Meet the Artists
Three artists, three key themes.
As their professional relationship grew, it became clear that despite their differing styles and subjects, these artists shared strong thematic connections. Together, their work forms a cohesive narrative that invites viewers into an exploration of nature, transience, and emotion.
Through shared colour palettes, light-play, and intuitive processes, they create a visual story that celebrates the interconnectedness of human experience with the natural world.
Rooted in personal experience, their work reflects a profound connection to light, water, and land, an exploration of time and impermanence, and an appreciation of beauty in imperfection.
Collectively, their work subtly highlights a shared reverence for natures influence on human life, the passage of time, and the use of light and dark to convey balanced energy - evoking both mystery and clarity in their representations of the world.
Though their subjects vary, their art resonates with a unified respect for the world around them, bridging the gap between personal reflection and a broader, immersive connection to nature.
Hannah Wheeler
Hannah’s work reflects the unique perspective shaped by her teenage years living off-grid, where growing up by candlelight had a profound influence on her art.
High contrast portraiture makes up a large proportion of her work, and she has previously worked with private clients in Zurich and Bern using portraits in conjunction with therapy.
She explores emotional intimacy and the subtlety of making personal connections.
By removing people from their modern surroundings and placing them into a darker setting, these characters raise and answer questions through composition, narrative, and symbolism without the context of time or place.
Away from the portraiture, Hannah still likes to keep the high contrast; keeping her compositions simple, intimate and authentic, allowing the imperfections and layers of the process to be part of the finished product.
Wabi-sabi - the Japanese art of seeing the beauty in a naturally imperfect and transient world - is a philosophy that runs through her life and work.
Hannah has exhibited at Castle Fine Art in Mayfair, as part of the London Invitational. She lives and works in the middle of Bude, tucked away in her attic studio working almost exclusively in oil paints on wood panels.
Find out more:
https://www.hannahwheelerart.co.uk
Natalie Day
Natalie’s process begins with an experience of the land, a ritual of observing, connecting and gathering. What is under her feet becomes her palette, as the natural pigments allow her to form a tangible connection with the site.
She captures these experiences and views with rapid sketches, filtering what is most important in that fleeting moment.
Inspired by the multi-viewpoint approach of Peter Lanyon, the energy and freedom of the abstract expressionists, and the great Sublime, Natalie combines observation and experience with aerial, cross-sectional and imagined views to abstract the landscape whilst provoking a sense of the familiar.
Hand-processing the gathered pigments creates an opening into the painting and an antidote to the desire for instant gratification, reconnecting her to much forgotten knowledge of working with the land - a symbiotic relationship with natural resources, respectful and harmonious.
Natalie lives and works in Bude and is often seen out on the cliffs or moors with her sketch kit. Her long paper roll drawings, started on location, are reimagined on huge canvasses back in her studio. She had a major solo show at the Royal Cornwall Museum in 2023 where she showcased her largest work to date in the Philbrick Gallery.
Find out more:
Sue Read
With the sound of the sea as a constant, Sue lives her life with the rhythms of the ocean.
With a curious engaging mind searching for something ‘other’ in the air and the feeling of being alive, she embraces the pure exhilaration of being in salt water, watching the dancing light, diving under and riding a wave.
The very essence of the ocean is captured in her paintings. On linen canvas and birch ply boards, she weaves colour, line and texture in layer upon layer capturing the unique weather, light and spirit of her native North Cornwall.
Her work embodies the feminine spirit, full of grace, softness and light.
We are all seeking ways to engage with nature and relieve stress. It seems Sue has found the answer in wave watching, observing the ever-changing weather and becoming totally absorbed in the landscape she knows so well.
Sue featured on Rick Steins Cornwall two years ago and her work is internationally collected. She works from a barn studio just outside of Bude on the farm where she was born. Paintings are often started in situ and further worked on in the studio with a variety of materials and inventive mark marking.
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