Sarah Castle

Sarah has lived and worked in Swerford for twenty years, and finds inspiration for her pictures in the beautiful countryside close at hand. In her landscapes she tries to convey an atmosphere which is unique to that place on that particular day.

Ash Hill

Sarah Castle

Her work which covers a wide variety of subjects, has been included in mixed shows in the London area, including the Mall Galleries. She has also been a regular exhibitor at Oxfordshire Artweeks over the years. Sarah paints in oils but has recently been experimenting with lino cuts which she hopes to develop further in the future.

Email: get.castle@btinternet.com
Web: More information

Pears

Charlotte Douglass Artist in Glass

Charlotte Douglass has lived in Swerford since the spring of 1989. Her main focus is on kiln-formed glass. She is fascinated by the qualities of colour and light, and the silvery glow of the bubbles, and the paradoxically soft feel of the polished glass. All her current work is kiln-formed. Each piece is individual and unique, formed in a plaster and quartz mould in the kiln. Making the necessary moulds is a complex and time- consuming process, and firing is followed by intensive work polishing, finishing and presenting the final pieces.

Charlotte Douglass Artist in Glass

Charlotte has exhibited several times in Swerford Village Hall, mainly as part of Oxfordshire Art Weeks, showing watercolours and photographs as well as glass pieces, and at Chastleton House for which she made a piece especially designed for the long gallery.

Email: Charlotte.Douglass@care4free.net

Richard McLellan

Richard has been working in wood for over 25 years as furniture maker, restorer,carpenter, joiner, designer and co-creator, and has lived in Swerford for all of that time.

He uses a lot of native hardwoods in his work and occasionally materials from further afield, but it is becoming increasingly important to him to use timber from truly sustainable soures - not just paying lip service to the idea.

Richard McLellan

Inspiration comes from many sources; sometimes a backward glance, sometimes sideways, sometimes a chance remark takes him in a particular direction though the outcome may be uncertain.

He has found that his best and most satisfying projects have been co- creations, where working together can draw out a half- formed idea and give it life and meaning.
Email: richard2.mclellan@virgin.net

Potato Town

John Callen and his partner, artist Pam Franklin and their two children have lived at Potato Town, Swerford for ten years. John trained at the John Makepeace school for furniture design in Dorset.

John designs and makes furniture to commission often combining timber with other materials such as glass and stainless steel. He has recently set up a company called Doodlespace with fellow furniture designer Ashley Cartwright which builds environmentally friendly green oak garden rooms.
Email: john@potatotown.co.uk
Web: Doodlespace website

John Callen

Potato Town

Pam Franklin

Pam lives with her partner John in the cottage attached to the studios in Swerford converted by the Great Tew Estate in 1996 with a rural development grant. Following her MA in Fine Art at Coventry, she was taken up by the Bruton Street Gallery in London in 1999.

Her work is unusual in that its source of inspiration is art history and the Renaissance period. The result is a form of abstraction that has great depth and richness.

Pam Franklin

Potato Town

Of late she has started to juxtapose her work alongside the original starting points as the image here shows.Recent work uses commercially produced flock wallpaper and paper cutouts.

To see more of Pam's work go to her website via the link below, or visit the Potato Town site.(See below Keith Lobban)
Email: pam@potatotown.co.uk
Web: Pam's website

Pam Franklin

Potato Town

Keith Lobban who also trained at the John Makepeace school for furniture design runs his furniture business from the Potato Town workshops.

Keith works to commission and the photograph here was for an eco-house which was short- listed for the prestigious Stirling Prize for Architecture. He is increasingly interested in green furniture and the viability of using locally sourced timber.

More of the work of all the Potato Town artists can be seen by visiting the website below.
Email: keith@potatotown.co.uk
Web: PotatoTown's website

Keith Lobban

Jeffrey Pratt

Jeffrey Pratt has lived in Swerford for fifteen years and simply loves to paint, travel and celebrate colour. A deep, deep desire to paint propels him despite families and financial distractions to create gardens, lakes, sculptures - anything and everything.

Nick Wiggins Sheep at Foxhill

Jeffrey Pratt

To paint direct from life under the sky here and everywhere is his best link to the universe and leads him closer to a happy state of "infinite interconnectedness".

To see more of Jeffrey's work either go to his website via the link below or telephone him to arrange a visit to his studio.
Tel: 01608 737 253
Web: Jeffrey's website

Jeffrey's Lily Lake at Foxhill