Friends reconnected

THE third in an annual series of art exhibitions will take place in Henley next week.

Connected III has been organised by Cat Croxford and Liz Harvey, who will be showing both their own work and that of five other artists at the Old Fire Station Gallery.

They are the only two of the seven to have taken in both Connected shows in 2022 and 2023 and this year will be joined by Emma Clifton-Brown, Richard Ennis, Jill Hobbs, Heather Miller and Sarah Wills-Brown.

Cat, a landscape painter who grew up in Berkshire and South Oxfordshire, first encountered Liz, a painter and teacher, by chance.

“Liz googled somebody to help with portraits at her school,” she says. “We really connected with the way at we look at art and just got on so well.

“It was in 2019, just before lockdown, and we had a lot of workshops planned but had to cancel them all.”

Cat, who competed in Sky Arts’ Landscape Artist of the Year earlier this year, says the Connected concept has developed.

“This year, it’s about bringing in both emerging and established artists and the excitement of having everyone together.

“Before, it was driven by people we know but now it’s becoming a hub to meet other people, which I love.

“Hopefully, it’s something that we will see grow. Liz and I have got visions for a long-term
‘Connected’ empire.

“Liz has embarked on this whole new life up in Ripon, North Yorkshire. We both teach there together now, so we’re running some courses and we’re also exhibiting up there in November.” Cat, who used to teach at the JoeDaisy Studio in Mapledurham, paints woodland landscapes. She wanders through the woods taking photos and absorbing the smells and sounds.

“I’m also doing much smaller work with fine brushes,” she says. “They still look like my normal paintings but they’re on wood.

“I use a little bit of pointillism to break up the colour. It’s lots of small marks, so when you stand back, that’s when the painting makes a little bit more sense.”

Liz has spent 30 years teaching in the UK and abroad as well as painting. Her oils and drawings explore light and form, layers and surface, tension and balance.

She used to live in Caversham and Henley before moving to Ripon.

She says: “It has the same kind of feel. It’s a little market city but you realise that connections in the community are so important when you move somewhere new.

“I am teaching adults now and the move away from full-time working in a school has given me time to set up a studio and make my living as an artist.”

Emma Clifton-Brown, from West Berkshire, is a fine artist who used to work in jewellery design and interior design.

She says: “During lockdown I decided to go back to my fine
art roots, doing drawing and sculpture.”

Emma, 49, went on a course at the Warehouse Art School in Oxford, where she created a piece called Anxiolytic Plumbago. She says: “Anxiolytic refers to tension so that piece of work talks about the moment just before something snaps.

“I went to the Pitt-Rivers Museum in Oxford and was just inspired by the tension of a bowstring before the arrow is fired.

“It is big, long piece that stretched the lengthy of my garden, which was amazing. It was great fun.We were able to hang it in the Ovada Gallery in Oxford.

“I am excited to see how my works sits alongside the history of the old Henley fire station.”

Jill Hobbs, 39, from East Ilsley, says that her path to becoming an artist is “a bit bonkers”.

She explains: “When covid happened I was the sister of radiology and vascular access at the Royal Berkshire Hospital and I was seven months pregnant.

“I went in to work as normal thinking, ‘Oh god, it’s really kicking off’ and I got turned around and sent home and that was it.

“It was really strange as I was at home doing nothing with my son. I had been really busy, I ran a toddler group, I was running a department at the hospital, I was pregnant, I had a three-and-a-half-year-old at the time and then suddenly I wasn’t doing anything.

“Out of boredom, I started painting and was immediately hooked.”

Born in Dundee, Jill lived in Broughty Ferry with her grandparents on and off.

She recalls: “Before I was 17, I’d lived in 17 different houses with foster families.

“It explains some of my idiosyncrasies as I don’t take life too seriously — if the bread’s gone off, don’t cry, it’s fine.

“I didn’t know my dad, my mum committed suicide when I was 17 and I had a four-year-old sister that I needed to get sorted out and I ended up just throwing myself into work.

“I worked as a care assistant and within a few years I was a nurse. I loved every minute of it and we got to travel to Uganda and do all sorts of stuff.

“I had been really arty all the way through school but I hadn’t really thought about it until covid and then I was painting and I was like, ‘Oh, wait a minute, this is what I was supposed to be doing’. It kind of happened from there, slowly and organically.

“Cat ran my first portraiture course back in 2021, so she’s like my big sister — she has really taken me under her wing.”

Jill, who lives with her wife, Kate, and sons Rory, seven, and Jack, three, likes to paint pets, people and places.

She says: “I really want to go down the expressive portraiture route. It’s important to me that what I do is meaningful, so it’s not about capturing someone perfectly, it’s not about creating an airbrushed image almost to compliment people and help capture their ego.

“It’s about trying to pick out what makes them them and get some of that expression, personality and quirks.

“To be able to exhibit alongside people like Cat and Liz is such a privilege.”

Heather Miller, from Hertfordshire, used to work at the JoeDaisy studio with Cat and her late mother, artist Caroline Hulse.

She says: “Caroline was an amazing mentor and I know Cat really well through her and we became friends.”

Heather paints with acrylic on canvas and paper and is inspired by the natural world.

“Hertfordshire has got a lot of nice countryside and I’ve got two dogs called Rosie and Barney that I walk,” she says.

“I particularly adore birch trees and I love capturing reflections in water.

“I’ve been trying out new techniques using glazes and that’s been building some real depth into my work. I’m really pleased with the results.”

• Connected III is at the Old Fire Station Gallery, 52 Market Place, Henley, from Thursday to Monday, April 11 to 15. There is a preview evening on the first day with wine and nibbles from 6pm to 9pm and on the Friday the exhibition will be open until 7pm. On the Saturday from 1pm to 4pm, all seven artists will be in the gallery to talk about their processes and inspirations and from 7pm to 9pm there will be a cheese and wine evening. On Sunday, from 1pm to 4pm, tea and cake will be served. For more information, visit
www.connectedexhibition.com