Julian Lovegrove

My parents lived in Bromley, Kent where I grew up. My father was an architect and mother an art teacher, who founded the Shortlands Studios. Our resident artist was Peter Midgley RCA. His studio was in our home, alongside the pottery.

I went off to the City to earn "an honest fortune' in Banking and Finance and returned to creative art in 1996. I established an Antique Shop and Gallery in West Malling. After moving to Broadstairs, I became a 'plein air' painter of landscapes and seascapes. I can usually be found in the corner of a muddy field or boatyard. Often perched precariously on the rocks, until darkness or rain takes over.

My inspiration comes in the light and changes in the weather. I admire the work of Hercules Brabazon, John Singer Sergeant, Edward Seago and the French Impressionists.

As a Cultural Ambassador for the Turner Contemporary Gallery and an elected member of the East Kent Art Society I am able to support the local artistic community.  I have represented England at Fabriano in Acquarello Italy.

Jeff Laurents

My Life

Education and the arts have been driving forces in my life for as long as I can remember. Being a people person, I am especially motivated to create works that bring pleasure and meaning to others. After taking a degree in Politics and Economics and a Postgraduate Certificate in Education, I taught in secondary, further and higher education.

Becoming interested in photography in the 1980's I took a part-time degree in Photography at the Polytechnic of Central London.  At the London College of Fashion I established a course in photography. I set up my own darkroom at home and for many years processed and printed my monochrome images.

After my retirement in 1997, I began to specialise in digital photography. Photographing local scenes in various regions in England, especially in Thanet and part of East Kent, but also in London.

I used to sing semi-professionally, and music continues to be a great source of enjoyment. I have lectured on Cinema for the British Film Institute. The histories of art and cinema feed my enjoyment and respect for the past.

In addition to my local scenes I create striking abstract images, landscapes, cityscapes and seascapes.  I have also published a volume of quirky and often dark short stories, "Mysterious Ways".  Written about 12 years ago, in a burst of creative energy, which included designing the cover.

My Work

I work in my studio to create my images. They are made into calendars, greetings cards, postcards and jigsaw puzzles. I printing many of my images, colour and monochrome, up to A2 size, on an Epson printer. I have also recently started to print canvas versions of some of my work. Various retail outlets and galleries stock my work and I sell online.

All my prints are digitally manipulated photographs derived from experimenting and transforming the scenes captured by my camera. A painterly representation is created.

I have painstakingly taught myself to use various software systems, including Adobe Photoshop. Spending hours exploring the amazing possibilities such software affords. As I work, I will reject any version of an image that fails to satisfy my appreciation of what constitutes an artwork. I believe that I have a good "eye" for art and will stand and fall by my works being approved by others.

My approach to image-making is less concerned with "realism", but more about using artifice to create images that please me, and will hopefully appeal to others. Intrigued by colour, line and texture, my influences include the Impressionists, the Fauves, Van Gogh and various film directors and movements.

Production methods

I photograph using a Fuji mirrorless camera system. My iPhone camera is really useful, given its extreme portability and the quality of the lenses.

I use an Epson Sure Colour SC-P900 printer to print my work as fine art Giclee prints.  Giclee prints are archival quality, museum-standard. The paper meets the highest print standards and is archival, acid and lignin free.

Nick Kelly

I was born in Whitstable, Kent in 1951. After a few enjoyable years travelling, I trained as a teacher, specialising in Drama and Media. Working as a volunteer teacher in Egypt with VSO in 1975, I began my love of Arabic and the Middle East. I took up a post in Qatar in 1977 where I continued to live for twenty-three years.  In 2000 I came back to the UK and worked as a freelance newsreader with the BBC World Service.  I now work at home in Whitstable, devoting my time to painting and writing. Single Man Dancing Alone is my second book, the sequel to The House of Fortune.

My paintings are mainly concerned with the coast. Having grown up by the sea in Whitstable, I find the sea a constant source of inspiration for my paintings. Over the last twenty years I have produced work that is both figurative and more impressionistic. Many of my larger canvases are towards the abstract. Very often I sketch by the sea and then when I'm back in the studio my imagination runs riot.

Lately I've been working on a series of pen and watercolour sketches from my walks around the Kent coast from the Isle of Sheppey to the border of Kent and East Sussex at Dungeness. I find myself drawn to the emptiness of deserted beaches, probably due to my earlier career in the Middle East and its vast deserts. Previously painting empty landscapes but now I include figures, perhaps only just one. I like exploring the relationship of the land and humanity from a single walker alone with his thoughts, to the mass gatherings of beach lovers at Margate and Broadstairs. It's all fascinating.

Michele Papageorghiou

Michele Papageorghiou – also known as Mrs P – has always had a passion for art and craft. During the August Summer Holidays she would usually undertake a project.  Whether it be mosaicking tables, (even the garage), making ceramics, fusing glass to make jewellery, or decorating garden objects.

Having retired from working as a local primary school teacher, Michele found time to enjoy Thanet’s beautiful scenery.  She was also able to undertake activities at a more leisurely pace, allowing her to experiment with alternative artistic styles.

Margate - Under the influence… (aka MUTI) was the first in Michele's series of local seascape paintings, paying homage to Van Gogh and Hokusai.

After receiving compliments from family and friends Michele plucked up the courage to approach her local gallery owners.   Sarah and Vivienne of Shoreline Partners provided impartial feedback and were enthusiastic about MUTI, and its potential appeal to others. Michele took the plunge and had her MUTI painting made into a greetings card.   Next came a giclee print which is available framed and unframed. MUTI prints and cards  are very popular with the galleries' clients.

Broadstairs (BUTI) and Westgate (WUTI) editions have now joined Michele's series of Under The Influence paintings.  With prints and cards available at Westgate Galleria and The Eclectic Art Gallery.  Also available online.

Michele is one of the resident group of artists exhibiting at The Eclectic Art Gallery.

Wilfred Jenkins

Wilfred is an autistic and deaf photographer who specialises in nature and wildlife. He lives in Westgate-on-Sea in Thanet in Kent, UK

Max Sheppard

I work with wood, predominantly found on local beaches and marshland.  I use other materials such as plastics and metal. My wall-based reliefs are abstract in appearance and often boxy and angular in design.  They are loosely based around my architecturally-inspired drawings.  I like the shape and condition when it comes to composition..  Other characteristics of the materials play a significant part in my direction. Though there is an architectural link with my methodical working technique, there is limited planning prior to constructing a piece, which I go about in quite an abstract manner. Paint and other artistic mediums are applied to select areas of the work, with coverage varying from piece to piece. The nature of the materials determine the colour palette to build a theme and achieve a balance or even intentional clash of man-made and natural.

John Wiltshire

Hello, I am 76 and I write children’s books. I moved to Westgate from Dartford 40 years ago. Before I retired I worked in St. Crispin’s Infant School as the caretaker for 16 years. It was while working there that I had this idea for a series of children’s stories set in an infant school. This idea then grew into what I now call The Mystery Door stories but it wasn’t until I retired that I really considered writing them.

Then like most people, I needed something to do during the recent lockdowns and I began to write my stories. My first book has now been published, and it is called The Mystery Door and The Magic Lamp. I have five other stories in this series and I do hope to get them all published some day.

Gem Blastock

Hi, I'm Gem Blastock, an artist based in Broadstairs, specialising in Pointillism and Screen Printing.

Using my own abundance of illustrations as the foundation to my print work, I draw inspiration from my surroundings and our native coastline. Through my unique skill of dot drawing I create powerful realistic illustrations, reflecting my own story of growing up on the Thanet Coast in Kent.  I also help raise awareness of our unique chalk coastline.

I have always been creative, since I was small and have had the urge to draw and paint. Remembering getting my first patterned rubber stamp set and soon becaming obsessed with arranging these stamps so the print patterns were in line, to then happily colour them in. This was the beginning of my journey in print and pattern, leading me to Bucks New University to study and graduate (in 2004) in Textiles Design, specialising in interior print design.

I have a small brand, Turquoise Gem Home, creating a range of environmentally conscious nostalgic home and giftware products through the power of hand-printing, which I am selling at Westgate Galleria.

Home is where the story begins.....

Nicola Taylor

Painting and the seaside have always been my passions. From a young age, I was happiest with a paintbrush in my hand or splashing about in the sea. I see the world around me in colour, shape and pattern. My paintings are vibrant because I have always admired bold and colourful art which catches your eye.

Beautiful coastlines provide perfect inspiration for my paintings. I live in between Margate and Broadstairs and have many beautiful bays on my doorstep. I am constantly inspired by the beautiful Thanet coastline. This unique landscape, with its ever-changing skies and seas, provides a perfect subject for me to paint. As a local artist, I am forever taking photos as I explore the area, mesmerised by yet another dramatic sky or sea. The beauty of nature means that these are never the same, thus providing endless opportunities.

I base my work on photographs taken of the local area. I play around with shape and colours to create a unique representation of the landscape. I use acrylics to paint bright and colourful seascapes on large canvases. Acrylic paint enables me to create dynamic shapes with vivid colour. I use flat brushes to create smooth surfaces and clean lines.

Susie Darnton

Jayne Wright

I have been potting for 22 years. I was taught by Romilly Graham in her London studio. I mostly hand build and work with moulds in stoneware and porcelain.

I am concerned about how disposable our society has become, we have so much unnecessary packaging and most of us guilt-cycle. I use my ceramic making to raise awareness and challenge these habits by making pieces that I hope people will want to reuse and keep. I use disposable plastic packaging and bric-a-brac from charity shops to press mould ceramic pieces. I also take plaster casts from some disposable objects and make permanent pieces from porcelain slip. I use oxides and stoneware glazes. I mostly twice-fire in an electric kiln but occasionally once-fire and very occasionally experiment with Raku firing.

Since moving to Margate I have been lino cutting images of local iconic buildings and printing into clay adding another dimension to my work.

I add sea glass and ceramics to some of my pieces that I find on the Viking Coast, I record where I find the glass under the pot.

I also make big pieces with reclaimed clay that reflect how beautiful our Kent Coast is. It is important to me that my work reflects sustainability and has a gentle message.

David Wadmore

I am a letterpress printer, typographer and publications designer creating cards and designs with my iron press, built in 1831, and vintage wood type, ancient blocks and the occasional piece of lino. As everything is hand printed, no two items are the same, ensuring that every one of my cards and prints is unique. I ink, therefore I am!

Samantha Wing

Samantha Wing currently lives in the lovely seaside town of Ramsgate with her husband, three children and two dogs, working from her studio as a freelance vegan artist and illustrator.

She learned to paint at a very young age, being very fortunate to have a creative mother, who provided plenty of encouragement during her art journey.

After leaving school Samantha travelled Europe for a while, falling in love with the colours and vibrancy of the Mediterranean. A few years later in her early 20’s Samantha relocated to a little medieval village in the French mountains just north of Nice. It is a place that completely captured her heart and she returns as often as work and family allows.

Samantha discovered a love of coloured pencils six years ago after her son was born, and decided to expand her skills to include children’s illustration. After gaining a distinction from the London art college, she has now illustrated her first book and is due to publish her second.

Her day to day painting focuses on her love of France and the south east coast of England, while her coloured pencil illustrations reflect her love of wildlife, with the intent to introduce children to a life long love of art.

Celine Libera

Celine is a Margate based maker, who loves to work with glass.

Lush green leaves in spring, fresh breeze, moving clouds over the sea...countless times I have been mesmerised by the simplest things in nature. It was after an introductory course to fused glass and a heavy day in the office, that I decided to capture those precious glimpses and memories in glass. Still now, after years have passed, the sea view coasters I made back then keep saving my day. I very much hope that my work can bring some joy and calm to the place wherever you are.

Nick Evans

Nick Evans has been a career journalist for 43 years, working mainly in the specialist arenas of public relations and internal communications. He grew up in Birchington in Kent, during the 1960s and 1970s and his first foray into journalism came in 1977 when he left school, aged 17, to become a trainee reporter with the Isle of Thanet Gazette in Margate. He has since worked for large corporations, public sector organisations, PR agencies and newspapers, in a range of writing, design and production roles.

Resident in Whitstable for more than 30 years, he is a frequent visitor to Thanet to see family and friends.

Always interested in the county’s social evolution, he has written a number of local books, most notably about the histories of Birchington, Broadstairs, Margate’s Dreamland amusement park and the East Kent Road Car Company.

He has also ventured into motoring writing with a book about the story of Britain’s petrol stations and has another, about classic cars, in progress.

Ann Lloyd

Hello. My name is Ann, I’m 45 and I live in Margate with my family. I enjoy creating objects in ceramics, drawing and multi-media work. A lot of my pieces relate to memory and family.

I graduated from Canterbury Christ Church University in 2012 with a BA in Fine & Applied Art. I particularly enjoyed learning ceramics. For my final degree show I studied the ideas of memory in objects, and the precious nature, fragility and unreliability of our memory - which lent itself to working in fine porcelain and clay on the wheel where your hands leave traces and has a memory of its own. I have witnessed the devastating effects of memory loss due to dementia and tried to express this in my work.

Now as a stay-home mum and carer I have recently taken opportunities to pick up my creative interest again, as well as local life drawing classes and using the excellent facilities Clayspace studio in Cliftonville, Margate.

I continue to be interested in memories and objects in art, mental health and art as therapy.

Geraldine Alfeo

I have loved to paint and draw from a very early age and since retiring from a long career in the NHS I have been able to devote more time to my passion.

I work from my home in Birchington painting mostly in acrylic and sometimes using Free Flow paint to create a water colour effect. I like to use vibrant colours and will paint a variety of subjects as my mood and imagination takes me. I also enjoy sketching and life drawing.

I paint on canvas or high-quality water colour paper and have now started to use a superior local printer to scan and produce prints of my work to an extremely high standard.

All prints are Giclee prints on 308gsm cotton rag using archival inks. All are signed and limited print editions.

Shoreline Partners

Shoreline Partners is the home of Westgate Galleria, The Eclectic Art Gallery Margate and Margate Made.

Shoreline runs on a socially responsible business model which enables our artists, makers and creatives to run their small artisan businesses by renting low cost display spaces from us, and pay a small commission for our selling and promotional services. This means they receive the majority of the income made from their sales.

We also offer space to run courses, exhibitions, meet the artist sessions and many more opportunities to share the creativity found in Kent and allow others to express their own creativity.

We offer gift vouchers, online and personal shopping, the ability to commission work from our family of artists. We provide support and advice to small local creative businesses and those who are new to exhibiting and selling.

Lola McDowell

I’m an artist/maker, with the focus on handwoven textiles and fine arts.

My creative practice is about Craft as Art.

I started in fine art, then became more focused on hand-weaving, after hearing the phrase “Painting with Yarn”. I took a series of courses, culminating with the Handweavers Diploma. I continue to study, experiment and expand my horizons/knowledge and skills, as the more I learn, the more there is to know!

I have exhibited and sold my work across the UK and have been an active member of the Weavers’ Guild and the Weavers’ Forum as well as running textile classes at Beach Creative.

I focus on colour, texture and suitability for purpose. Whether it be wall hangings, scarves or buttons, I aim for my work to be sustainable, animal and planet friendly.

Katy Donaldson

Katy Donaldson has worked nationally and internationally (from the Maldives to the Middle East) for magazines, hotels, architects, galleries and graphic designers. She is regularly commissioned to shoot interiors and exteriors of all types of buildings and is an architecture lover, from Brutalist to Baroque, with a soft spot for concrete and corrugated metal!

Katy lives on the border of Kent and East Sussex.