “I just love this landscape. It’s so gentle and human – and also very female and nurturing. The shapes remind me of people lying down. Then you’ve got these huge beautiful skies and, of course, the sea.” But step forward, and underpinning the natural, organic forms you’ll often find a surprisingly disciplined structure of linear detail.

Around the table in Gemma Challenger’s ‘Last Supper’ a company of frogs are banqueting on human legs. In the background a conveyer belt of dead bodies passes through. “I like to turn things on their head,” says Gemma, who took around a year to complete this piece, having to fit drawing around her job as a support worker with travellers and gypsies around Sussex.

Describing her style as “honest and earthy”, sculptor Eve Shepherd ARBS SPS is comfortable confronting peripheral issues, such as age and disability. So when she was asked to create a portrait of Stephen Hawking – head only – she refused. “I said I wouldn’t do it unless I could include the wheelchair.” The original maquette (left) evolved into a composition that depicts the scientist – and wheelchair – inside a spiral of his theories. The juxtaposition of intellectual power with physical fragility is treated with the sensitivity that provokes a strong reaction typical of Eve’s work

Caia emerges from one of the paintings she is working on – a typically expansive canvas onto which she is applying a new layer of colour. “I can work to any size, but my favourites are really large pieces. It’s like you’re filling in a world and become part of the painting yourself.” That feeling may also be due partly to Caia’s methodology – sprawled on the floor, moving around and on top of her paintings using sponges, never brushes, it’s difficult to determine exactly where the artist finishes and her art begins.

“Brighton is still a daunting place for me. I’ve been here for seven years now. And even though it feels like home, sometimes I find myself looking at places and buildings as if I’m seeing them for the first time. When an image, an angle or something ‘hits’ me, the fun begins. I draw the view (usually late at night, when rational thinking is asleep). Then my brain starts its journey of replacing items, meanings and readings. Why not have penguins walking down the road. Or a Soviet rocket for a tower. Does it matter, really? Isn’t Brighton itself surrealist enough?

Where do you find your inspiration? Mainly from sitting in offices, buses and trains listening to what comes out of people’s mouths. We feel it’s our duty to immortalise it in comics and fridge magnets.

Beer and tattoo guns really don’t mix. But despite the questionable artistry of Firb’s home-decorated anatomy, it’s worth getting under his skin to discover the genuine creative talent that lies beneath. Firb describes his work as: “Contemporary paintings based on old-fashioned subject matter.” But the results can be as different as the Accordian Player that caught his imagination on a trip to Bulgaria to the sign he created for the Arty office door, merging a traditional typewriter into the city’s streets.

He’s the man who started Open Houses and founder of the Fiveways Artists’ Group. (He’s also pretty handy with a brush himself)

Drama comes naturally to this artist. And his rich, textural canvases are the result of a fascinating evolution of style.

‘The adjustment’, a self-portrait by fine-art photographer Miss Aniela, shot at Devils’ Dyke. Her work, which has been exhibited at galleries in Brighton, is available as limited edition prints. Miss Aniela is also available for photographic commissions.

Troy Ohlson’s wildlife and animal paintings and etchings are rich in character and expression: their personalities come alive – touching your heart and making you smile. Her skies and landscapes capture the enchanting beauty of the South Downs and Sussex coast and sky; layers and splashes of paint and collage convey the feeling, the mood, the timeless essence of each place. “All my life I have lived by the sea around the world,” explains Troy, “so naturally beautiful atmospheric seascapes (and funky exotic fish) frequently appear in my work.”

Sophie Abbott’s semi abstract paintings are a personal response to a place in time exploring the dual aspect of the natural and the man made. “My paintings have always been inspired by my travels, be they from far flung continents, European cities, the British coastline or local allotments. When I glimpse something curious and enchanting I need to paint it.”

“The work I do is centred round graphic depictions of the female form and stylized objects. I use paper cuts and stencils to produce the images for my prints and although most are in black and white, my work also embraces bright and vibrant colour. There is sometimes humour and fantasy in my images – all drawn from my imagination and reliant on my own skills in draughtsmanship and composition.”

Triggered by the lyrics ‘Damn this place makes a boy out of me’ by rock group The Editors, the latest series by Richard Denne is vibrant with sexually charged physicality. “I always wanted to be a cowboy,” says the artist, who chose a different path seven years ago when he took a printmaking course at St Martins, leading to his “wild card” acceptance on a postgraduate diploma. Now Richard’s work has an exciting, experimental quality, fusing traditional printing techniques with digital artwork.

The world of Popcorny is the brainchild of printmaker/illustrator Katie Mac, who was strongly influenced by the graphics and character brands from her childhood in Korea and Hong Kong. Popcorny started out in 2006 as two competitive myspace pages for characters Piff and Bam, two music loving, hell-raising, it-girl wannabe starlets, and featured the news reports of their petty feuding and attention-seeking antics… Then came T-shirts and limited-edition screen prints featuring the vector-based kingdom of Popcorny they live in, a pleasantly polluted land entrenched in electrified pylons, packaging logos, fast food, advertising hoardings… and the odd cuttlefish.

Showing at the Oriental Hotel from 1-30 May, ‘You Make Me Gay’ brings together a collection of Patrick O’Donnell’s gay icons that spans four decades and ranges from school friends to TV characters and figures in the music industry. Real or fictional, they have all informed the artist’s gay identity. “This is a celebration of a disparate group of women whose personal journeys and strength, resiliance, and often obvious camp sensibilities, have resonated with me,” says Patrick. “Gay icons are usually famous people, whose status is perpetuated by repeated exposure to familiar images.

Natasha is a creative product photographer – one of four photographers at Garage Studios. She graduated from Brighton Editorial Photography course in 2006 and her images have had honourable mentions in various international competitions. During this time Natasha has been a lighting assistant for various commercial photographers and studios. She now specialises in product photography at Garage Studios and is one of the tutors for its fashion lighting courses. She also offers one-to-one tuition for product photography. Natasha has gained a reputation for her creative approach and high quality product images. She can offer both pack shot images and creative advertising images for any clients needs.

Natalie Martin graduated from the University of Brighton in 2003 with a degree in sculpture and continued to work in conceptual installation until discovering a talent and love for painting. Focusing primarily on depictions of urban architecture, her painting has developed into a highly detailed, representational style. She says: “Architecture stands as an artificial construct in the natural landscape and yet, like the human beings that build and inhabit the structures, they suffer at the passing of time, decaying and withering, the wear and tear, a record of the lives and movement occurring in and around it, an archive of events told in erosion, oxidisation and rot.

After 25 years working as an illustrator, painting nearly 500 book jacket illustrations, Mark Harrison decided to quit and now paints mainly in oils. The result is moody, atmospheric representations of cities and landscapes. Mark is very much interested in the effects of light at dusk and night time, particularly of Venice. He is currently represented by four UK galleries and has prints and cards published by The Art Group.

Laura Wright is a Brighton-based artist who has worked in theatre and artists’ residencies in UK and Spain. Her paintings range from illustrative to abstract. Laura’s current work of local townscapes and landscapes, reflects her immediate environment. The paintings simplify the impression of townscape and landscape by deleting excess detail and painting suggestion with colour and form. The results are optimistic and cheerful because of the vibrant use of colour – achieved by layering the paint.

Delivering lifestyle and interiors photography that exudes effortless style is what Jody Stewart does best. After studying at the Bournemouth Arts Institute, he now specialises in interior and architectural subjects, and has been shooting imagery for interior design magazines for five years. His determination to avoid any ‘staged’ look has made his work a favourite with leading newsstand publications such as Country Living and Homes & Gardens. “I try to keep things looking as natural as possible and avoid using studio lighting if I can,” Jody says. This approach also makes Jody’s work particularly appropriate to photographing artwork and sculpture. Jody is open to discussion about projects of any scale.

Described as “Fresh and contemporary yet in the spirit of Cartier-Bresson” and “Starkly beautiful and full of sadness”, Kit Fordham’s timeless, ethereal photography transports the viewer – from candlelit scenes inside Russian Orthodox churches, to the swirling energy of a Viennese Ball to painterly, almost Technicolor, images of the piers, lidos and petit monde of the English seaside.

Artist/printmaker Jane Sampson is well known for her beautiful, thought provoking screenprints and originals. Jane’s work has recently featured in ‘She’ and ‘Maison Francais’ magazines. Jane was selected as a finalist in the 2009 Aesthetica magasine visual arts competition out of 12,000 international entries, and has been published in the Aesthetica creative works annual.

Born in London, Brighton-based Jamie Shaw had a nomadic upbringing, spreading his time across a number of European cities. His artistic output calls upon his experiences with non-traditional substrates, and also with nature, from childhood memories of playing in the woods to more recent adventures backpacking through Europe. Having travelled largely by train, his depictions of natural forms are instinctively abstracted; memories of environments in a constant state of flux; trees, mountains, clouds and oceans shifting in and out of substance. This visual narrative translates directly to his paintings, where strong structural forms dissolve into simple marks of paint, changing the viewer’s perception from object, to image, to a mere suggestion of form and colour.

Ian Hodgson’s work explores the physical and psychological experience of Brighton through its architectural details. He says: “My time and that of Brighton’s past intersect where the arched filigree of Madeira Drive signposts my way to Duke’s Mound, or the reflected sunlight on Sussex Heights lights my window.” Ian re-maps Brighton through the architecture of its past to create a city that appears imagined, but that documents his experience. Fragmented memories, past relationships and choices are revealed through the process of drawing, and it’s here where an understanding of what went before becomes clear.

Helen Brown works directly from the landscape in either lino or woodcut. “Working outdoors enables me to capture the line and fluidity of scenes and localities,” she says. “My landscapes are landscapes of self-possession and movement. Through their layered and textured forms they express the tectonic flow of the earth, as mountains and valleys rise and fall in an experience of time much more immense than our own.”

Heike Roesel is a fine art printmaker creating vibrantly sensuous etchings and watercolours. She describes her images as: “a celebration of dynamic form, colour and playfulness. They are results of a creative journey aiming to inspire the observers own imagination.” Heike works at Crescent Studios, Brighton, with fellow printmaker Darren Sherwood. With great enthusiasm they have set up an etching studio with a large-scale press and a contemporary approach to both acrylic resist and solvent-based etching techniques. Interested printmakers: enquire above!

Eve Poland is best known for her images of ‘kinky ladies’ and black cats. Describing her work as graphic-novel styling with a fine-art sensibility, she has exhibited her paintings and screenprints across the UK and her art has featured in numerous publications both sides of the Atlantic. From collaborating with Brighton bespoke tailor Gresham Blake on exclusive silk hankies to producing a playing card design for upmarket lingerie retailer Lascivious and tarot cards for the magazine Scarlet, Eve has gained a reputation for illustrative art that reflects her own quirky sense of humour with just an edge of darkness…

Nature is the driving force behind Clare Gravenell’s work. “My response is to express, directly on canvas, without sketches, the vitality and feeling of nature, amplifying its form and powerful colour,” she says. As a result the work breathes and has a sense of aliveness. Although representational, Clare’s paintings are about evoking feelings that lie underneath the subject matter. “The Moon has been the most exciting example of this. Its illumination when full gives off a visual aura. My focus became the expression of this aura creating a dark, moody red moon.”

Claire Fearon is a contemporary British artist and an AURA-SOMA® colour practitioner. Working from her studio in the South Downs she paints strikingly beautiful abstract works in acrylic on canvas and runs a successful Aura-Soma practice. Her in depth knowledge of Aura-Soma and her experience as an artist enables her to specialise working with creatives. An Aura-Soma consultation could change your life not just your work.

Christine Harfleet works in many media, primarily kiln-formed, fused glass sculpture. These range from small pieces to be worn as body art, to bowls and larger hanging panels or freestanding pieces. The glass is combined with cut and etched metal, manipulated wires, powdered pigments or chemicals. Each piece is abstract and inspired by colour combinations and natural forms, fossils, poetry or music. Drawing forms a strong foundation for her ideas.

Portrait and documentary photographer Bip Mistry produces evocative photographs for private and commercial clients. The photography is a combination of people and still life images. The brief often extends to a collaborative approach. Bip’s photography has been shown at the National Media Museum, Brighton Museum, is held by the Dean Clough Contemporary Art Collection, and has also been purchased by Zelda Cheatle.

When Bernard Lodge moved to Brighton in 2003, he shipped down a Victorian printing press and a head full of conflicting images. That year Bernard was 70. He was making a career move – or was it retirement? Back in the Sixties, Bernard was one of the graphic designers who carved out a language for television. Later, he coped with advertising as well as computer graphics. After abandoning high tech to concentrate on woodcutting, Bernard began creating children’s books. Then it was time to make another break. “I was making woodcuts and linocuts that served no commercial purpose. I was just enjoying myself.

Annett E. Bank specialises in beautiful, tactile, textured and multi-layered paintings of dancers and the body in movement – making them instantly recognizable through the use of energetic brush strokes, sumptuous colour application and graceful elegance. Her striking and sensual compositions are characterised by a deft boldness, exuberant energy and enormous movement.

Ladies. If you’re in a dark club talking into your phone and find yourself under observation by the beret-clad character pictured here, don’t worry. It’s REQ. And you will merely be firing the artistic imagination of this former graffiti writer, former hip-hop musician, currently impressionist painter slightly at odds with the world he inhabits. “I don’t use a mobile phone, so I’m fascinated by how they’re used,” remarks the Brighton legend. “When you see a girl using a mobile phone she is basically lighting herself up – it’s a sort of show.”

I moved to Brighton in 1987, the year of the Great Storm, and soon afterwards went on a tour of the environs organised by The Thirties Society (now The 20th Century Society). We visited many Art Deco buildings – some since demolished, and others like Embassy Court that have been restored. We travelled by vintage open-top bus from Shoreham Airport to Saltdean, where we were shown round the Ocean Hotel and Saltdean Lido. Shortly afterwards the Lido, one of the finest in the country, was also renovated, though it seems an age ago now. One of the things I didn’t like about it was how they’d updated (and kerned) the lettering on the curved front of the central tower. Luckily I had the photo I took on that tour and that’s what I used for reference when it came to producing the watercolours and linocut prints. I like to simplify the architectur

It’s possible to get lost in the mesmerising intricacy of Angie Meaden-Bonnel’s drawings. And it’s not just the finished work that exerts its own quiet power, but also the creative process itself. “ It’s quite meditative,” says Angie. “I just get completely carried away. Then I start seeing things in them, which is really interesting.” Angie studied fine art textiles at Goldmiths, London. “I see it coming out in my work a lot. A drawing to me is repetitive mark making, very much like the stitching I used to do.

“I love a bit of naughtiness,” says Emily Dupen Hopkins. She’s describing the saucy, suspender-flashing ‘50s Housewives’ who adorn one of her signature, hand-printed wallpaper collections. They also make an appearance on Emily’s recently completed ‘Time for Tea’, with strategically placed baking. But although her characters hark back to the pin-ups of American artist Gil Elvgren, Brighton-trained illustrator Emily is making the female form her own. Statement designs range from the very in-vogue Burlesque to more streetwise Call Girls. Emily’s also a fan of horror, has a penchant for zombies and is toying with the prospect of portraying ‘real men’.

When Brighton’s Argus newspaper reproduced one of Jim’s illustrations on a full page this year, the artist was delighted. While focussing on the foreground, they had overlooked the self-fellating man at the back. “I don’t think they realised what it was,” says Jim. “And they spelt my name wrong.” My sympathies are with the picture editor. There’s a self-generating aspect to his work that makes it impossible to take in absolutely everything. “I don’t sit down and plan things really, it all just happens.”

Emblematic, emotive, constructed to survive the elements. Flags are already embued with so much meaning it’s a brave artist who can take them on and make them her own. But Pam Glew seems to relish a more challenging course. She first studied theatre design, taking a special interest in the role of women in films. “As soon as I graduated I realised I just wanted to work in art.” After a foundation course at Falmouth School of Art, Pam’s preferred medium was natural metals, wrestling with patinated copper. Then it was the shocking events of 9/11 that prompted her to start working with flags.

has been exploring the countryside around Brighton by moonlight for the last three years. Recently he’s been disturbing the peace with light trails.

“I was on a deckchair sketching people on the beach one day when I decided this was the life for me. I grew up in Devon, so when I moved to Brighton over three years ago I was very glad to be near the sea again. “At first I was obsessed by sunsets and the infinite challenge of capturing the sea in paint. But the great thing about a beach is that people stay still long enough for you to draw them. “Although hectic in the height of summer, I love the melting pot of people. I have fun caricaturing people in my ‘Pebble Heads’ series. The sea and beach is traditionally painted in landscape, but in my ‘Life’s a beach’ series I paint the shoreline in portrait as if from a bird’s eye point of view, sweeping up the shoreline capturing the crowds and social groupings of people to miniature proportions the further away.

A collection of “strange, quirky and bizarre dialogues” is how Harriet Butler prefers her work to be explained. But even that doesn’t do justice to the fantastical, imaginative etchings, on permanent display at Bellis Gallery in King’s Road, just off East Street. At Bellis, Harriet’s intricate, illustrative ‘maps’ of Florence and Venice are popular attractions. And it’s impossible for visitors not to be drawn into her imaginative worlds.

Giving up smoking had an unexpected side-effect for Ed Huxley: “I had loads of free time so I just started drawing for something to do.” That was three years ago. And although Ed is reluctant to be labelled an ‘artist’, even he has to admit the result of his nicotine abstinence is pretty impressive – even to the untrained eye: “Suddenly I’ve got quite a big collection of pictures that are worth showing.” Ed’s “weird landscapes” reflect admiration for the mathematical precision of Escher along with his own surrealist imagination. Many have a cinematic quality he describes as “captured moments from films that don’t exist”.

Two intertwined figures, soaring upwards yet never touching. In silhouette reflecting the symbolic red ribbon of AIDS awareness. In spirit remembering those who have died or whose lives have been affected by the disease. From the end of September, Kemptown will gain a mesmerising new landmark – a memorial sculpted by local artist Romany Mark Bruce. It will be sited on New Steine: “It’s a fantastic place – except I’ll have to walk past it every day, and I’m not looking forward to that. It’s hard to look at what you’ve done, isn’t it?” he remarks.

Is a Swedish photographer based in Brighton. She specialises in portrait, editorial and commercial photography – and likes to give famous landmarks her own unique twist. www.true-north.co.uk mi@true-north.co.uk

“Painting and drawing is my first love – and has been since I was very young. I went through art school in the mid-seventies, but I became somewhat disillusioned with the Art Establishment and after graduating I chose to pursue other interests. Around nine years ago my passion really returned while I was on holiday in France and I started painting seascapes of the beautiful Brittany coastline.

One of the pleasures of a stroll along Brighton’s beach is to wander in and out of the workshops and galleries that cluster in a stretch of seafront nearby the Palace Pier. In this ‘artists’ quarter’ you can size up the wares on offer while watching new pieces being produced. This summer four more artists are collaborating to open a new studio on the beach. One of them, Amy Alderson, I’ve known for some years, and we spent a recent afternoon discussing her work, both in her studio and at her home, where she also paints.

Rusted and distorted musical instruments hang from the ceiling. Shelves overflow with life’s discarded detritus: dolls heads; cameras, boxed false teeth from WWII, more cameras. All sitting, waiting patiently to be brought back to life.

Dressed in black, backlit by bright February sunlight, and animated by the passion for art, Sam Hewitt embodies perfectly his own distinctive style. He found his vocation via stints in performing arts, stilt-walking and playing in a band for seven years. “I was kicked out because my heart wasn’t in it. I knew painting was what I should be doing.” Although he describes

the most memorable image from our first issue was without doubt the ‘Big Picture’ by one of Brighton’s most audacious photographic talents – the enigmatic Dark Daze. (It’s also proved to be more than a little controversial – but shouldn’t true art be the start of a debate?)