Quartz will be open to the public from October 7th - 17th, inclusive, from 11.00am until 5.00pm.

Last year's exhibition sold over £35,000 of work at prices from £200 to £2000.

Artists & Sculptors

We always welcome the chance to look at work by new artists and sculptors for consideration (open to artists living in the South West). If you are interested in taking part in the Quartz exhibition in October 2009, please get in touch by clicking on the e-mail link here. Tell us a bit about yourself and if possible include a JPEG image of your work. Alternatively, ask for an application and Conditions of Entry form to be sent to you.

Charlotte Lampard, Curator

Mark Abdey

"My painting centres around the wild places of the Southwest, with Dartmoor being at the very heart of my creative soul. I love atmosphere, light and colour, and the wild moorland landscapes provide these elements, with its rapidly changing weather, fleeting light and stunning changes of colour throughout the season. Working in both oil and acrylic allows for a wide variation of technique and helps me to capture the moment, which I then build upon it in the studio. This year has taken me into new creative fields, with the forthcoming release of my first CD album, working under the moniker of 'Foales Arishes'. The work features hand crafted flutes, whistles, violin, guitar along with field recordings taken on Dartmoor and assembled in the studio. This year also sees a return to photography which I have loved since childhood, and future ventures will pull together all these artistic pursuits, starting with a major exhibition during Oct and Nov in Princetown, at the heart of Dartmoor."

Mark Abdey

Rebecca Birtwhistle

Rebecca explores her interest in architecture, anatomy, and other subjects which demonstrate a strong structural line, through various media and approaches. Direct observational drawing is her preferred means of depicting the space and decoration of an environment; sites and journeys are recorded in visual diaries, reflecting her preference for enquiry over exposition. Loose, rapid field sketches are subsequently developed, or provide the inspiration for more detailed works.

Rebecca Birtwhistle

Edwina Broadbent

I experiment with paint, relaxing conscious control, in order to release unconscious moves, searching for an equivalent to the raw, elemental beauty of landscapes such as Exmoor, The Lake District, and in West Penwith, Cornwall, where I have lived for the past 5 years.

I explore the fluid movement and relationships of colour, piling up and breaking like a wave, transparencies and opacities of paint like the depths and surfaces of water, rough textures of earth, and the forces of the rectangle, restraining, like ancient rocks, trees and towers braced against the wind.

Edwina Broadbent

Kathy Ramsay Carr

In my childhood I spent a lot of time alone and used my imagination to make believe other places to be; in my paintings I do the same, and try to create an atmosphere of solitude and contemplation.

I am influenced by the elements and their effect in a moment on either the sea or landscape as the focus of my painting and the corresponding inner emotions associated with that experience.

Kathy Ramsay Carr

Andrea Clark

Andrea' s work is largely inspired by her interest in charcoal and pastels as well as the array of animals that she is surrounded by at her home on Martock,Somerset.Her move towards printmaking and painting has provided a different dimension to her work in recent years.

Andrea Clark

Pennie Elfick

My paintings and prints are informed by observing everyday occurrences in the landscape. I am investigating how colour and form can reflect an emotional feeling 'of place'. Resolutely abstract, these paintings are influenced by the Minimalists, but do not rigorously negate the hand of the maker. My aim is to create work that has a duality, it is an emotional response to something natural but abstract in its pictorial structure. By removing figurative references to the natural world I am able to investigate the poetry that can be created by colour and form in a purely abstract manner. These canvases by the particular use of colour create surfaces that sit quietly and yet command attention from the viewer challenging them to contemplate and reassess what they think they see.

Pennie Elfick

Averil Gilkes

Sea and Sky are key to my paintings. My work is about exploration of colour, atmosphere and light, and finding a fluidity that represents the ever changing nature of the coastal landscapes.

Averil Gilkes

Susan Gradwell

Susan Gradwell studied at St.Martin's School of Art (BA) and the Central School of Art (MA), before moving to the West Country in 1980, where she has continued to live and work.

"My inspiration is drawn from a love of the timeless forms and decorative qualities of urns, vases and mosaics, combined with a fascination for pattern and ornament. It is the idea of discovery of surviving traces and remains of lost, decayed, buried relics from archaeological finds that continually inspires me."

Susan Gradwell

Jenny Graham

Jenny Graham studied fine art and graphics in New York and printmaking at Somerset College of Arts & Technology, and the University of the West of England, where she received an MA in 2000.

"I have lived in Somerset for 20 years and never tire of painting the countryside of the South West," she said. "Hills, trees, skies, and fields, both real and imagined, form natural rythms. My work emphasises these, whilst still retaining a strong sense of place, light, weather and season."

"I work from sketches in a variety of media. This method allows pleanty of scope for interpretation within the general theme of 'landscape'."

Jenny Graham

Sue Jenkins

Sue studied Fine Art at Exeter and Cardiff College of Art.

Her striking, semi-abstract paintings use vibrant colour in an inspired and bold response to the idyllic landscape of West Dorset.

Sue Jenkins

Miranda Johnston

Living in the West Country I am very aware of the weather, and through the medium of oil paint I try explore its impact on the land and animals. In this painting I have attempted to capture the fleeting moment as the sun appears after a torrential down pour.

Miranda Johnston

Janette Kerr

Janette Kerr's enthusiasm for romantic landscapes mirrors the energy visible within her paintings. (RWA): "I battle to get down in my sketchbook the way a bright patch of sunlight falls across a hillside before it vanishes. Taking the observed landscape as a starting point, my paintings are a response to both the literal and the sensed. They are about light and movement – the interplay between landscape and abstraction.”

Since winning first prize in the Laing Landscape Art Open (South West Region) in 1995, Janette’s work has been extensively exhibited across the UK, with work held in private collections at Cardiff Bay Art Trust and Victoria Art Gallery Print Collection in Bath. In 2003 Janette was elected as a Royal West of England academician.

Janette Kerr

Simon Ledson

Professionally trained in Graphic Design and Illustration, now finishing a MA in fine art and working full time as an artist. I work on observations of atmospheric effects on sea and landscapes. I emphasise the simplicity of form and the contemporary interaction between the light with haunting tone and texture combined with emotions and visual observations, producing atmospheric effects.

Somerset Unfolding: a collection of Somerset landscapes. These are a study of low light observation capturing the atmospheric mood and still moments of the early morning, with light just about burning though to show a trace of the landscape.

Simon Ledson

Sue Luxton

Sue studied Illustration at the University of the West of England and now works from her studio on the Somerset levels.

She uses drawing as the basis of her paintings, covering subjects seen daily as in the Somerset landscape and more diverse subjects such as evenings in New York and Welsh farmers with their sheep.

Her paintings are in oil with paint applied thickly creating a broken surface allowing layers of colour to break through.

Her images are vigorous and life affirming, striving to find the perfect balance between shape and colour.

Sue Luxton

Caroline McMillan

Caroline's principal aims are to portray the light, colour and atmosphere of the landscape with an honest and spontaneous approach, resulting in a striking and vibrant painting. Since having her first solo show at the Century Gallery, in Henley-on-Thames, 15 years ago Caroline has exhibited with many leading London and provincial galleries. Her work has become increasing sought-after, with examples in private collections throughout the UK and overseas.

Caroline McMillan

Peter Messa

The landscape of hill and coast, the powerful forces of weather and tide - these are key to Peter's painting.

In the process of making the work, layers of thick and thinned paint are applied, sometimes sanded back or drawn into with oil stick, graphite or chalk. This links with the artist’s fascination with surface generally: histories partly revealed in layers of peeling wallpaper or stucco, torn posters on a billboard or the geology exposed in a weathered cliff face.

Peter Messa

Pandora Mond

Pandora Mond trained at the Ruskin School of Drawing in Oxford (B.F.A.). She exhibits in London, most recently in September 2007. at Jonathan Clark Gallery, Park Walk, S.W.1.

"The subject matter of my work comes form living on Exmoor. For many years I have painted wilderness landscapes and coasts and more recently horses, which are very much part of my daily life. I try to convey the energy and movement of the animals through the expressive application of paint to lend them an ethereal quality. At the same time through this medium of paint I try to root their substance and form in our consciousness by the line of a breastbone, an eyelid or the curve of a brow. My aim is to capture the emotional integrity of my subject, be it horse or landscape."

Pandora Mond

Maggie O'Brien

Maggie O'Brien studied painting and drawing at Camberwell (BA) and Wimbledon (MA). She lives and works in St Just in the far West of Cornwall.

"I make paintings about Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. I begin with direct observation recording light, weather, pattern and texture making representative studies in charcoal and paint. The studio paintings are more intuitive and vary in their degree of abstraction. They are my emotional response to a landscape which can be harsh and elemental or gentle and lyrical. Light, with its ability to convey mood and atmosphere is key to the work"

Maggie O'Brien

Jackie Spurrier

Jackie just loves painting cows and has been painting nothing else for four years. Using acrylic paint, she removes the cow from its surroundings and plays with colour and texture until the personality of the cow emerges.

Increasing in popularity all the time. She is very excited to be exhibiting for the third time at the Quartz festival.

Jackie Spurrier

Sue Spurrier

"My work is concerned with memory and the evocative experience of landscape. Landscape imposes its 'moods' upon the viewer, revealing a form of communication that can be commonly understood. It is the memory of these moods that I endeavour to capture in my work. Experiences and memories emerge from initial marks and are built upon, in an attempted harmony of representation and abstraction. The nature of the mark is my focus - creating a sense of energy that underlines the union between human existence and the natural world."

Sue Spurrier

Jacki Stokes

"I came to painting from a background in photography.

I specialise in flower portraits, in watercolour and photography. These are not botanical paintings, but my response to the spirit and the joy of the flower, using strong washes of wet in wet colour and hinting at their natural setting. Pure watercolour painting can be frustrating but is always magical - perfect for capturing the luminosity and texture of the petals; some are transparent like stained glass windows, others are thick and soft like velvet. Most importantly I strive to capture the vulnerability and transience of the flowers"

Jacki Stokes

Mary Sumner

When I start a piece of work I illustrate experiences of my daily life, things I have seen during the course of a day, a particular building, a group of animals, the colours in a garden, anything that interests and amuses me. I walk most days observing my subject matter. This is how my ideas formulate, I may take a photo, collect a "found" object, jot down a phrase or do a pencil sketch.

Mary Sumner

Sarah Thompson-Engels

Sarah Thompson-Engels is a self-employed artist living in Somerset with her daughter Jenny, one rabbit and a guinea-pig. She was educated and did her Foundation Art course in Taunton and went on to gain an honours degree in Fine Art from Wolverhampton University, followed by extensive periods living and working in Greece, France and South Africa.

Sarah has had many successful exhibitions and her paintings and prints adorn the walls of a great deal of private homes, restaurants and corporate buildings in and around London and the South West.

She uses a technique called mono-printing to produce a distinctive drawing style, with a combination of acrylic paints, watercolour and pastels to add vibrant colour. Sarah illustrates simple everyday objects which together with the proverbs and captions make for amusing, bright, pop-arty pictures.

Sarah Thompson-Engels

Louise Waugh

Paintings from travels and particular moments. Figurative yet contemporary worked up from sketches in oil and acrylic on canvas.

This year Louise has shown at the RWA in Bristol and the RWS open 21 at The Bankside Gallery, London; a three man show at the Hybrid Gallery, Honiton, Bristol Affordable Art Fair, and a three man show at The Sadler Street Gallery, Wells, Somerset.

Louise Waugh

Claire Western

Claire's increasingly sought-after work consists of vivid images of the land and seascapes of the south west. She concentrates largely on changes in the weather, fleeting moments in the light and texture of the land. She works from quick sketches made outside. Back in the studio, she combines many materials, using gesso, oil, acrylics, dyes, sand, glazes, gold leaf and many natural materials.

These colours and textures are all layered and drawn and painted over until she achieves the expressive image she seeks. The scale of her current work varies tremendously from small, jewel-like images to massive textural work on canvas.

Claire Western

Lucy Willis

Lucy Willis is a painter and printmaker who has managed from the beginning of her career to combine her love of travel with her work as an artist. She regularly exhibits in London and her exhibitions include paintings and prints of some of the distant places she has been along with images of Somerset, Devon and her own house and garden. She has an etching studio in Somerset where she produces her limited edition prints. She has written three books and many articles on painting technique and this year her best-selling book Travels with Watercolour was published in paperback.

Lucy Willis

Judy Willoughby

Judy's work is inspired by colour, landscape and the elements.

She has a strong sense of narrative which seems to arrive through the process of painting to give a sense of a hidden or unknown story.

She enjoys the physicality of drawing and painting and likes to get her hands into the paint. As a printmaker she has enjoyed experimenting with diverse processes of mark making and she believes that this feeds into her painting and vice versa.

Her work is mainly exhibited at The Bankside Gallery, London and in the West Country. Judy is a member of The Royal Society of Painter Printmakers and this year exhibited work at The London Original Print Fair at the Royal Academy.

Judy Willoughby

George Winter

My work is primarily concerned with using equivalents of colour to evoke atmosphere and memory of place. A recent trip to Ascension Island (the birthplace of my wife) with its an extraordinary savage volcanic terrain, surrounded by dangerous seas yet dominated by a single lush tropical mountain, has led my work down a different avenue, where there is more use of materials combining mixed media to re create the experience and response of the first encounter.

George Winter

Photographers

David Entrican

Scottish born landscape photographer David Entrican now lives in Devon and enjoys capturing the local scenery using a specialist panoramic film camera and film.

"I get excited by the beauty of the landscape around us, changing seasons, the way the sunlight bathes the land with warm light, bringing out textures and colours at the start and end of each day. Making the most of spectacular views and dramatic weather, I can sometimes wait days for the right conditions, but when everything comes together it is a great experience"

David Entrican