OVADA Associates Feature Artist: Gayle Payne
Introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your practice
I am an artist and art teacher at Reading College and I live in Didcot, Oxfordshire. I think the term that best describes my work is abstract expressionist figure. This mostly takes the form of oil paintings.
My degree in visual performance is something that underpins my artwork in the way that I approach making and why. I often think of my work as process art, and unseen performances.
I started painting full time in 2017 as I became a full time parent carer to a neurodivergent child who had great difficulty fitting into the secondary school setting. It sparked a fast decline in mental well being for the child. All of my work springs from this time as a response and an effort to process the unimaginable, unreasonable and what seemed unreal. My work weaves in and out of the themes that arose from being thrown in the middle of hostile society constructs.
OVADA Associates Feature Artist: Rachel Dixon
Introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your practice
I'm Rachel aka @monkey_on_the_street. I create street photography, collage and street art. And combinations of all 3.
What are you currently working on?
At the moment it seems to be collaging faces - creating characters. And putting my collages out on the street as stickers. I’ve also been spray painting more bananas - I leave these out on the street with my tag. Each batch of bananas has a theme and a colour: Hope, January Blues, Love, Weapons of Peace and Laughter, Bananas not Bombs. It’s always interesting to catch people interacting with them or sending me a message about their reaction.
OVADA Associates Feature Artist: David Barron
I've done quite a few jobs in the my life, including working with Vietnamese refugees, being a social worker, and, most recently, working as university academic in the field of sociology. My artistic practice, which I am now working on full time, mainly involves drawing and printmaking.
As a sociologist, I'm interested in the ways in which various forms of social interaction come about and what their effects are. In particular, I'm interested in cooperative and mutualistic interactions, which I think get too little attention compared to competitive interactions despite their being vital. One way I have incorporated this into my artistic practice is via work involving the natural world, where we are only now beginning to understand the vital importance of such interactions, for example in forests. This is interesting in itself, but is also a useful metaphor and model for human societies.
OVADA Associates Feature Artist: Lizzie Shannon-Little
I’m an abstract painter and mixed media artist. My works are explorations in connection and identity, colour and bold mark making. My art is vibrant, playful, and kinetic.
An intuitive use of bold colour is central to my practice. I constantly experiment with different materials, including acrylics, inks, collage, textiles, found objects, and even glitter! Through the applications of layers and both intentional and instinctive marks, the composition of my works evolve as part of my creative process, producing distinctive textured surfaces that are both fluid and dynamic.
OVADA Associates Feature Artist: Asma M Hashmi
As an artist and educator based in Oxford, I primarily work in printmaking, which I studied for my Master of Fine Arts degree. I also delve into installations and sculpture as part of my artistic practice. My work is centered around the various aspects of being a woman and a woman of South Asian descent. I examine the ways in which we view our own bodies and how these views are influenced by others. As a woman and immigrant, my experiences of occupying spaces, both architectural and otherwise, play a major role in my art. I delve into how we perceive ourselves and how much of our true selves we are able to maintain as we navigate new environments and adapt to new surroundings. The theme of movement and belonging also feature prominently in my work.
OVADA Associates Feature Artist: Louise Shaw
I live in central Henley on Thames. Interestingly, a town was suffocating in my teenage years that has ended up enabling the life I choose and reconnected the river in me.
OVADA Associates Feature Artist: Karima Brooke
My name is Karima Brooke. I did a Foundation Year in Leamington Spa and then had children very young and didn’t go back to art school until my mid-30s. I did a brilliant course at Coventry Poly, Craft Materials and Design, where I specialised in textiles. In the past, my practice was rather sporadic, due to the need to earn a living, but I’ve been doing a lot more in the past 10 years.
OVADA Associates Feature Artist: Wig Sayell
I live and work in North Oxfordshire. I studied Fine Art many years ago, and I still work within its loose framework, experimenting with various media, including: film; experimental digital and analogue photography; drawing; mixed media.
OVADA Associates Feature Artist: Rhiannon Evans
I live in North Oxfordshire and I came to artistic practice late and almost by accident. My professional background is in botanical science and I developed my interest in making art when unable to follow my previous passion, cyclesport, because of family and work commitments. I started drawing and painting for a couple of hours a week on a beginners course at a local Arts Centre (with a creche) and found that it gave me something of the same buzz!
OVADA Associates Feature Artist: Clare Carswell
I am a mid career British/Irish artist. I trained in Fine Art Printmaking in the 1980’s. My first degree was from Norwich School of Art and my MA from the Royal College of Art.
I make performance work and use strategies of play, comedy and improvisation in works that are open to situation and moment.
OVADA Associates Feature Artist: Annie Rapstoff
I have lived in Oxfordshire since meeting my partner and moving from London, we live with our two cats on the edge of a small town 15 miles from Oxford. I have nature on my doorstep, which keeps me grounded and feeds my practice, I value walking and the space to think and play with ideas. Moving out of London was a massive change and I was initially resistant, I now realise how much space and quiet are what I need in my in life and in my practice.
OVADA Associates Feature Artist: Cally Trench
I work in a variety of ways depending on what outcome the idea seems to require.
My original playable board games explore social and economic problems in ways that allow the players to empathise and engage without getting caught up in right/wrong arguments. These games are brought to life and completed by the players. They are also fun.
OVADA Associates Feature Artist: Katie Hellon
I have lived in Oxfordshire since 2008. I went to California College of Art in Oakland where I did a BA in graphic design and worked in San Francisco until returning to the UK and learning the practise of mosaic making. I then worked in London as a mosaicist on large private and public commissions and created my own work for exhibitions.
OVADA Associates Feature Artist: Imogen Rigden
I am based in Oxfordshire but can work wherever I find myself at any time. When not in Oxford I generally stay in the Spey Valley in the Highlands or on a small peninsular in North Finistère called Le Diben. I have very busy times when I am producing work to show, interspersed with thinking and learning periods, which are crucial and which are my favourite times.
OVADA Associates Feature Artist: Juliet Bankes
I live near Banbury North Oxfordshire. Five years ago I graduated from Camberwell College of Arts with a Masters in Fine Art Printmaking and then went on to join the OVADA Warehouse Art School (WAS) for three years on their ‘continuing practice’ course.