In May we held a recruitment exercise for new Associate Artists and we were overwhelmed with the number of applications. So much so we will have 2 groups of new artists. Our 2nd group will be announced in August 2020.
Our Associate Artists perform a fantastic role for Unison Colour and we are proud to welcome the following people to the programme:
Toni Frostick
Toni grew up in an East London working class family and despite a natural talent from a young age, she did not begin her art journey till her late twenties. Initially she began with portraits where she sketched in biro pen the many golden age of Hollywood characters. With an increase in confidence she soon progressed to pastel where she found success with her piece “Boy in a hat” which headlined at the New Artist Fair in 2016.
tonifrostick.com
Alison Berrett
Alison Berrett went to Exeter College of Art and Design and studied Fine Art to degree level and then qualified as an Art Teacher at Exeter University. Thirty years on and she is an experienced Teacher, Mother to two sons, Freelance Artist, Artist-in-Residence, Workshop Leader and for the last 5 years a Manager of The Art Room using art in a therapeutic setting with children and young people.
www.alisonberrettartist.com
Amy Shuckburgh
Amy Shuckburgh is a British artist of Cornish heritage, born and raised in London. She uses soft pastels with an expressive energy, employing instinctive mark-making, pattern and abstraction.
amyshuckburgh.com
Mridula Basi
I’ve been using Unison pastels for a while now and they are my only choice of pastels after trying several brands over the years. Everything about them works for my painting practice, most importantly their colour theory works in my sense of colour perception and execution in my works.
mridulabasi.co.uk
Gareth Jones
Art and design have been cornerstones throughout Gareth Jones’s life. After a childhood spent permanently drawing and crayoning, he trained at Flintshire and Loughborough colleges of art, followed by a long and successful career in Graphic Design and Illustration.
www.garethjonesart.co.uk
Cathy Pearce
When I am not working on a collection of landscapes then I am using my garden as inspiration. I love to paint and observe the world around me on a daily basis to build up greater understanding of it. I do not put a label on my style. It is constantly developing as I broaden my painting knowledge and experience.
www.cathypearce.co.uk
Sophie Ploeg
Sophie Ploeg has been working with pastels since her teens. It is one of her favourite mediums, but she works with oils as well. Sophie paints realistic and atmospheric pieces and specialises in portraiture and still life. She has a love for painting textures, especially the textures of fabrics such as lace and silk. The colours of Unison fit into her work perfectly, providing subtle colour shifts, deep darks and subtle creams.
www.sophieploeg.com
Nina Squire
I have a travelling studio – an easel, set of pastels and a flask of coffee and I’m happy. I’ll draw in an open field or warm cosy studio but love the bustle of people and the conversations they bring.
thepastelartist.co.uk
Sue Kerrigan-Harris
Sue is a graduate from Winchester College, England, UK, where she earnt a 1st Class Degree in Design & Technology. Her career has gone from Glass Blower at age 19 through to Design Engineer, Teacher, Educational Product Designer and business owner. However, her life-long ambition to capture the likeness of a person in a drawing has stayed with her since childhood. All through her varied career was the search for her true self and her purpose in life: to be an Artist.
skhportraits.co.uk
Lucy Brangwin
As a self taught artist, Lucy fell into art and the medium of pastels purely by chance once settled in Spain and she quickly gained her passion for pastels and now paints full time. She says “I love the connection and direct touch between my fingers and the paper when using pastels, and they allow me the freedom to enjoy the intuitive process of just using my hands and directly feeling the painting grow.”
www.passionforpastels.com
Stuart Walton
Having retired from my post of Consultant Gynaecologist in 2006, I achieved my longstanding and long overdue ambition of completing an A level in Fine Art. Throughout my career I have continued to paint and draw and came upon pastels about 35 years ago, initially as a compact and easy medium to carry on holiday. However it didn’t take long to establish it as my preferred medium.
Henry Falzon
Born in 1974, Henry Falzon comes from decades of fine-art photography, artistic practice and life-long learning. Henry was never comfortable following traditional and ‘proper’ art paths. Instead Henry thrives on individualism, and off-the-beaten path practices.
www.henryfalzon.com
Kristin Holm Dybvig
I was born in Stavanger on the West coast of Norway where I still live and work. I am married and have two teenage daughters and a stubborn dog who like to keep me company and share my otherwise solitary studio life, slumbering and snoring under my table. Colours have fascinated and kindled my imagination my whole life, colour has always been the main ingredient and has followed me throughout my years.
www.kristinholmdybvig.com
Elena Degenhardt
Born in Russia, grown up in East Siberia, Elena spent her early years in Germany and Latvia and moved to Germany in 2003. Graduated from Irkutsk Regional Youth Art School in Russia with a certificate of excellence where she received classical art training, she went on to do two Master degrees in languages and literatures, and then to work as a teacher and translator for 15 years.
www.elenadegenhardt.com
Maya Clubine
Maya is a Canadian artist based in the quaint hamlet of Glen Williams, Ontario. Her first art instructor was her grandfather, who introduced her to painting when she was six years old. Maya would visit her grandparents on the Canadian East Coast, where she developed interests in the arts, literature, and the natural environment.
www.mayavictoria.ca
David Shkolny
The first time I touched a pastel to paper was in my freshman year of college. Something just resonated – the combination of using such a direct way of applying colour on a toothy paper, the scumbly appearance of the stroke, the colour of the paper peaking through, even the subtle sound – a synaesthetic experience for me. I couldn’t get enough of it.
www.davidshkolny.com
Jeff Fioravanti
It speaks to me, calls to me, that is the first impulse I get when I am compelled and commanded to create a new piece. I have no control, I must paint it, put those impulses into strokes of color; it is an insatiable desire to try to capture the fleeting moments of life and the world around us.
www.fioravantifineart.com
Cory Goulet
I am an Artist, my platform, my passion and my obsession is art. My art is a part of who I am and a necessity in my life, it is how I express myself. I work in both pastels and acrylics – mixed media. I love trying new tools and techniques in the creation of my art and I am continuously working to evolve my craft, it is a continuous process of learning.
www.corygouletart.com
Kit Gray
Kit Gray never planned to become an artist, but when life necessitated a career change to accommodate her health, she decided to find new opportunities and ways to adapt. With a passion for environmental education and birding, Kit loves to take a scientific illustration approach to creating wildlife, botanical, and pet artwork.
www.kitgrayillustration.com
Randy Hamburg
Contemporary plein air impressionist Randy Hamburg, currently resides in Houston, Texas where he renewed his painting endeavors in earnest in the early 2000s. Growing up in eastern Mississippi, he was surrounded by nature’s beauty and spent much of his time putting what I saw to pencil and paper and occasionally pastels.
www.randyhamburg.com
Julie Freeman
My fascination with realism started as a child, and I remember clearly the enjoyment and sense of achievement that I got from sketching and painting realistic pictures. As a result of these early experiences, the primary goal in my current work is to create a photorealistic image with more depth of feeling than can be achieved with a photograph.
www.juliefreeman.co.nz
Natalia Savostina
My passion with pastels began when I entered School of Arts when was a teenager. When I was 15 y.o. and still a student of the school of arts, I explored pastels for myself, and fell in love immediately. Despite the fact it wasn’t a part of the program like watercolor or oil, we were allowed to take some new art materials to plein airs we had in summer.
www.facebook.com/savnati
Elena Yermolenko
Elena ia a self-taught artist from Zaporozhye, Ukraine. She is a design engineer and has a penchant for graphic techniques – pastels and watercolours. Now her works are presented at national and international exhibitions. Literature with graphic illustrations have also been published.
elenayermolenkoart.wixsite.com/gallery
Vera Kavura
I’m in love with painting from my childhood while also attending the art school when I was a teenager. But it was only aquarelle, charcoal and oil available for me back then.
kavura-art.com
Francisca Siri
In my art I have approached portrait, landscapes, and several other subjects, mostly with a realistic style. Lately I have been passionate about finding the beauty in everyday life that normally goes unnoticed, like rocks and stones. By using pastel, I can capture the infinity of colours that are hidden under their simplicity.
www.instagram.com/fransiri.art
Nel Whatmore
Nel Whatmore has been a professional artist for 35 years and discovered pastels for the first time when she was 18 and at art college. She is joint founder of The New Pastel School in the UK with her life long friend Rebecca de Mendonca.
www.nelwhatmore.com
See the Associate Artists that were announced in September, here…
7 Responses
Wow! Wonderful works of art. Congratulations to these artists!
WOW is right. Am looking forward to seeing more of the works from these artists!!
Fantastic and diverse !
Lovely work. So competent. Congratulations to all these artists.
What fantastic work. Exceptionally clever artists.
Wow some amazing artist, how long will it take for me to catch up ? Have to work at painting. Thanks Unison
Congratulations to Francisca Siri, I have been following her work in Chile. Very unique style. I love it!