Meet the Artists who’s work you can buy online and at GHT
Amy Harwood is a freelance Illustrator and Designer based in Southampton, UK.
Inspired by nature and history, Amy’s style nods to vintage botanical illustration with a contemporary and playful twist. Working with pen, watercolour and gouache paints, Amy creates fun and vibrant illustrations for books, stationery and products for her online shop.
Deborah began her journey into printmaking at Red Hot Press, while she was part of a residency at GHT. Her engagement as a writer with Gods House Tower – looking for stories in archives, the memories in stones, examining where the human rubs up against the material of the building – became the subject matter for exploration of printing techniques. It continues to be a rich resource for her work in words and as print, which she is working on bringing together in book form.
Mandy Smith is a 2018 BA (Hons) in Fine Art graduate from Solent University, she works with a variety of media including sculpture and print making.
The first of the heritage print range ‘Southampton Heritage Cityscape’ 2016, was one of 4 artworks that won an open submission competition and was on display for a year, printed supersize onto brick vinyl on the West Quay shopping centre wall between the existing shopping centre and the new leisure outlets. The lively print composition pulls together some of the historic and important buildings that survived the WWII bombings and that can still be seen in the city today.
In 2017 Smith added to the heritage print range with ‘Southampton Old Town’ and ‘Southampton Arcades’ depicting more of Southampton’s architecture. For 2019, 4 new heritage prints have been added celebrating some of these unique building and printed in a range of bright colours.
Oli Knowles is a designer and illustrator based in Southampton. His style of work is heavily inspired by 20th-century travel posters with a contemporary twist which evokes a bygone era. This age of the travel poster celebrated exploration and the wonder offered by plane and steam, and he aims for his illustrations to recapture this time. Oli’s prints distil a location’s essence and capture its true character.
For the past few years, he has been creating a number of illustrations depicting Southampton and the neighbouring areas. These prints celebrate the area’s rich history and culture that they have to offer. The addition of these 3 new prints ; The Bargate’, ‘Holyrood Church’ and ‘God’s House Tower’ showcase the beauty and heritage that the Old Town has in abundance.
Benji studied Fine Art at Winchester School of Art and is now a member of ‘a space’ arts’ RIPE graduate programme. Benji’s work is informed by digital manipulation and collage and often samples imagery ranging from photographs and pattern designs to art history and pop culture. The fusion of these reference points correlates with this ‘post-truth’ era and the blurred line between fact and fiction in today’s internet saturated world.
Dave is a Southampton-based mixed media artist who includes elements of print-making in collage, assemblage and installation work, as well as producing intricate prints that showcase his background in ink drawing. He is also publishes and performs poetry, and hosts spoken word events. In 2019, he won the national Bread & Roses award, and is a contributing author to the upcoming book Spoken Word in the UK.
Rachel is a printed textile designer and artist living and working in Southampton. She creates a unique collection of hand drawn and digitally printed luxury interior textiles, homeware and artwork inspired by nature and architecture. In 2012 Rachel gained an MA in Textile Design at Winchester School of Art and launched her first ‘Heritage’ interior collection of wallpapers and fabrics in 2014. Elements of personal heritage and identity from memorabilia and architecture, including Southampton City walls informed her designs. Rachel recently developed these original drawings and watercolours to produce a series of postcards, greeting cards and Giclee prints based upon Southampton landmarks. Rachel regularly works to commission with projects including site specific textiles for building atria in Europe and Los Angeles, alongside freelance design work most recently for the museum and heritage sector.
Rachel’s art print ‘Passenger through time’ was selected for the exhibition ‘In Search of a New World’ at Southampton City Art Gallery inspired by the Mayflower, journeys and family heritage.
Jade is a contemporary artist and freelance writer. Jade Graduated from Winchester School of art in 2019 and has since produced work for National Trust Wales and exhibited in Platform Graduate award 2019. Jade is a member of the graduate scheme on the RIPE programme by ‘a space’ arts. Working primarily with drawing and installation, Jade’s work explores media theory and the aesthetics of productivity, weaving together cultural references as well as the formal properties of drawing, and often incorporating drawings into large scale installation works.
Megan Georgia Smith is an artist from Aldershot, Hampshire who completed her BA (Hons) Fine Art degree at Southampton Solent University. Her creative practice is centred around painting, and this work sets out to document and explore notions of class, youth culture, and the condition of being human. Megan utilises stereotypes of the working-classes and of youth within her paintings because these are the people in society, she feels she most identifies with as a working-class, 21-year-old. By amplifying these stereotypes, Megan attempts to illustrate a dark sense of humour, mocking, and playing up to the idea that every working-class/ young person can be identified this way (when of course – they cannot). Often, her work is autobiographical as she draws upon her own social and cultural surroundings for inspiration.
The illustrator Jonny Hannah was born and bred in Scotland, and now lives in Southampton, but he also resides in Darktown – a mysterious coastal town, not found on any map, peopled by pin-up girls, jazz artists and tattooed sailors. Darktown is home to the Unquiet Grave junk emporium; the Mermaid Cafe, where folk legend Woody Guthrie still plays each week; McVouty’s vintage clothes shop; and a pier with a condemned helter skelter.
He studied Illustration at Liverpool Art School and at the Royal College of Art. He now lectures in illustration at Southampton University.
He collaborated with Jonathan Hodgson on the BAFTA award-winning ‘The Man With The Beautiful Eyes’ and his work can be seen across a broad range of media including the corporate artwork for The Museum of British Folklore.
Alex is an artist and self taught ceramicist based in Southampton. They studied Fine Art at Winchester School of Art and fell in love with ceramics shortly after graduating.
Each ceramic piece created for the GHT shop has been hand built with distinct and quirky features. The soft-hued colour palette and ergonomic forms prove to be a splendid addition to any home, whether functional or decorative.
As part of the Red Host Press artists’ group, Cowprint have an active programme of talks, exhibitions and projects and also a sketching group. Many Cowprint members are currently working on a major, collaborative exhibition entitled Navigating a New World. Inspired by and remembering the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower sailing from Southampton in 1620. The range is available to browse now in the GHT online shop.