THE HARBOUR GALLERY - Key Persons
Anne Byrne studied at St Helens School of Art in the late 70's. There, she experimented with a multiple of traditional mediums and disciplines including photography, etching, sculpture and ceramics, but found her main love to be painting, where the discipline of ‘observing' coupled with the exposure to oil painting as an expressive form left a lasting impression.
Job Titles:
- Professional Artist and Illustrator
Claire Henley has been a professional artist and illustrator for many years. After studying graphic design in London, she began to work as a designer for a textile company in the midlands.
The appeal of a freelance life beckoned and so Claire began working in a variety of ways including designs for stationery, giftware and toy manufacture until she became a book illustrator. To date she has illustrated and worked on (sometimes as author) over a hundred children's books.
Claire had a passion to work on work without the editorial restrictions of publishing during this time, and now her depictions of her love for the landscape and coastal areas around Cornwall have made her into one of THG's most celebrated artists.
She enjoys experimenting with various mediums creating an eclectic blend of textures but acrylic paint is her main love because of its depth of colour and versatility
Jill Hudson is from Merseyside where she was born in 1977. At the age of 20, having never been abroad, she decided to head off to Uganda for eight months to teach English and Chemistry in a rural school.
She returned to England to study Fine Art at Falmouth College of Arts, but her love for travel has stayed with her.
During her degree, she studied for three months at the Accademia di Belli Arti in Venice, where she experimented with not only her art, but with the language itself and a creative navigation of the city's labyrinth of canals and walkways!
Jill returns to Italy often and has since been even further afield, travelling through central and southern America. Wherever she goes, she takes her paints with her, and in 2005 she took up the post of expedition artist in Chile, with Raleigh International.
"There, I was able to capture the magic of the landscape and people in paint and sketches, and also work with the expedition venturers and staff, exploring with them different art forms and local traditional crafts," she said.
Having returned now to Cornwall, Jill remains involved in educational art workshops, which she enjoys immensely.
Her paintings reflect her lifestyle and are highly dramatic works with strong brush strokes and emotive subjects.
Joe Webster studied with renowned artist Carole Vincent. He earned his foundation degree in Art & Design at Falmouth College of Arts and received a BA Hons degree in Contemporary Arts at Nottingham Trent University in 2002 before deepening his studies with a Postgraduate Certificate in Art from Exeter University.
John Hopkins attended Birmingham College of Art where he studied illustration. For much of his life, John has been a successful freelance artist and although working in many mediums during that time, his love has remained in watercolours. He likes working with a fast, loose, impressionistic flow but retaining a focus on drawing.
Working both commercially and giving classes, John exhibits has won many awards which is how he came to be chosen by the Harbour Gallery after winning several awards at the prestigious Patching Festival in 2018.
He has a big passion for plein-air (outdoor) painting and enjoys a figurative style. John is an associate member of The Royal Birmingham Society of Artists (RBSA) and is a member of the Birmingham Watercolour Society.
The Harbour Gallery owner, Mark David Hatwood, studied art & media at Bristol. He went on to follow his first love, music, by joining Les Gray's Mud as drummer in 1983. He toured with them for three years, before working for many well known acts both as drummer and musical director including The New Seekers and Johnny Hates Jazz.
Peter Wileman (1946) has been painting since his childhood in Middlesex. He worked for a card publishing company after school, studying lettering and design.
As the art editor of a number of magazines, he had a natural talent for painting and considerable experience in art and design. Soon thereafter, he decided to become freelance , allowing himself the freedom to develop his own style.
Peter's style is bold and vigorous, both in the way he uses colour and the way he handles his paints. He explores the effects light has on his chosen subject, seeking atmosphere through that light and colour, creating varying degrees of abstraction in his work.
Peter has exhibited at the Royal Society of Marine Artists (of which he's a member), the New English Art Club and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, of which he was President. He is also a fellow of the RSA (Royal Society of Arts).
Peter has won various awards including the Frank Herring award in 2000 and, for outstanding work, the Cornelissen Prize in 2003. He was awarded ‘The Clerc Fowle' gold medal in 2006 for the most outstanding group of paintings and in 2007, the DAS Prize at the Mall Galleries, London for a work of distinction.
Peter's works can be found in private collections globally and have been featured in TV shows and his images of Venice are currently featured in the ‘floating gallery' on the new P&O cruise Liner, ‘The Ventura'.
Robin Mason graduated from North Warwickshire School of Art in 1992.
He worked in the printing trade whilst perfecting his own style and won his first award, the Newton & Windsor Award, in 2003 in the Open Pastel Exhibition and the Judd Medical Award "Prize" exhibition.
He became a friend of the RBSA in 2003 and an associate of the RBSA in 2006. His works have been show in UK exhibitions in Nottingham, Staffordshire, Ingelby, Birmingham, Derbyshire and in galleries in London, Litchfield and Birmingham.
Robin visits Cornwall 4-5 times a year to work for the Harbour Gallery and the county is a firm favourite of his many works.
Stephen Higton was born in Nottingham and has been painting all his life. He moved to Utah in 2005 and there, encouraged by the critical acclaim of fellow artists and the success in selling his paintings in local exhibitions, he became a professional artist.
He returned to England in 2008 to East Anglia. The coast, landscape and the rich artistic tradition of that county were like a magnet for him and the lure of the sea and the big skies outside his front door have been the inspiration for so many of his paintings.
Stephen is a member of Norfolk and Norwich Art Circle and Suffolk Art Society, and shows his work at their exhibitions. He also holds workshops and demonstrations across the county for several art groups, including Southwold, Woodbridge and Beccles Art Circles and The Waterfront Studios in Ipswich.
He is also a member of SAA (Society for All Artists) and has won several awards including ‘Best Landscape', ‘Best Professional Sea and Waterscape and ‘The Chairman's Award' in their ‘Artist of the year' competitions in 2011 and 2012. He has also been featured in their PAINT magazine.
Stephen was also awarded ‘Best in show' at Framlingham Art Society's show in 2011. "My proudest achievement so far was to be selected and have two of my paintings purchased for part of The House Of Lords (Westminster) Permanent Art Collection in 2011."
We're delighted and excited that Stephen has decided to bring his huge taken to Cornwall to paint especially for The Harbour Gallery.