THE ARTISTS

Ben is a successful and renowned local Blacksmith with over 22 years of experience. His love for metal work began as a teenager, where he worked in the Leers Forge as an apprentice. He trained at Hereford College and gained his Blacksmithing and Metalwork BTEC and City & Guilds qualifications and then set up his own business, when he was just 18 years old. Ben has always been fascinated by the plasticity of steel and he really enjoys expressing that in his own work.

Ben’s favourite project so far is a recent collaboration with Almuth Tebbenhoff; there is nothing he enjoys more than bringing other people's ideas to life. Ben has been the main driving force behind The Old Ambulance Station and he is very excited to work alongside other local artists and build a creative community.

Kate is an Illustrator and installation artist who loves finding different materials to work with. After studying fashion at college and illustration at university it led to experimenting with wearable and immersive art. Over the years locally she has created multiple installation pieces featuring large willow sculptures of her characters and designs that you can climb inside. She loves creating something on a large scale that you can immerse yourself in. For Coastal Currents she was a co-organiser and artist for the event 'Jungle Jam' which involved transforming a music venue into a psychedelic UV jungle. After finding a love for installation art she is forever creating new paintings, sculptures, textile and light-up pieces, and now wood creations to add to her collection of props and scenery for her shows. She has worked with local organisation Radiator Arts using these skills to create scenery and props for local events; Fat Tuesday, Bexhill After Dark, Hastings Last Thursdays and more. She plans on expanding to more music festivals around the UK.

On a day in the late sixties, I took a day off school and booked into Hastings College. All I had in the way of qualifications was a bronze award in life saving so I was enrolled into a graphics course. It was a very free time at college then, where the tutors (all artists in their own right) would impart their learning and wisdom and not take much notice of the generic curriculum.
I didn’t really take to the advertising world so I spent my time life drawing and writing poetry and just generally evolving my art and view of the world. My work for the most part was quite detailed, and naturally fell into the field of etching.
I have had my own gallery and sold work in the UK, Netherlands, France and through the gallery to private collections in Canada and the States.

Loose Fit was started in 2018 by James Torble, with the aim of creating elegant furniture, designed and made to last a lifetime.
As an alternative to mass produced fast furniture, Loose Fit makes robust and beautifully crafted pieces using traditional joinery. Loose Fit is part of the low waste, slow furniture movement.
James has designed a collection of furniture that is handmade to order, or you can commission him to make something bespoke and one-off.
James has a background in fine art, having studied at Central Saint Martins College, London, before building himself a houseboat and developing a passion for furniture and design in the process.

Sophie’s creative practice is her love language to the world. With a profound interest in the psychological power of colour, her creations are timestamps on moments in her life. Whilst painting Sophie is able to enjoy moments of escapism and meditation, rebalancing with colour. Painting is an essential part of managing her wellbeing.

Chiara Perano is an English-Italian artist, illustrator, and more recently ceramicist, based in St Leonards-on-Sea. Her work is varied across paintings on canvas, wall hangings, customisation, limited edition prints and painted murals. She uses harmonious tones and patterns and explores nature and our connection to the Earth, taking a holistic approach to creating art, often making her own pigments from found natural objects. Her style is inspired by her Italian heritage, La Dolce Vita, ancient mark making, and celebrating the simple joys in everyday life. In 2020 she created a sell-out exclusive limited collection for Liberty, and her 'Peace' painting for the war in Ukraine raised £20,000 for DEC and Choose Love charities.

Laura studied at the Slade School of Art, London, before winning the Elizabeth Greenshield’s Award for Painting, exhibiting in The Hayward Gallery’s Open Annual British Drawing Exhibition and being invited to join The Arts Council Index of British Artists. She has since exhibited widely, and taught art for several years in adult education within London; then training and teaching yoga. Since moving to Hastings, Laura has continued to paint portraits and murals for private and public commissions; particularly enjoying work with the team painting wall hangings for Shakespeare’s Birthplace Museum, Stratford-Upon-Avon.
Laura has been working for over 20 years with East & West Sussex Councils, NHS and local charities as an art psychotherapist, with children and adults who’ve suffered trauma and abuse, so she’s happy to now be in a position to devote her time solely to her art!
She continues to welcome portrait and mural commissions, while finding inspiration in those forms and patterns which echo throughout nature!

Saskia Gall is a multidisciplinary artist whose work ranges from traditional portrait commissions in oil and charcoal to large scale sculptures, as well as art direction, prop making and set design. With a love for working with diverse materials, she has become increasingly aware of the footprint of those she uses and how her art engages with the natural environment and climate crisis. Living on the coast, combined with a love of foraging and all things fungi, Saskia is currently exploring the use of biomaterials in her practice, especially mycelium and seaweed. She aims to create regenerative artwork that considers a circular economy and approach to materiality.
It's really exciting collaborating with materials that will end their life as nutrients, rather than pollutants, helping new life to flourish. I love the connections between mythology and folklore and the human psyche especially in terms of our relationship with the world around us and my work often draws on these liminal spaces between fairytales, dream worlds and the unconscious.

Imogen is a multi-media artist and event organiser with a background in music and theatre. She has been creating inclusive community events and immersive theatre experiences for over 15 years, in her home county of Surrey, and with Radiator Arts after relocating to Hastings. She currently runs workshops and art classes for all ages and abilities, favouring upcycled materials. Building big has been her main theme for the last seven years, adding large sculptures and puppets to processions and parades and creating community interactive pieces for festivals.

In 2021, Melodie Clothing was established with the desire to provide a made-to-order clothing business that offered customers a more personalised and sustainable approach to buying garments. Each piece is pattern cut, sewn and hand finished by Melodie using slower, longer lasting techniques and high quality, natural fabrics to ensure the garments are made to last.
Melodie learned to sew from her grandmother, a skilled seamstress, and her great aunt, a talented textile artist. She pursued education in Fashion Design at Kingston university and Hong Kong Polytechnic.
Alongside running her business, Melodie has been teaching sewing for the past 3 years, fostering a sewing community and inspiring more people to learn to make their own clothes. She aims to develop this community at the Old Ambulance Station, by hosting workshops within her studio.

I am a British artist painting classically inspired equestrian subjects. My work draws on Stubbs and the classical English horse painting tradition, but I also hope to give it a modern edge. ​I came to horses late in life. I love the complex anatomy, and the deep colours and shine of their coats. I try to capture the combination of physical power and gentle submissiveness that horses show. I also love their individual characters and intelligence.
​I work in oils and I try, as far as possible, to use materials and techniques that the old masters would have used.
​I do portraits, commissions and sales. I also travel a lot, so I may be coming to a city near you soon. Please contact me via my website if you would like more information about my work or would like to discuss commissions.
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Bee Nicholls is a fine artist exploring the politics of the built environment through her textiles-based sculptural practice.

Her work contrasts the perceived chaos of the body with the rigidity of urban spaces, querying the power dynamics of the city and the body's relationship to the built environment.

Her use of materials engages the transgressive power of softness and the subversive potential of sewing.

She invites viewers to reconsider their interactions with the city space, revealing the intimate and often unseen dynamics at play.

Bee is a recent graduate of the Slade School of Fine Art undergraduate programme.

Shaun Brosnan is a sculptor living and working in Hastings, East Sussex.
He graduated in 1982 with a B.A.(hons) in Fine Art from the University of Northumbria, and is an elected Member of the Royal Society of British Sculptors. Shaun has work in public and private collections, and undertakes private and public commissions.
Characteristically modest about his art, and about the sources of his inspiration, he will say ''I just like faces really, and lips''. Yet there are echoes of classical, and perhaps even more, baroque, sculpture that come to the surface, and that he will willingly acknowledge. But, noble as they are, his masks and torsos are not the stuff of classical perfection. Slightly over life-size, they are, above all, powerful, sensual, down to earth. Lead, which has always been his preferred medium, comes from the very depths of the earth and its combination of strength and malleability is perfect for the task he has set himself, and for the gentle giants that emerge from his studio.