Artist Profiles
Cambridge Drawing Society members work in a diverse range of media and subject matter.
The images and content in this section are copyright of the respective artists - please contact them for permission to reproduce.
This is not a complete representation of the members of the society.
All
drawing
other
painting
printmaking
sculpture
My work is very much based in simple mark making, drawing quickly and gesturally I find drawing to be visceral. It flows from within, combining motion with mood and emotion with being. And this is the same process I use with my paintings. I take...
My first career was in genetics, but in 2006 I switched my allegiance to art, beginning with a life drawing class, progressing to the Access to Art course at CRC, and then studying Illustration at ARU. I became a full time printmaker, illustrator and textile...
My art training was at the Hornsey College of Art where I achieved my National Diploma in Design degree (BA). After art school I went into publishing, doing magazine and technical book design. I worked for various publishers and then at the Central Office of...
I studied at Sheffield College of Art in the Sixties, Diploma in art and Design Fine Art, Painting with Printmaking. Italian Government Scholarship. University of London Institute of Education, Art Teacher’s Certificate, 1970 I have taught art at many levels all my life and enjoyed...
Giulia Quaresima is an Italian artist who lives and works in Cambridge, UK. Her artistic activity focuses on figurative subjects, particularly portraits and nudes. The women’s universe is the main theme of her painting season: the relentless passage of time, the laceration of abandonment, the...
I am inspired by the landscapes of East Anglia and Mediterranean visits. My choice of subject matter is often decided by my emotional response to the mood and colours of the scene. It is usually the colours that attract my attention and excite me when...
Teresa’s work is inspired by the relationship between people and the wild, natural world. Working across a variety of media including oils, acrylic, photography and textiles, she searches for momentary glimpses of something that goes beyond time and place to challenge our perception and understanding of...
Phil Cope produces sculptural pieces that are predominantly abstract, however they often take inspiration from the human form and life drawing forms an important part of his process. He takes a modernist approach to design and Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth are significant influences on...
I trained at Chester College of Art and Nottingham Trent (BA Hons.) specializing in Printed Textile Design in the department of Fashion and Textiles. A retail business in the city centre of Nottingham followed and for many years I designed and hand printed fashion and...
I am primarily, though not exclusively, a landscape painter. A subject observed in my environment is always the starting point for a painting, but then the demands of the painting take over. I focus on the composition and colour relationships but don’t include all topographical...
I have practiced printmaking since 1995 and enjoy an art form which can be very exacting and challenging. As a printmaker, my creativity is limitless. Printmaking processes and techniques can be combined, to provide an endless artistic journey, which constantly inspires. My preferred printmaking techniques...
Initially academically trained in the traditions of Western Art, after a trip to China in 1986, I began doing East Asian painting in the literati style (painting by scholar-artists), then after retiring from my profession as a painting restorer I began to develop my printmaking...
Watercolour painter for thirty years and now, why not more colour, gouache. The subjects remain the same—shapes, patterns, colour—my pen takes off by itself, the finished drawings having lives of their own, becoming fantasies or motifs, the colours sublime. Watercolours and gouache are all immediate—there...
I am intrigued by light effects, – particularly, in recent years in back-lit images. My subjects range from natural history to landscape by way of set pieces of still life, but always trying to catch the light cast in the picture. Latterly I have become...
I’m a self-taught artist that loves to paint both in the studio and outdoors, using oil paint to capture feeling and a sense of place. I find much of my inspiration from life’s everyday moments that pass us by. In particular I enjoy painting family...
As a youngster, I was fascinated by both art and natural history. I received an honours certificate from the Royal Drawing Society at the age of 12, passed O-level art at 15 but then followed my scientific interests and a career in biological oceanography. More...
I paint in oils. I enjoy painting people who are doing things, mainly set in front of a landscape.
I’ve only recently started painting and I’ve had no formal training. I use watercolour because it’s not smelly and stopping and starting is no problem and there’s no mess at all. Mine are even less messy than most and could fairly be called “watercolour drawings” since...
A long-term member of CDS since 1976, Sam has worked chiefly in a graphic style, charcoal, pen and ink and linocuts. Colour has been sometimes sparingly added by collage and pastel. Subjects have been Mill Road and its neighbourhood observed over 50 years, Cambridge, travels abroad,...
Since my initial training in Graphic Design at Chelsea School of Art, I more recently refreshed my work by doing an Illustration degree at Cambridge School of Art (Anglia Ruskin.) Observational drawing, which I have always found both a delight and a challenge, led me...
Retirement from full time work enabled me to develop my interest in art; progressing from life drawing to watercolour, print making and illustration work. Much of my work is in a sketch form, recording travels, personal experiences and people I know and I continue to...
I am a largely self taught painter though much encouraged by one or two sympathetic artists I have met either online or in person. Above all I am inspired by the great realist art of the past from the Italian and Flemish Renaissance through to...
Having taught Art at secondary level for many years, helping and encouraging students to pursue their own Art careers, it’s been great getting back to finding, and enjoying my own personal art since retiring. My fascination is with patterns in nature, and despite the range...
Melanie Collins (b1954) is a Member and Chairman of the Society of East Anglian Watercolourists (SEAW) and a Committee Member of the Cambridge Drawing Society (CDS). She studied History of Art and Architecture at A Level, took a B.Sc in Geography (and Economics) at Bristol...
I have always enjoyed drawing, and I mainly produce highly imaginative works, but I also like drawing buildings and wildlife. I work mainly in graphite pencil, but also some coloured pencil and watercolour. I have exhibited since 2014 and been a member of the CDS...
Art, photography, and clay has been a large part of my life. My ceramic work is primarily porcelain clay based for its true white canvas to take strong colours and textures. All the work is fired in an electric kiln to 1260’F. The work has...
Sonia Villiers was born in Bristol and moved to London to study Fashion Design, running her own boutique in Bloomsbury for 10 years. She has been living near Cambridge for 25 years. Her work can be recognised by her use of vibrant colour, bendy buildings...
Alan was born in Ipswich, Suffolk and was educated at Northgate Grammar School Ipswich, where he was granted a scholarship in art and was fortunate to receive training under Colin Moss at the Ipswich Art School. He qualified as an architect and now retired, paints...
My formal art education from 1967-70 was a pre-diploma course at Portsmouth College of Art and then a 3 year course in Fashion and Textiles at Nottingham College of Art. I have continually practiced my art throughout my life, mainly life drawing and portraits and...
I am primarily a watercolour artist with a passion for painting outside ‘plein air’ where the weather, atmosphere and happenings of the day all contribute towards the completed work. I particularly enjoy painting open landscapes. Trees, plants, flowers, buildings and water within the landscape are...
I have lived in Cambridgeshire all my life. A self-taught watercolour artist I have attended many workshops and courses to learn and develop my style of flower painting. Bold, vibrant colours feature in most of my works and I like to incorporate a semi-abstract element. ...
My work includes a variety of media including collage, paint, textiles, printmaking and book art. The images are sometimes representational sometimes abstracted, and emphasise line, form and colour. The sculptural books evolved from a delight in pure form, with the play of light creating shadows...
Mainly a landscape artist, I aim to convey the atmosphere and appearance of the natural world through oil painting. Being in the non-urban world is so good for us and I think that paintings which recall that exhilaration and connection are good to have around....
Maureen’s paintings are about colour, detail and ideas and tell stories that can be magical and surreal. Her home city of Cambridge has a strong influence and stimulates her love of medieval art. After studying Visual Communication, Maureen has always been employed in the art...
Inspired by the bold shapes of nineteen-sixties fashion, Pat Stoten’s current work is distinctive through the use of bright, vibrant, juxtaposed colours which produce an harmonious energy; presented through the mixed medium of collage and watercolour. A courage in her work; always striving for improvement,...
Katie Maynard often uses urban or natural locations as a starting point and can use historical research to inspire her imagery. Her work can be observational often evoking a sense of place and human connection. She is drawn to motifs that express fleeting moments, movement,...
About 15 years ago I began painting again after a long break. I joined local classes, moved from acrylics to oils and began learning. I was accepted into the Cambridge drawing society 10 years ago and have exhibited with them and in other local exhibitions....
Since graduating in Fine Art from ARU I have exhibited locally and participated in Cambridge Open Studios. In 2015 I was commissioned by Wetherspoon’s to create two large mixed media artworks for a new premises in Huntingdon. I regularly volunteer at Rowan, a local art...
After owning an art gallery and business art consultancy service in both Cambridge and London for 23 years, Pamela gained a degree in the humanities and took various painting courses with the Open University of Arts. She joined the Cambridge Drawing Society in 2004, at...
I enjoy producing linoprints. My work is influenced by nature, everyday life and the world I see around me. I love to draw and observational drawing informs my printing practice. I have been printmaking for about six years now and I really enjoy the process...
I trained as a graphic designer/typographer going on to form my own consultancy as well as teaching graphics full and part time. My career in visual communication fuelled my love of drawing/painting. As design became more computer based and my own work became less ‘hand...
No formal art education although I was offered a place at the Cambridge College of Art and Technology but took the option of engineering, it was the case of the head taking over the heart decision and getting a ‘proper job’. I have been interested...
Caroline is a self-taught, multi award winning, art and crafts person who never stays still in her creativity. Her art career started with pure watercolours during a big birthday. Later pastels, acrylics, collage and mixed media followed. Caroline’s art subject matter ranges from natural to imaginary....
I have been painting all my life, attended art colleges in the ’60s and arrived in Cambridge as an undergraduate in the ‘70s. I spend my time painting in my studio in Cambridge when not out and about working on location. I have always enjoyed...
Studied Fine Art and Illustration at Anglia Ruskin University, art tutor for community adult education and private classes. Ambassador for Derwent Fine Art Pencils. I am currently producing a body of work which reflects my interest in rural Britain’s lost and found drove roads, holloways and paths. ...
I have always had an interest in art although I am almost entirely self-taught. After retiring from a career in medical research, I have been able to devote more time to painting and drawing. I paint mainly in watercolours but occasionally I will work in...
Victoria Parker-Jervis (born 1963) has lived and worked most of her life as an artist and painter of East Anglia. A student at the Chelsea School of Art 1981-5. She works mostly in oil on canvas and also uses watercolour, pencil and silver point amongst...
I have no formal training and began painting around the time of my retirement from teaching biology. Naturally I am drawn to floral subjects and have done courses in botanical painting. I particularly like painting buildings mainly using pen and ink and watercolour. Lockdown has...
I was born in North Yorkshire. Worked in London and then lived in the North Hertfordshire countryside. I am an established painter and inspired by the world around me use drawings as a record for my studio paintings. I work in oils to create works of...
After training as a silkscreen printer Neil came to Cambridge in 1988 at the age of 26. He soon realised commercial printing was not the career for him and turned to gardening. He trained and worked at Christ’s College as an under gardener. For over...
Irene Carmen Wilkes was born in Brisbane, Australia in 1952. Her parents were Eastern European, post-war immigrants. Irene’s mother loved folk art and crafts, especially embroidery. She introduced Irene to the colours, organic shapes and repetitive patterns of her native Poland. At the age of 10...
Since she was a child Liz has loved to paint and in 1974 she started a watercolour class with a marvellous teacher who totally inspired her. She loves colour so consequently her world is a very bright joyful place. She prefers to paint with pen...
Having trained and worked as a scientist for a few years, Alexander Blustin turned his attention to creative projects in 2010. As a visual artist, his main interests are in printmaking, sculpture and illustration; his prints have appeared in numerous group exhibitions, including the Cambridge...
Janet works from her studio in South Cambridgeshire as a freelance artist, supplying semi abstract, impressionistic, and fine art to publishing companies worldwide. Her paintings are sold from galleries throughout the South of England and internationally via the web. She has become a much-recognised artist...
I am a self-taught artist who has studied in private art lessons and fine art courses. For me, creativity is my world of happiness and bright colours. I’ve always loved to paint and it gives me great enjoyment. I loved to draw portraits in my...
Astrig works in acrylics, pastels, and other mixed media, including collage, using her innate sense of colour to create harmonious images. Having wanted to work with clay from an early, taking pottery classes at Saturday school age 9 at Camden Arts Centre, she continued her...
I am originally from New Zealand and now live near Cambridge in the village of Bassingbourn. From an early age, I was greatly encouraged in my love of drawing and painting, especially my passion for portraiture. I work is mainly in pastel, which I love for...
I am local artist based in a village in Cambridgeshire. I have used many different mediums over the years and up until recently have been inspired by those that are water-based as I have always loved the unpredictability of the results. With regard to my acrylic ink...
Sherry’s artwork focuses on texture and its resonance with the subject. Using printmaking techniques such as collagraph, monoprint, and drypoint, she often explores her keen interest in biodiversity to create images incorporating the tactile aspects of a wide range of plants and animals. Sherry enjoys...
I am inspired by local gardens and old buildings, and also enjoy sketching chickens and geese going about their business. Many of my works are in pen and watercolour. I use a dip pen to pick out the textures of trees and the contrasting shapes...
I am a self-taught artist whose paintings spring from my lifelong enjoyment of the natural world. My main subject is the landscape, especially trees. I work in various media, including oils, acrylics, watercolours, ink and mixed media. My work usually hovers around the borderline between...
I graduated in Fine Art (painting) from Norwich Art School and went on to train as an art teacher at Goldsmiths College, London. After some years teaching in secondary schools and a break of several years to bring up my family, I returned to drawing...
I’m a self-taught artist who is passionate about painting portraits, which for me is a way of honoring the individual as intrinsically valuable, bearing something of the image of God. Whilst my style of portraiture is figurative, I try to add distinctive abstract touches. Working...
My work originates from the world around me, from nature, landscape, people and city life, both at home and abroad. Originally a figurative artist, I am increasingly using oils and cold wax medium to push my work in a less detailed and more atmospheric direction...
Melanie’s semi-abstract landscapes are inspired by the British coast and wetlands. She works from her studio aboard her narrowboat with views across the washes in Cambridgeshire. Originally from Cornwall, her life’s path gradually took her to the flatlands of the Fens and closer to her...
I obtained a degree in Art and Art History from Cambridge School of Art & Design at APU. I found that I developed a particular interest in Printmaking, the process involved somehow separating the artist from the final image. Interest in the medieval images in...
I have always loved painting: A childhood on a Suffolk farm was where it started. Nothing else to do but roam the fields and woods and then start drawing and painting them. I still farm with my husband and the natural world is a never-ending...
John is entirely self-taught, having worked for most of his adult life as a professional actor. Any formal training during these years was acquired on various courses at London’s City Lit and Morley College. This included a great deal of life drawing, oil painting, watercolour...
I first studied Illustration at Cambridge School of Art and many years later returned to do the M.A. Course in Printmaking, I am fascinated by the many ways an image may be used in the various mediums available. I also love drawing old and interesting...
Ann trained in the 1970’s at the Cambridge School of Art and has worked as a professional illustrator ever since. Ann found work with educational publishers specialising in Natural History for schools, also taking on commissioned work with private customers. Nowadays Ann looks to private...
I have painted all my life and looking back I was always interested in drawing and painting trees. Growing up in the middle of nature surrounded by woodland on all sides I realize how much I was engaged with the landscape around me. My mother...
At school I enjoyed physics and art, taking A levels in both. I read physics at university and a career in science and technology followed. Now that I have retired I have picked up drawing again after a thirty year hiatus.
Drawing is something I have always loved. I am a self taught artist with an A level in Art and City & Guild Design for Print. An elected member of Cambridge Drawing Society since 2013. A member of Ely Art Society, Ely Art Lovers Workshop...
My aim is to create paintings which lift the spirit and enhance peoples’ lives, and I feel that the wonderful flowing colours of watercolour is the ideal medium to achieve this. My favourite subjects are flowers, landscape and still life, freely capturing the essence of...
Barbara lives in Soham and has been painting for most of her life. She was the owner of an art gallery in Ely for 14 years and has now retired to concentrate on her painting. The early tuition she received from two well known local...
My work is focused on the changing seasons in land and seascapes, with a strong emphasis on light and colour harmony to express mood and place. In this I am influenced by my life in Argentina, where I was born and lived before coming to...
My art, both in painting and in sculpture, is almost always centred upon the natural world. Following a medical career as a histopathologist, I obtained a first-class degree in Art and Art History from Cambridge School of Art & Design at APU, now Anglia Ruskin...
I am largely a self-taught painter who has belonged to a number of art groups and joined a several intensive courses over the years. My work is mostly about observation and my interpretation of the way I see the world through painting. I work mostly...
I am a portrait painter based in St Ives, Cambridgeshire. I have always been interested in capturing the likeness of someone be it person or animal. I am mostly self taught but I studied fine art at school where I developed my love of portraiture...
Anna grew up on a farm in south Cambridgeshire surrounded by animals, wildlife and the countryside, which continues to inspire her work. She enjoys lino cutting, screen printing and mono printing. She exhibits widely in galleries and with the Cambridge Drawing Society, Royston Arts Society...
Originally from Japan, Megumi spent her youth in USA and has lived in England for over 30 years. She specialises in portraiture of animals and people in pastel. Megumi finds that pastel gives her an immediacy of colour and that applying pastel feels like a...
I’m local to Cambridge and have lived in the city all my life, for most my working life I have been a part-time artist, squeezing in my artistic activities in any spare time I could find between full time work and family commitments, so did...
After a life time of flying aircraft both in the RAF and civilian (fast jet and medium range people carriers) and painting for a hobby, I was able on retirement to turn my attention to painting daily. I paint almost exclusively in acrylics and mostly...
Vera Rosenberry has lived in Grantchester for over 20 years. She has been painting landscapes recently, inspired by the hedgerows, river, and fields nearby. While these landscapes are imaginary, the imagery is based on memory of what she has seen on her frequent walks through...
I grew up in South London, and during my last year at school in Blackheath, attended Saturday morning sessions at Camberwell Art School, doing silk screen printing and lino-cut prints. Having contemplated pursuing a career in graphic design I decided to study architecture at Regent...
My interest in art probably started while at university when I did my degree in Art history. I later started sketching in water colour while sailing with my husband in the Indian Ocean. Then about 20 years ago an artist friend called Beverley Gibbs arrived...
I have been painting for over 25 years. During evening classes I experimented with a variety of media and had tutorials in pastels and life drawing. About 15 years ago I joined a botanical watercolour group and painted with them for over 6 years enjoying...
John Glover is a graduate of the Glasgow School of Art, Jordanhill College of Further Education, and the Open University. Between 1970 and 1980, John worked as a freelance book illustrator in London for such publishers as Evans Bros, Hamlyns, Oxford University Press and Macmillans....
I am a self taught artist inspired by the vivid colours, unique textures and tiny details that are found within nature. I use a mixture of concentrated watercolour & inks to create brightly coloured abstract wildlife paintings. I have recently moved back to Cambridge from...
I am an experimental artist working primarily in pen, ink and watercolour. Being passionate in my aim to capture line, colour, essence and vitality of any chosen subject matter, I aim to evoke emotion through a sense of time and place. With a background in...
I have drawn and painted all my life, except for a long break when I was an architect and didn’t have time. When I returned to artwork, I painted mainly in oils until, about eight years ago, when I started stone-carving. Now I work mostly...
I have painted off and on all my life. About twenty years ago I discovered printmaking and never looked back. Most of my work since then has been screen printing with occasional drypoint and monotypes. Recently I have reached an age where too much standing...
I am a Hilton based printmaker who enjoys portraying the natural world, creating colourful, multi-layered prints in small variable editions. I specialise in linocut, woodcut, wood engraving and monoprint, sometimes combining these methods to get the images I want. Artist’s Statement Printmaking gives me a...
I come from a rural background, and have always been an outdoors person. My love of the countryside and wildlife, is reflected ins my art. I took up painting 15 years ago and am self-taught. For the last 8 years I have been mainly painting...
I paint a wide variety of subjects in oils, mostly on canvas board, and these vary from simple still lives to more complicated scenes which include figures and portraits. I’ll have a go at most subjects. I’m not organised enough to paint out of doors...
I studied art in Dublin, Chester and London, and then in Cambridge with James Horton, PRSA and have undertaken many portrait commissions. I love landscapes and have painted in Tuscany, Switzerland, Venice, Sardinia, France and Sicily. I drew and painted people from childhood and have...
After a life-long career in publishing, the second half of it with Cambridge University Press, I started to draw and paint seriously in my ‘third age’ about 20 years ago. I was taught privately for several years by James Horton, formerly President of the RBA;...
Surinder trained as a Chartered Accountant in the City of London and worked most of his life for two Lloyd’s Broking houses in insurance/ reinsurance – first as a finance director and then as a CEO. He travelled extensively round the world on business and...
My prints use figuration and abstraction to portray the landscape of places I know well. The sources can come from working en plein air or expressing landscape filtered through memory. The physicality of my approach to the printing process combined with a contemplative exploration of...
Based in Cambridge, I have a History of Art degree, and a Diploma in Portrait Painting from Heatherley’s School of Fine Art. I am a member of The Lots Road Group of Portrait Painters which exhibits annually in London and have been commissioned by several...
Originally from Singapore, Susan has lived in the UK for nearly 30 years. In 2012, she became the first local artist-in-residence at Orleans House Gallery in Twickenham. She is currently working on two series of work: Daily Exercise and Skygazing. Daily Exercise is her response...
My paintings celebrate nature in all her glory. I aim to capture the freshness of a sea breeze or the softness of a woodland floor whilst exploring the balance between realism and abstraction. I start with lots of quick sketches trying to record the essence...
I was born in Italy and I emigrated to the UK in 1998. I have a Diploma in Fashion Design (1989-1994) and in 2006 I obtained a HNC in Fine Art Practice. I currently teach drawing and life drawing at Bedford Arts and Crafts centre...
I am an amateur artist who has enjoyed painting and drawing for many years. In 2010 I gained a Distance Learning Diploma in botanical painting and have continued with this, mainly in coloured pencils. I also like to try less detailed work, experimenting with different...
I love the challenge of representing another person. Everyone is individual and trying to capture a unique character and appearance is inspiring and always fascinating. I largely work in charcoal or oil paint because of their flexibility for portraits although I also use pencil and watercolour. The...
I am both a painter and printmaker and my subjects include contemporary ‘tablescapes’ from my collection of containers and tableware of various sorts. These paintings are about identity and relationship, often represented by receptacles such as jugs, bowls, pots and plates. As an Art Therapist,...
My Grandma was a traveller and a collector. I would spend many hours of my childhood looking through her tins of trinkets, postcards with exotic stamps, tapestries and dolls from foreign lands; I was always more fascinated by the yellowing newspaper wrapping a doll, than...
Katy Bailey’s work is a diary in paint. She follows her passions about nature and sustainability to try to find new ways of communicating these with the viewer. The underlying theme and subject matter revolve around nature, specifically woodlands. Nature has all the answers we...
I have a degree in illustration and work in my home studio specialising in mixed media landscapes, and cityscapes and still life. These are continuations from onsite sketches. Experimenting with different techniques and materials with no strict rules, I enjoy looking for new and surprising...
With a broad style in oil pastels, soft pastels and acrylics, my interests lie in deconstructed landscapes, still life, boats and portraits. Tend to sell my work for charities at Open Studios and private ‘café’ displays. With landscapes, I seek to incorporated disparate elements, compressing the...
I am a Cambridge artist working mainly in watercolour and pen and ink scenes of Cambridge and the surrounding towns and villages. I love to paint architecture and enjoy making portraits of domestic houses and gardens as well as stately homes and city streets.
I was born at Rye, East Sussex in 1933. After school at Queenswood in Hertfordshire, where Miss Pilgrim, the art teacher gave me a wonderful start, I attended The Hastings Art School and was taught painting by Vincent Lines. Later on, I taught Art, and,...
Soon after leaving school I was accepted into Chelsea Art School and awarded a scholarship for drawing. I specialised in fabric design and had some wonderful tutors during my three years there. My forte and special interest has been in detailed drawings of natural objects,...
I paint primarily in oil paint. I am constantly inspired by nature, colour, space and form. I have a love for colour, I like to think that is my specialty. My work as a painter has been inspired and encouraged by two generations of artists:...
Geoff Goddard is a British portrait artist based in Cambridgeshire. After retiring from visual arts teaching, he has focused even more on his paintings where realism is fundamental. The Pre-Raphaelites era and many contemporary figurative artists have influenced Goddard’s work. His art employs a range...
Andy Dakin is a figurative artist who paints portraits, landscapes, cityscapes and interior scenes in Cambridge. Graduating with a Fine Art Degree in Manchester in 1991, Dakin then worked in local media in Cambridge taking thousands of photographs in the process. After more than a...
