Meet the Artists
These Kent artists have freely contributed their talents skills and insights and their efforts are greatly appreciated.
Their paintings are displayed in this intriguing exhibition of Spirit Animals.
Ionut Bertea
Ionut Bertea is a contemporary printmaker known for his soft-lino and composite relief prints, often inspired by nature, plants, animals, and occasional urban scenes.
He primarily works with soft-lino in his printmaking, creating composite relief prints using light-fast, oil-based inks on Japanese printing papers.
Ionut's work frequently draws inspiration from the beauty of plants, flowers, and animals in their natural habitats, while also sometimes reflecting buildings, modern life, and people.
Through his distinctive use of soft-lino and natural inspirations, Ionut continues to contribute creatively to contemporary printmaking with an engaging and nature-driven approach.
Contact: artrethinked@outlook.com
Kit Boyd A.R.E.
Kit developed a love for the British romantic tradition while at Aberystwyth University and his work has matured into an exploration of nature as a refuge from the modern world.
His etchings and linocuts are an ode to the pastoral idyll taking viewers down winding paths into distant dreamlike places.
A mix of both surrealism and realism, the richness of his tinted and hand-coloured prints enable the viewer to see beyond a typical appreciation of the world.
Kit is an Associate member of the Royal Society of Painter Printmakers and has work in the colections of the Victoria and Albert Museum. He has recently made posters for the six train stations on Kent Darent Valley line between Sevenoaks and Swanley, and her has made four linocuts for James Fox's bestseller Craftland, published in September 2025 ​
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Contact: www.kitboyd.com
Paul Bryan
Paul is principally a figurative painter and works exclusively in oils.
He trained and worked as a furniture and product designer, later running his own company producing designs and illustrations for prominent interior designers in and around London.
With a love of art he spent many years attending life drawing classes, and more recently painting classes at the Heatherley’s School of Fine Art.
In his work he strives to achieve images with a twist or emphasis that brings out the hint of a story in each picture.
Contact: paulbryan6720@gmail.com
Victoria Couves-Sheridan
Victoria has specialised in portraiture but also undertaken a wide variety of commissions, and has contributed to many exhibitions and was briefly Resident Artist in a Kent art gallery.
Victoria has largely painted by commission and expanded into book illustration and stationery design.
Having retired, she decided she wanted to explore her own artistic interests more and she has previously contributed to the Come Eat With Me installation exhibition organised by Spirt Arts which was on display at both Rochester Cathedral and Lincoln Cathedral.
Her current contribution to this exhibition of Spirit Animals in the Bible is a horse and the exhibition is a celebration of the important roles animals have both in practical everyday life, and in their symbolism in religious and spiritual art..
Contact: victoriasheridan1@gmail.com
Photographer: Tina Chatfield
Abigail Elwell-Sutton
Abigail trained in Fine Art at the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design (BA Hons). She spent several years at Sotheby’s Institute of Art London co-ordinating their MA Contemporary Art programme. She now lives and works in Rainham, Kent with her husband and two children.
Abigail's creative process starts with photography, capturing a fleeting moment in the natural world. She then spotlights the most interesting shapes, often focusing on negative space or stark, contrasting shadows to inspire her own block colour interpretation.
Abigail’s paintings shine a fresh light on the colours, spaces and patterns that nature produces so effortlessly
Contact: abi.ailsa.art@gmail.com
Janice Emmott
Janice has been painting and drawing for over 20 years and printing more recently. She especially enjoys painting and printing onto fabric. Projects have included murals for residential homes, panels for the 'Swanscombe Quilt' (part of an environmental campaign to save local marshes) and animal alphabet books, mainly linocut and monoprint, for children in her own family. Her work featured in the exhibition Come Eat with Me at Rochester and Lincoln cathedrals. She has been the liaison person for the current exhibition Spirit Animals as a contributing artist.
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Contact: jan.emmott@btinternet.com
Photographer: Rikard Osterlund 2022
Jane Furst - Artistic Director
Jane graduated form the Royal College of Art in 1970. In 50 years practicing as an artist she has illustrated book covers for Virago and the Women's Press.
She has been a visiting lecturer in London art institutions for 34 years, had 18 solo exhibitions and participated in 20 group exhibitions such as the Royal Watercolour Society.
For the last 15 years Jane has concentrated on print making using techniques of Mezzotint and Drypoint. Some of Jane's Mezzotints are held in the V&A London, the Welcome Collections and the Ernst Haeckel House, Jena University, Germany.
Contact: www.janefurst.com
Irene Godfrey
Irene was born in the North Pennines and now lives in Kent. She trained at the Cass School of Art, London (BA Fine Art, 2012).
Exhibitions include: Not Just a Postcard (with Maggie Learmonth in Cumbria in which they investigated the perceived value of land) and The Wave of Wings II (with Marie Graesen in Burham, Kent which was an imaginal response to today's world).
Irene's work is currently in the London Metropolitan University collection and private collections across the UK.
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Contact: www.irenegodfrey.uk.
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Heather Haythornthwaite
Heather Haythornthwaite is an experienced printmaker, exhibiting artist and art teacher, She owns and runs The Hazelnut Press from her studio in Rochester, Kent. Heather’s work explores histories embedded within local landscapes and personal experiences.
With her more personal work which records traces of personal memories a broader sense of social and historical memories can be evoked. Heather is fascinated by the transitory nature of known environments, the stories that exist within the evolving urban environments.
Contact: info@hazelnut-press.com
Brian Homewood
At age 15, Brian began painting in adult evening classes under the late Chris Alexander and was inspired to attend Heatherley School of Fine Art in order to study life drawing, portraiture, and sculpture.
Still in his teens he spent the late 1960’s backpacking around South Africa spending a year at 20th Century Fox painting scenery.
Brian married at age 22 and spent 35 years running the family business in Margate until he took early retirement,
specifically in order to pursue a painting career.
Although he takes commissions, Brian generally, paints for himself and enjoys landscapes, still life, figure studies, abstracts, and has had several exhibitions.
Alongside his painting, Brian also enjoys curating and running the annual Thanet Young Artists Festival.
Brian was also shortlisted for the BP Portrait Awards at the National Portrait Gallery.
Contact: brianchomewood@gmail.com
John Hughes
John graduated in Fine Art from Ravensbourne College of Art, then worked as an art teacher for several years in Kent and Sussex.
He left to concentrate on his own painting and to teach adult art classes. John's paintings are landscapes in oil and pastel, with figurative painting too.
More recently. John has shown at the RA Summer Exhibition, at the Mall Gallery with the RBA, the Pastel Society, and the Society of Landscape Painters, as well as a number of commercial galleries in London and the South East.
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Contact: johnhughes.ben@gmail,com​​​
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Paul Jerome
Paul studied art as part of his degree in communications at edge Hill College in Lancashire. Paul specialised in textile design and printmaking.
After a long break, Paul returned to printmaking in 2013, rediscovering a love of lino cutting and relief printing techniques.
His work, often in one or two colours, reflects his interest in British folklore and countryside traditions.
Paul exhibits regularly and is a member of Medway Fine Printmakers based at Intra Arts, Community Art Space in Rochester, Kent.
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Contact: pauljohnjerome@yahoo.co.uk
Elizabeth Mellen
Elizabeth Mellen is a widely experienced art curator, fundraising professional, writer and educator. She has been employment and has overseen many projects with Royal Academy of Arts, London School of Economics, Cordwainers College (University of the Arts), Estorick Collection, International Contemporary Arts, Institute for International Arts Festivals (Geneva), V&A, Fitzwilliam Museum, Kettles Yard, National Trust, National Art-Collections Fund, Poetry Society and others.
Contact: elizamel0000@yahoo.co.uk​​​
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Jennifer Miles
Jennifer Miles achieved an MA in Children’s Book Illustration in 2008 and worked as an illustrator for many years including for major publishing houses in the UK, US and Europe. Then during lockdown, she decided to indulge her passion for drawing and painting the natural world full time.
Inspired by Japanese art and Victorian illustrators, Jennifer paints the animals that inspire her and she explores the detail of their feathers, fur and scales, and the plants, skies and water of their natural environment.
Jennifer‘s work is highly decorative and features the rich hues of pigment heavy watercolour paint with the luxury of 24 carat gold and platinum leaf.
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Contact: jen@jennifer-miles.com​​​
Simon Mills
Simon Mills attended Art School where, influenced by the work of David Bomberg and Frank Auerbach, he focused on primarily on landscapes with some cityscapes, architectural subjects, and portraiture. As a commercial artist, he painted portraits of several famous people, including Gary Lineker, Jim Broadbent, and Ian Carmichael.
Simon has exhibited in many prestigious galleries and was Senior Scenic Artist at the Royal Opera House where he worked on set design for performances by Fonteyn and Nureyev with John Caxton. Whilst living in Italy, Simon restored wall paintings and frescos in villas and palazzi but since moving to Kent he has often shown his landscapes of the Downs, Medway estuary and surrounding countryside.
Contact: simonmills@dr.com
Bronach Rae
Bronach is a collage artist who creates unique pieces from her own photographs. She is an avid walker and her source material is gleaned for the sites she has visited and photographed.
Using these photographs she deconstructs the images to create a new and sometimes challenging view of her world.
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Contact: bronachrae@yahoo.com
Randa Saab
Randa holds a master’s degree in business studies (MBA) from the American University of Business Studies in Beirut and has held management roles in multiple industries.
In 2016, Randa decided to pursue her interest in the Arts and Humanities studying via an Access course at the University of Kent/ After which, she went on to achieve a BA in Fine Arts at the Lebanese University in Beirut. Randa continued developing her skills by studying sculpture, Art Critique and History of Art.
Randa believes Art is the utmost expression of humanity and a refinement of the human soul. She enjoys painting still life, landscape, figurative art and portraiture. Randa also enjoys sculpture, installation, icon painting and textile art.
Contact: randasaabart@outlook.com
Claire Shackleton
Claire Shackleton is inspired by the natural world and a sense of the sacred in our ordinary/extraordinary lives. Above all inspiration has come from
walking in the beauty of the lake district with its ever-changing weather for phenomena.
Her creative life has undergone many metamorphoses including painting, print work, sacred geometry, and others .
Touched by brief glimpses beyond the veil, Claire hopes that this sense of spirit carries through into her art.
This is her first icon painting.
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Contact: claireshack57@gmail.com
Hanna-Leena Ward
As an interior architect, Hanna researched and specialised in the interior architecture, Sacred Art and Geometry in Churches.
She became a professional Iconographer, Illuminator, and Manuscript painter, and for over 20 years has undertaken commissions, using traditional methods with natural and semi-precious pigments on a variety of traditional surfaces, for churches, private chapels and private collectors around the world.
Hanna also teaches sacred geometry, folk art, and icon painting in prestigious art schools in London, Spain and in Finland, her and exhibits annually, in a variety of Cathedrals in the UK and abroad.
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Contact: info@hannawardicons.com