Artists gathering at The Old School, Newton Purcell in July 2022

Miranda began the charity event Artists in the Countryside 5 years ago having discovered the joy of drawing and painting at Buckingham Art School. She now produces work in a variety of mediums inspired by the natural landscape of England and the South of France. She says "Painting is a daily joy and a guilty pleasure, I cannot imagine life without it"

Telephone: 07768 404529

Photography has been a hobby for Graham from the dawn of the digital camera. He has progressed from a 1 megapixel camera in the early days to now using some of the best Canon equipment. Graham's background in horticulture has led him to appreciate and photograph plants, landscapes and wildlife. Using creative techniques to create bokeh that set off the main subject. 

Graham is a professional picture framer and founder of Dragonfly Framing in Bicester. Alongside his framing he is a very keen photographer of the natural world and spends much of his free time visiting the UK countryside and capturing its beauty. As well as exhibiting and selling his own work Graham has founded Bicester Art Network where he promotes artists of all ages and abilities. Together with Miranda Markham they organise a series of pop up art galleries across the county whether as part of the town centre regeneration or simply to bring together events such as Artist In the Countryside. Graham is the Bicester Coordinator for Oxfordshire Art Weeks which brings together artists from the Bicester area and will be held for 3 weeks in the Town’s Sheep Street.

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Website:  https://dragonflyframing.co.uk 

Tel: 07889 971629

I enjoy painting in all types of medium but my main love would be oils. A lot of my pictures are based on holidays or the countryside where I am very lucky to live. I have a selection of slate coasters that I have painted various objects on, from bees to a pint of Guinness! I have also painted some slate tapas and cheeseboards. 

 I studied art at school but only seriously took it up 12 years ago when I joined the mixed media class at Buckingham Art School. My art teachers were a great inspiration to me and pushed me to do try things I would never have done on my own. A lot of my early works were based around my family and home life but art school made be branch out further. Two years ago I started painting on slate coasters, in watercolour and then varnished them to make them water proof, these have been hugely popular! I have also painted on slate tapas and cheeseboards. 

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Website: https://www.ic-art.co.uk

Tel: 07834 042516

 A mix of styles, experiments and creativity.

Barry left school at 16 and went to art college where he completed a BTech Diploma in Visual Communication that covered illustration, graphic design, photography and exhibition design.
He soon found that his particular love was illustration so he concentrated on that in his second year.However, it wasn’t easy finding work out in the real world and he took on a succession of jobs, ending up in the working for the past 28 years in the EPOS/IT industry.
However, the art bug never went away and, about 15 years ago, Barry started to draw again as a form of relaxation. He played around with a variety of styles and media before discovering pastels.
Barry is constantly pushing the pastels to their limits and experimenting with various techniques to get the most out of the wonderful medium. But, when a break is needed from the pastels, he will also dabble with oils, acrylics and pen & ink.

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Website: www.barrymiller.co.uk

In the last 18 months, I have exclusively created my art using Digital Technology, which started unexpectedly when my 13-year-old installed a sketching App on my iPad.  

Most of my latest work is devoted to the theme of nature, with scenes that paradoxically evoke at times a sense of tranquillity and peace and other times power and drama. My art is printed in various sizes and presented on canvas or on quality paper, mounted and framed. 

Although I still love creating children art theme using bold and vivid colours, I have thrown myself into digital painting atmospheric landscapes and seascapes, often inspired by photographs taken in France and the UK. 

Since starting exhibiting and selling my art in 2018, I have been using a variety of mediums including mixed medium: acrylic/collage and also watercolour but during lockdown, digital technology opened up new doors. I am self-taught and love experimenting; my approach to art is simple: “give it a try and see where it takes you”. This transpires in my latest pieces which could not be any further from where I started: art for children versus landscapes/Still Life and sometimes dramatic sceneries.
I am French and have been living in Oxfordshire for 30 years.

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Website: http://artykiddy.com 

I am an impressionistic / expressionistic / abstract landscape acrylic painter. always pushing to delve deeper into the medium and colour use, as well as the subject matter or thoughts relating to it.

Karen originally trained and worked as a commercial picture restorer, and in so doing got inspired to go to art college as a slightly mature student. Here I mainly worked with print medium, really loving the process. I then got married and while my family grew up I returned to working from home for several galleries as a picture restore - I'm afraid safe money was needed, as our main income was from training and keeping horses at livery on our farm, -a far cry from the art scene I had been involved in during my time in London. Once the family grew up, It was then that painting for myself began calling me back. I started using watercolour for several years which taught me a lot about the various aspects and details of art making, but having discovered acrylic as a medium, I knew immediately I had found what I needed, to start producing the work that was inside me. The freedom, immediacy and such total versality of this medium is just wonderful.

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Website: http://www.karenjoyart.weebly.com

Tel: 07808 137322

Michelle's interest in art and especially in ceramics, has been lifelong. She pursued this interest at St Albans School of Art completing a Post Graduate Diploma in Art Therapy and at the University of Hertfordshire achieving a degree in Fine Art. Michelle worked as an Art Teacher in several Buckinghamshire Schools until retiring in 2016, and occasionally still runs workshops for children and adults.
Here group memberships include the Bicester Sculpture Group and the Oxford Sculptors Group with whom she exhibits. Michelle is also a member of the Buckinghamshire Art Society. She regularly takes part in the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Artweeks.
Michelle enjoys working in a wide range of materials including clay, wire, cement, resin and bronze.
Her interests centre mainly on the human form and the human face through where she explores emotions and relationships. Michelle loves wildlife too and enjoy making animal models.

Website: http://www.greenesculpture.com

I am inspired by countryside walks and the changes in weather and season upon the landscape and enjoy translating these scenic discoveries into colourful linocuts. Themes for my work include trees, water and flowers and more recently a trip to Japan. My work is impressionistic in style; I’m interested in colour, light, depth and detail. Most of my prints are reduction linocuts which are relief prints formed with layers of colour which are cut and printed from the same block of lino, destroying the block in the process. I create a small, limited edition of every work, as each piece is created by hand, variations make each one original. Every print is numbered, titled and signed at the bottom.

I’ve been a full-time printmaker since 2012 when I moved to Bicester and created a simple printmaking studio at home so that I could develop my skills to the highest standards.
I am a best seller on the Artfinder online marketplace and my linocuts have been displayed at the Royal Academy, the Bankside Gallery and Mall Galleries in London. My work sells to collectors across the UK and internationally.
I teach group lino cutting workshops at the phoenix Studio in Towersey and other venues. Check my website for upcoming courses for adults at Stowe School.

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Website: https://www.alexandrabuckle.co.uk/

Casimira describes her artwork as quirky, colourful and naive. Her artwork is often described as lowriesque but is often varied and she tends not to stick to one particular style but is influenced by many different other artists and situations. 

She loves to paint colourful animals in a fun and cheerful style often with a bumble bee goading the animal. She loves to use collage on her large canvas paintings using stamps and painted sheet music and sometimes embroidering on to the artwork. She has brought out a range of products from her artwork such as teatowels, coasters, chopping boards, tote bags etc. Casimira is happy to undertake commissions.

 Casimira has been painting for over 10 years as a full time artist when it started over 10 years ago when she was forced to give up work as an Assistant Manager for Helen and Douglas house in the Charity sector. She started selling her work on the internet and was pleasantly surprised to see her artwork selling which gave her the confidence to continue and develop her style. In 2012 she produced and range of greeting cards of Oxford and some of quirky colourful hares and took them to Annies Tearooms in Thrupp, Oxfordshire where they were well received and she has been selling them there ever since. She now has a much larger range including many colourful animal greeting cards as well as other items she sells from her artwork. In 2021 she was asked to paint a piano for Bicester Festival and the theme was Sea/See Change. The piano can be seen and played in Pioneer Square at the Ex servicemens club in Bicester and has been played by many and the children in particular love to go and play.

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Website: http://www.casimirasquirkyart.com

Mobile: 07923 869512

I work solely with high quality lightfast coloured pencils, producing my artwork on archival papers/film.

 I have mainly worked on commissions/pet portraits. The challenge of trying to capture the essence of someone’s pet, in most cases purely from a photograph, is something I enjoy. However more recently I have taken time out to draw a variety of subjects and as you will see from my work, I enjoy nature and the countryside/coast.

This is a relatively slow medium, involving many fine layers. However I find the process very calming it's my 'Yoga with Pencils'Born and bred in Morecambe, Lancashire, I have been living in Oxfordshire for almost 30 years.
I am completely self taught and didn’t start this amazing journey until mid-2018 following the death of my father. I was inspired by a cala lily on a condolence card I had received, it was a bit of a ‘on a scrap of paper sketch’ and I was surprised how it turned out. I continued to draw with graphite pencils for a few months but then life got in the way.

2020 and I found myself furloughed. I saw the opportunity to pick up pencils again but this time I changed to coloured pencil. After a short while I was being asked to draw people's pets. Taking time out from portraits this year has allowed me to explore different techniques and surfaces. It has also given me the freedom to challenge myself with some very different pieces.

This is my first year exhibiting my work and I am very excited to be doing so.

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Tel: 07506 571573

I make fun, functional pots for use around the home. I began pottery classes when I retired and it has become almost an obsession. I particularly enjoy throwing - seeing a shape appear from a lump of clay as it rotates on a wheel. I continue to learn, making my pieces thinner and lighter. Glazes often don't turn out as expected - sometimes serandipity makes them lovely.

I use a palette of blues/greens and grey with the odd splash of pink! Everything I make - bowls, mugs, jugs, vases and other ornaments.I have always loved pots and pottery. I bought my first little vase at the Leach pottery in St Ives on a family holiday when I was seven. Since then I've bought more pots and begun to learn how to make my own. I initially trained as a biologist in plant genetics and then spent several years doing research before moving into teaching. This means I ask a lot of questions and should find understanding the technical side of ceramics quite easy but I am not sure I do.

I have been lucky to have good, patient teachers: Ros Collett, Jane Hanson and Graham Hudson and have been on a couple of specialist porcelain throwing courses with Sylph Baier and at Kigbeare.
I was involved with the Oxford Anagama project for a while.
Outlets
Charterville Horticultural Therapy, Cutteslowe Park
Etsy On-line shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/VivsPots
Crafter's Emporium Oxford

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After years of working with stoneware clay, attending a workshop run by Dylan and Jane Bowen in 2021 helped to direct my thinking towards a looser, more spontaneous and fun use of clay and slip work. I have since adapted Mary Wondrausch’s clear approach to the making of slipware in the 20th century, to my own working practices. I journeyed into 17th century Tudor slipware techniques, experimenting with painterly designs and mark making, admiring 17th century work by Thomas Toft and contemporary, distinguished slipware artists such as Doug Fitch, Hannah McAndrew, Clive Bowen and Dylan Bowen. More recently, my ideas have included whimsical, dancing jugs made from several components and inspired by the shape of Walter Keeler’s extruded jugs together with the unconventional slipware work of the late Simon Carroll. Together these influences have inspired new work in a series of dancing and smiling ‘Smug jugs’ made in the slipware tradition but with a contemporary, quirky feel.

My love of 3D art and crafts was parked whilst I followed a 20 year career and education in academic medical and health sciences. I rekindled the passion when I was made redundant and took early retirement in 2017. Each of the subsequent years have been significantly marked in a learning curve towards becoming a competent potter. More recently, my approach to pottery making is more relaxed in a way that appreciates the old, the used and the imperfections of the process of making. I am interested in how other people relate to these imperfections and how they imagine it in their own homes. Different reactions depend on why they want, or don’t want, pottery in their lives or what they want it for. I am particularly happy to work in a terracotta, earthenware clay which is reminiscent of ancient pots made thousands of years ago but of particular interest are the slipware designs of the 17th century. I have a collection of contemporary stoneware and porcelain vessels too.

With an intuitive understanding of her subjects. Chloe's work is painted with empathy, the work shows emotion through the power of brush strokes, movements and with use of interesting textures to enhance the composition. Her ability to spark the soul of the animal and to translate this into the paint is why she is becoming known worldwide for her work. by using a wide range of natural materials such as real gold, diamonds, real flowers and crystals the works aim to enhance the connection we have to the world and animals around us.

Chloe is a contemporary British artist, with an established international client base with collectors far and wide. Working to bring a connection by interpreting emotive issues our wildlife faces in conservation, climate change and endangered species.
I like to look at nature for inspiration, a lot of people instantly think of brown or green! I like to use oversaturated or bright colours, NASA images are a huge inspiration with no two images being the same from satellite images to the Hubble telescope images. Colour really sparks emotion, so the use of colour is another way for my viewer to interact with the subject, plus it's incredibly fun to look at.
I have dreams, often over and over again until I create the piece or I have will have a vision which I must draw out in my phone notes app with a strong sense of urgency to create it.
I also read a lot and I'm always curious! science, botanicals and natural history play a big role in my work. I want to bring a connection and awareness.

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Tel: 07393186589

Website: http://www.chloebrowart.com