Art

Words by Gareth Stevens Portrait by Piers Golden Artworks by Richard Butchins I meet with Richard Butchins in his windowless studio along...

Two years ago, Ibi Meier-Oruitemeka (Studio IMO) was not a painter. In fact, she had never really considered it as an option. But on the morning of her birthday in May 2023, she woke up with the inexplicable urge to buy some paint. She followed that feeling, and since then, painting has become not just an artistic pursuit but a radical shift in the way she sees herself.

Beccy McCray will be no stranger to those working in Hastings and St Leonards’ art scene, local environmental activism, or simply out and about around the place. Keen-eyed Get Hastings readers may even remember her from Louise Coulthard’s 2023 piece on allotments. Working across multiple disciplines, blending visual storytelling with the natural world and social themes, her disparate interests coalesce into a wild creative practice that sees Beccy grace this issue’s cover sho

Molly Hawkins, an award-winning designer, artist, and muralist known for her vibrant murals and playful public artworks, has announced a special artistic takeover this Spring. From April 8th to 13th, the Introduced pop-up space will be completely transformed into Molly’s creative world, filled with collages, shapes, and patterns that spark joy and positivity.

Red, Blue, Up is a major new exhibition of paintings and drawings by Bexhill-based artist, Michelle Roberts. It features a wide selection of Roberts’ works from the last 15 years. Through this detailed yet joyful execution, her works are underpinned by her unwavering precision and control, as she dissects shapes, forms and patterns across canvas and paper.

Now, if I wrote down RX to the good people of Hastings, they might very well think-ah yes, the fishing boats, and their Rye registration. But what if we flipped those letters around and it was XR? The Winter edition’s seasonal cover was by tech-artist Ornagh Lynch, convert and champion of all things Extended Reality.

As my lemon and ginger tea cools on the table beside me and my interviewees get situated, I look around the space. I’d never been inside Afri-Co-Lab before, and it’s so much more than I’d imagined.

A conversation with Richard Mark Rawlins about community on the coast. As I make the short walk from my house to the home and studio of Richard Mark Rawlins, I am struck by the vibrant creativity that fills our small seaside town.

At one of the most prestigious buildings on the South Coast is the work of one of the South Coast’s most prestigious painters. In the first floor gallery of the De La Warr Pavilion, Hastings resident and acclaimed British painter, Laetitia Yhap’s exhibition entitled ‘An Ending to a Beginning’, features intricate paintings of fishermen on The Stade Beach in Hastings Old Town.

Project Art Works, an inclusive rights-based art organisation in our hometown supports people who have complex support needs in a way that not only helps give them a platform of communication they feel comfortable with, but turns the table on societal norms and is striving to change the generalisation and assumptions around people often invisible from public life.

Ben Fenton is a Hastings-based artist, known for his abstract paintings of local architecture and coastline landscapes. In this interview, Ben opens up about his long-term mental health struggles, his relationship with the area and the sea — and of course, his art.

Born and bred Hastonian, Steph Warren is one of the United Kingdom’s leading authorities on the graffiti and street art movement, having worked with both Banksy and Ben Eine back in the noughties as a young woman at the forefront of a very male-orientated and secretive world. Owner of Stella Dore Art Gallery (previously based in East London, now in St Leonards). I caught up with the gallerist, curator, art and mural facilitator

When you think of the word ‘muse’, several people come to mind: a mid-nineties rock band, obviously Kate Moss in all her forms, the Pre Raphaelite poser, Elizabeth Sidall and last but not least, St Leonard’s based Freudian nudie, Sue Tilley.

There was absolutely no mistaking Lorna Hamilton-Brown for anyone else when I saw her enter Eggtooth’s The Nest at The Old Town Hall for our interview this May. Dressed from head to toe in colourfully printed sports luxe with a matching bucket hat and luminous trainers, donning her trademark Black Girl Magic earrings, she looked every part the craft maverick I’d heard so much about.

An interview with street photographer JJ Waller.

Peter Quinnell is a popular and successful illustrator, working for 25 years, primarily with collage. You will have seen his instantly recognisable work whilst out and about in Hastings but also in countless magazines and advertising. He works from Black Winkle Studio opposite the fisherman’s huts where he prides himself on being “Experienced, fast and inexpensive. No job too large or too small”.

Deborah Bowness grew up near York, and attended Leeds College of Art before embarking on a Constructed Textiles MA at The Royal College of Art. She now resides and works in St Leonards, designing iconic wallpapers that are shipped all over the world. Mel sat with Deborah and had a very ‘Northern’ chat about processes, inspirations and claims to fame.