16 Sep Sat 2023

01 Oct Sun 2023

This event has ended

The artists will be working on current projects during the two week event, sharing all the behind the scenes processes that go into creating their woven paper pieces, prints and paintings. They will also show a selection of work in an exhibition space next to the gallery shop.

PRIVATE VIEW: Monday 18th September, 5-7pm, book here

Naomi Kendall completed a Foundation Course at Cheltenham School of Art where she focused on sculpture. She then pursued her interest in the history of art and took a degree at Leicester University and a postgraduate diploma at Manchester University in Art Gallery and Museum Studies. After a career working in galleries and running community arts projects she returned to making her own work.

Naomi loves working with paper: “it’s versatile and strong and comes in an endless variety of colours, weights and textures. It’s such an everyday material yet it can be transformed in so many ways”. Her work is mainly focused around cutting, folding, layering and weaving paper by hand. She mostly works in colour, but also makes monochrome pieces and adds her own marks to the paper with inks and paints.

Naomi exhibits her work in the South West, across the UK and overseas. Recent exhibitions include “Matisse and the Contemporary Paper Artists” at Rheged in Penrith, “Paper Duets” in New Delhi and “Works on Paper” at The Gallery at Green and Stone in London. She was the 2022 Evolver Magazine Prize winner, is a member of the Paper Artist Collective and features as a master artisan in the Michelangelo Foundation’s Homo Faber Guide.

Lisa Takahashi is a British - Japanese painter and printmaker, whose studio is based at Hestercombe. She has worked as an artist since graduating from a fine art degree at Middlesex University in 2005. Her work interprets the energy, colour and textures of local scenes, with a particular fascination with the interaction between man-made structures and natural phenomena.

Lisa primarily works with linocut, monotype and collage, as well as with watercolour and oil painting. Lisa's plein air works allow her to exist in the moment and respond to colours, shapes and lines seen in the landscape. By contrast, her printmaking is largely done away from the subject, and is an opportunity to develop ideas in a more self-led, intuitive way.

Previous exhibitions include the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition (2022, 2021, 2015, 2013), The Royal Watercolour Society Open (2023, 2019, 2018), The Fabriano Biennale (2022, nominated by David Paskett PPRWA) and The Royal Society Of Painter-Printmakers. She was Chief Editor of the Jackson's Paper Guide and has appeared as a judge on Channel 5's Watercolour Challenge. Alongside her practice she regularly runs workshops, is an Art Materials and Studio Specialist for the Jackson's Art Blog, and has also written and illustrated articles for Pressing Matters magazine.

Please note: While the open studio and exhibition is open everyday throughout Somerset Art Weeks, there will be a number of occasions where only one of the artists will be present. Please phone Lisa Takahashi on 07764500397 ahead of your visit if you need further information. Lisa Takahashi will not be at the open studio on the 23rd & 24th September.

https://www.instagram.com/naomijkendall/

https://www.instagram.com/takahashiprints