Artists

Artist and musician Alfie Carpenter works with paint, paper, voice sounds and words to create songs and scenes. Based in rural Suffolk and using a mixture of plein air and studio work, Alfie’s visual art captures the distinct landscapes of East Anglia through playful and evocative collages. Having trained as a singer and composer, Alfie writes and performs dream-folk songscapes as well as exhibiting his art across the UK. Alfie’s musical and artistic outpourings are equally atmospheric. Whether the components are shapes, colours and textures or pitches, words and voices, Alfie assembles music and art to give life to a landscape, idea, vision or emotion. www.alfiecarpenter.com

Alfie worked in collaboration with Rick Wakeman, famous keyboardist and songwriter of the progressive rock band ‘Yes’. Rick has signed ‘Hilda’ and the signed sheep will be sold at auction on 12th September.

Anna is a photographer and artist living in Pulham Market. She has always been interested in Art and from a really young age was exposed to all the arts as much as possible, as her parents and godparents were very creative. She gained an art scholarship to Framlingham college at the age of 13. In 2010 she went straight to Cornwall to the University College Falmouth for the Art and Design Foundation where she gained a Distinction. She liked Cornwall so much that she ended up staying for her degree in Press and Editorial Photography BA (HONS) – Falmouth University. Anna loves making pen and ink shapes/patterns/doodles/mark making. From a young age she struggled with dyslexia and has been working on a project about the connection between dyslexia, learning and doodling. She has a different way of processing information and this has made her extremely creative. She began to realise that she was gaining something out of doodling and was able to take in so much more information, almost subconsciously. She could see a difference in her memory and recall. She turned some of her doodles into really detailed and stimulating works of art that led her to focus on the aesthetic element but still work with fluidity and freeness. She also enjoys landscape and botanical photography and produces limited edition prints. Anna has decorated the sheep sponsored by Adnams. She wanted to use the colour palette from one of their products and they both agreed on the Adnams Copper House Gin, of which she is a fan. She has also included some glow in the dark parts to the sheep for something a bit different.

Chris was born in Saxmundham, Suffolk. He is known mostly as an oil painter working closely with the celebrated Suffolk artist, Maggi Hambling who mentors him and his work. Film making and photography are an extension of his ongoing artistic skills. He has a shop and studio in Leiston. His paintings are raw and stormy, the products of a troubled soul and a very passionate artist. He paints what he feels and his feeling stem from a difficult and unsettled life. As well as painting prolifically he also frames all his own pictures and provides a picture framing service for customers. Intriguingly he will make a frame first then paint a picture to fill it. His weapon of choice for the painting part is a pallet knife rather than a brush and he demonstrates what can be an endless process of scraping and refashioning a picture as his restless imagination goes to work. Chris says of Maggi “She inspires me because of her work and her work ethic. Also because she’s such a good teacher” The work aspect of this inspiration stems back to his obsession with Hambling’s controversial scallop sculpture which has been in situ on Aldeburgh beach since 2003 as a memorial to the towns most famous son, the composer Benjamin Britten. “Chris kept telephoning me about his enthusiasm for the scallop” says Hambling “He came and showed me a little film he’d made using the scallop as part of the performance. We then made a film together and having met a few times I told him he was really an artist and should be painting pictures.” At the time Newson was working as a photographer and the film they made together, The Storm, is a very powerful depiction of Hambling at work on Aldeburgh beach amid the raging elements and against the haunting backdrop of Benjamin Britten’s music. It is a superb self contained piece of work which can be seen on YouTube and is the catalyst both for their enduring relationship and Chris Newson’s career as a full-time artist.

After many years as a Suffolk Farmer’s Wife and Lecturer in City and Guilds Fashion Eleanora retrained in Fine Art and gained a 1st class degree in 2006. Eleanora’s main concern is the Suffolk landscape which she captures in oil paint on curving canvasses, exhibiting annually with artworks at Blackthorpe Barn, Bury St Edmunds during part of September and October.

Oscar, Summer, Kaidy, Riley, Lily, Aiden, Anya, Daria, Amelia, Coco, Ella, Georgia, Ashton 15 Children from Eye Primary School were chosen to design and paint their school sheep. They decided on a story theme because, at present, updating the school library is their fundraising focus. The children picked characters from their favourite story books to create the sheep they’ve named Storyland. We hope you enjoy spotting some characters that you recognise

Joy Evitt is passionate about all aspects of Costume and Textiles. Teaching for over 40 years enabled her to build up a diverse knowledge base that included the historical events that have affected peoples lives and how that is woven into the History of Costume and Textiles. She enjoys embroidery and making unusual items of clothing as well as making new items from something old. The sheep was a challenge but using techniques that can be used with embroidery made the job much more fun.

Suffolk Based Artist, Katie Nice, uses a mixture of watercolour and pencil to create hyper-realistic portraits, which aim to create a feeling of joy in her audience. Self-taught she has been drawing for as long as she remembers, taking on her first commissioned piece in 2014. Starting out as a pet portrait artist Katie has now expanded to work on her own exhibitions.

McGregor Grandchildren

Neishaa Gharat is a designer and the Creative Director of House of Gharats, a London based design house that creates conscious fashion and lifestyle collections for artful dressing and living. She practices within the realms of textile crafts and fashion. Her designs draw on the essence of tradition, cultural juxtapositions, stories and sustainable materials that want to create a new future. She believes in bringing together style and substance to empower. She has set herself on a mission to ‘Change the world one scarf at a time’

Nicola Warner has lived in rural Suffolk since the 1970s and has also spent much time in Cornwall over the last 2 decades. Having sketched and painted since her childhood, her love of art led her to a 3 year period of running her own gallery in Framlingham, Suffolk. Drawing her inspiration from the vastly different shorelines of both Suffolk and Cornwall, she also benefits from the natural forms and botanical shapes she encounters in the rambling garden outside her studio. Using found tools rather than conventional brushes, Nicola’s contemporary abstract art is frequently highly textured and many pieces feature her signature gold leaf in amongst the mixed media to which she is drawn. Intuitive, and using a varied colour palette, her work appeals to both corporate and private collectors.

Victoria has been painting for over 30 years, ever since attending the Slade School of fine Art in the late 80’s. In the early part of her career she painted abstract paintings inspired by the many skyscrapers going up in Canary Wharf at that exciting time. Later on she has been inspired by nature, painting still lives and tree boughs which look back to the post-Impressionists in style. More recently working as a fabric designer with 5 different designs in many different colours, currently on sale online and at the Paint and Paper Library’s showroom in Chelsea. Since moving to Suffolk in 2012 they have renovated their farmhouse in Worlingworth and created a garden – like painting but with flowers! She is looking forward to making a return to painting as her 2 children start to leave home, and working on some new fabric designs for Sebag Textiles.

Victoria has worked alongside Gary Avis on her sheep. Gary Avis is a distinguished ballet dancer with the Royal Ballet of some 30 years and was born and still lives in Suffolk. Victoria’s design is based on the stunning folk costume Gary wears for his role of Father Shepherd in A Winter’s Tale which is currently touring in Japan and LA. She painted the sheep from her Suffolk studio.