With a background in sculpting for TV, film and theatre - including The Phantom of the Opera and the English National Opera, and illustrating children’s books, Jonathan began to focus on his own work.

Working from his studio in the East Sussex countryside, he draws inspiration from the natural world. Working primarily in clay, many pieces feature low-relief elements, hand-finished and painted in his distinctive style, to enhance depth and character, making every sculpture a unique work of art.

His sculptures are cast in bronze and resin bronze, suitable for indoor and outdoor display, gardens and public spaces. Each piece is produced in limited editions: 9 bronze and 12 resin bronze.

His work has become highly sought after, with editions regularly selling out to collectors worldwide. He exhibits widely across the UK and internationally, with regular appearances at art fairs and gallery shows in NY, Singapore, Hong Kong.  

Jonathan is a Fellow of the RSA (FRSA).

Ali Dempster has been in the creative design environment all his life, Staring with a art college in a 3D design course with multi media. A career in the creative area of the film industry doing set design and special effects, then retraining as a garden designer 27 years ago and moving into the garden outdoor world.

He has always been fascinated by the structure of nature the way it naturally created its beauty and how this can be enhanced reorganised and restructured in Land Art. Since first seeing Christo and Jeane Claudes and Robert Smithson work in the late 70s and early 80s.

Since discovering Andy Goldworthys style of Land art and his creation of numerous natural sculptures throughout the UK and wider world, inspired many sculptural elements of his garden design.

Taking all this past experience and focusing it into his natural sculptural creations, using mainly locally founds objects from Beach cobbles and wood, fallen branches and locally felled English trees, beech, oak, Ash, conifer. It is fundamentally important to Ali to tread as lightly as possible on the earth with each sculptural creation, reusing, recycling, lowering transport miles, and consumption to as little as possible.

Pulling on influences from nature, cosmology and geological forms. Ali is continually taking new looks at the ways natures structures come together, the textured, smooth, polished or machined elements of his unique one-off sculptural creations mean each work is highly individual and not replicated.

Bio and Pic to follow

After a successful business career, building a design and marketing consultancy, David decided to change course and spend more time in a purely creative role.  A course at Schumacher College in Dartington some 25 years ago inspired him to rekindle his early passion for poetry and art in all forms.  He now enjoys writing, painting, life drawing and sculpting in a variety of materials.

 Like many artists, David is inspired by the natural world and how it affects us.  In his words:

‘I love nature and am fascinated by our relationship to it – we get a special feeling, almost kinship, from certain rocks; peace from watching a river; awe as we stand under a regal beech tree; a child-like joy from playing in the surf.  It is that relationship I want to explore through my work.

‘I encourage people to touch my sculptures, to feel the texture and form, to connect.  With many of my sculptures, comes a poem.  The words seem to suggest themselves readily after so many hours and days spent in the creative process.  I hope the poetry enhances the pleasure of the eventual owner, bringing them closer to the piece.’

 David is a former Deputy Chair of Surrey Sculpture Society.  His work has won many awards, is widely exhibited and is in private collections around the UK, Europe and the USA.

Ellie designs and creates beautiful, contemporary stained glass sculptures for outside spaces. Her bold designs are inspired by her love of nature and mostly have botanical themes. Ellie uses traditional techniques to handcraft her sculptures incorporating exquisite coloured and textured glass, giving a quality of depth and life as the weather and seasons change.

Bio and Pic to follow

Bio and Pic to follow

Who are you, when no one is watching?

 Through filmmaking, conservation and behavioural study, I have been privileged to

spend much of my life in the company of other species. By allowing myself to become secondary to the observed, I have witnessed lives unfolding in real time — not highlights edited for drama and story, but moments when another sentient being is simply immersed in the business of being itself.

 What moves me is the quiet integrity of another life. I have spent decades trying to understand the inner lives of non-human animals. Rather than asking what an animal is, I ask who it is. Most lives are lived in the ordinary, and it is within these moments that glimpses of another's inner world emerge. My sculptures seek to give tangible form to those fleeting encounters.

 Working directly in clay, I allow close observation to dissolve into abstraction and fragmentation, creating a sense of something both present and fleeting. Cast using stone or metal powders and hand-patinated with raw earth pigments, each sculpture preserves the immediacy and vitality of the original clay.

 My work is an invitation to slow down — to look beyond drama, appearance and behaviour, and to encounter another living being on its own terms.

Mark Austin FRSA is a British artist whose practice explores the relationship between landscape, movement and form through drawing and sculpture. 

His process begins with walking; tracing lines, patterns and textures found in the land. He then transforms those impressions into works that balance gesture and structure.

Working primarily in charcoal and bronze, Mark captures the quiet rhythm of the natural world, turning observation into lasting form. His pieces evoke calm and reflection, bridging the outdoors and the spaces we live in. 

Bio and Pic to follow

I have been producing figurative sculptures in bronze for over 35 years. Large commissions have included ‘Icarus I’ for the London 2012 Olympic Village, the Sir Peter Scott sculpture for the London Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre in Barnes, the ‘Hammersmith Man’ for the Hammersmith flyover and ‘Survivor’ for Eastman Kodak HQ in the U.S.

The bulk of my work has been sold privately from galleries in the UK, Ireland and America.

Brought up in Africa, the Mediterranean and Asia, I experienced many difference cultures at an early age. There was a lot of space and light and interest all around as I grew up. My earliest influences were African figures and much of my work has continued with the tall, slim and elegant forms of the Maasai people. My time living in Cyprus as a child sparked my interest in Greek mythology.

My work is nearly always based on the human figure, whether in an abstract way (e.g., the Bone Form series) or in a more figuratively realistic way. I have always had a fascination with the human form because of the timeless feelings and emotions it conveys. My figures are nearly always representational of mankind without a particular culture or era.

I enjoy the fact that there have been so many changes to my work, over the years. Different objects and people stimulate my imagination and urge me to create something new, which is why I often work on something completely different from previous work; I enjoy the diversion and stimulation.

In recent years, I have become known for my sculptures depicting the mythological figure Icarus; there have been thirteen in the series so far; the latest and largest work to date is the huge ‘Icarus Rising’ sculpture, which stands at 5m high and 4m wide.

“One of the most exciting aspects of Icarus Rising is its sheer size. Visitors to Sculpture by the Lakes can walk beneath the sculpture, looking up at Icarus' wings as if they’re about to take flight. Standing beneath it, you feel a powerful sense of ambition and daring.”

Tessa Wolfe Murray trained in Ceramics at Goldsmiths College, London 1981-84.

Her work is hand built, sculptural in form but all vessels hold water.

Inspiration for the surface decoration is distilled from a process that begins with photographs taken whilst travelling: sea moods, rock formations, beach debris, horizons, buildings and their surfaces, museum artefacts.

Surfaces are an interplay of incised lines on vessels that have been textured, built up, impressed or distorted. Colour comes from metal oxides mixed into clay and glazes.

Some pieces have a final smoke-fired finish.

She has exhibited and accepted commissions worldwide. Her work is held in collections that include Japan, USA, Israel, Singapore, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, France, Holland and Belgium.

In the 1990s, She collaborated with the Conran Shop to design and make ranges of vases and lamp bases.

She continues to work with interior and product designers.

Alison Holt is a textile artist who combines silk painting with free-motion machine embroidery to create richly layered surfaces and textures. Using a basic sewing machine as a drawing tool, each stitch is like a textured brushstroke. She produces detailed and expressive studies inspired by landscapes and the natural world.

Her practice is driven by a long-standing fascination with light, colour, and pattern. Through the interplay of stitch and paint, Alison captures fleeting moments and personal memories, motivated by a desire to observe, record, and interpret her surroundings.

Alison has a BA (Hons) in Fine Art Textiles from Goldsmiths College London.

With a career spanning more than 40 years she is a regular exhibitor at selected exhibitions in the Mall Galleries London and the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists. 

Alison is an Associate of the Royal Society of Graphic Fine Art.

Carole Bury FRSA designs and crafts paper textiles, using drawing, embroidery and constructional techniques, which hold a beauty, depth and quietness. Working with nature, presents her with rhythms, pathways and marks, which invade the work slowly and unobtrusively. The starting point for all her work, is always drawing and understanding and interpreting a ‘Place.’

 She lives and works in a small rural village, high in the Cotswold Hills in the UK. Her garden, with adjoining allotment and remarkably easy access out into the surrounding fields and woods provide plenty of inspiration. The light filled Studio is her place of dreams.

 Carole has a background in drawing from Cheltenham College of Art and fine art embroidery from Manchester Polytechnic.  She teaches drawing, extending techniques to small groups.

 Carole is an exhibiting member of Pure Arts Group, also IAPMA, the international association of paper makers and artists. Exhibits widely with the ARTCAN Organisation, the RSA House in London and small galleries in the UK. Is actively involved in the Bi-annual Cheltenham Open Studios.  Work has recently been included in the ING Discerning Eye and the RWA in Bristol.

Born in London, April 1964, the always charismatic david apps grew up in the Thames Estuary Essex, and later moved to East London where he took up photography. Taking thousands of photographs david continues to develop an eye for capturing anything and anyone he takes a photo of in his own unique, thought-provoking way.

david’s passion for his art has led to him staging six exhibitions a year for the past six years: in London, Brighton, Cambridge, Newcastle and Berlin.

For his creations, david only uses his own images, and re-works the imagery to create contemporary, striking works of art. To further his vision, he uses antiqued mirror over these hand panted designs, only allowing a small part of the image to be visible through the mirrored glass. He then designs and makes a custom handmade frame, using toys, jewellery and other ephemera.

Inspired by the South East coast, in April 2014 david exited East London and relocated to the vibrant City of Brighton, where he has staged five successful exhibitions. In October 2016 he moved again, this time to the beautiful village of Alfriston in East Sussex. Each move to a new environment has proved influential on david’s creations – his latest work being a magical mix of the countryside that surrounds him, spliced with his love for the films of Tim Burton and the architecture of Gaudi.

In a life dominated by subversion, the art of david apps is dark, angelic, evocative, kitsch, vibrant, very British, and very ‘now’ – you cannot look at david’s designs without wanting to return to them, again and again.

My art training was a non-training. I left university with a First-Class Honours in how to BS and play the game. I thought I'd 'won' but on leaving education reality hit me like a brick wall and totally floored me.

That was the worst experience of my life but the best thing that ever happened to me. It was the start of a journey that 25 years later still continues.

 In that time, I have lived in a tent in the foothills of the Himalayas for 6 months, spent a year saving tortoises in South Africa and 5 years living in a mud hut in a refugee camp in Sudan.

 Everything I have seen has confirmed to me that humanity has got something fundamentally wrong, but I am not a pessimist. I have a deep faith, not in any religion, but in the truth. Keats' words are my keystone in life:

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty, —that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."

These words guide me and keep me grounded.

 Fundamentally I am an anarchist, but not a proponent of the silly version of anarchy that we're presented with through the media. True anarchism proposes that natural harmony will result as the restrictive layers of state control and authoritarianism are abandoned.

When the human soul is honoured and respected it will step up to the mark and shine, but like any over disciplined child, it currently winces and cowers at a raised hand and shrinks from it's true, magical potential.

Like all artists I try and reflect back that sense of wonder and beauty to the viewer so that on this journey we stray not too far from the path.

Liliana Dobbs FRSA is a UK-based expressionist painter working primarily in oils. Raised on the sub-tropical island of Madeira, her practice is rooted in a lifelong sensitivity to the natural world, where shifting elemental forces and the restorative qualities of nature continue to shape her visual language. Her paintings are not records of place but vessels for the emotions, relationships, and memories that landscapes quietly accumulate.

 At the heart of her practice is a desire to preserve moments that might otherwise dissolve into time. Each painting begins with an encounter - a place walked, weather experienced, or a landscape shared with others - and develops into an emotional reconstruction rather than a literal representation. Working slowly in layered oils allows memory and feeling to evolve alongside the painting itself, mirroring the way emotions are slowly absorbed and reinterpreted. For Dobbs, painting is both an act of remembrance and a means of making sense of the enduring imprint that people and places leave upon us.

 Balancing energy with stillness, her work offers a quietly compelling counterpoint to the pace of contemporary life. Expanses of calm are held in dialogue with passages of vibrant, textured colour, where gestural mark-making and layered surfaces become active and responsive. Through this dynamic interplay, luminosity and depth coexist with restraint, allowing each work to move between intensity and quietude. These tensions create spaces in which memory, sensation, and introspection converge, inviting viewers to slow their attention and discover their own emotional associations within the work.

 Dobbs exhibits regularly across East Anglia, London, and the South East, with work

presented in galleries and curated art fairs. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA).

Lost in a world of intricate observations from nature, Louisa is entranced by the cycle of growth and decay. It’s quiet in her Kent studio as she looks ever closer at the flora and fauna. Texture, shadows, silhouettes and movement created with graphite marks and tone, it’s rarely about colour but always about the environment.

Working outside gives a language of immediacy, relinquishing control to the elements and found materials: drawing with ink and grass while lying quietly in a sunny meadow, listening to nature, surrendering to the moment. Invariably she returns to the quiet observations, moments in time delicately captured.

As well as membership of the Free Painters and Sculptors, the Society of Graphic Fine Art, The Entographic Collective and the Wilderness Art Collective, she is a fellow of the Society of Botanical Artists and the Royal Society of Arts. This connection with other artists is an important part of her practice and currently continues through her membership of Pure Arts Group, the Sevenoaks Visual Arts Forum and the Bridge Art School FAPD programme.

Her prizewinning drawings are held in private collections internationally. She regularly exhibits in London Open Exhibitions and has held solo shows at Muse Gallery, London; Beauport Gallery, Hastings and Sevenoaks Kaleidoscope Art Gallery. She is represented by selected UK galleries.

THE SUSSEX ART & SCULPTURE TRAIL 2026

DATES:

Saturday 5th - Saturday 20th September 2026

Open daily: 11am - 5pm

Late nights Saturday 5th and 12th Sept until 7pm - BYO picnic. Entry is FREE, but booking is required for 5th and 12th Sept late nights, using this link:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sussex-art-sculpture-trail-tickets-1997047141760?aff=oddtdtcreator&_gl=1*m1jbav*_up*MQ..*_ga*MTI3NTE1NjQ5My4xNzg2MDM3OTkx*_ga_TQVES5V6SH*czE3ODYwMzc5OTAkbzEkZzEkdDE3ODYwMzc5OTAkajYwJGwwJGgw

Well behaved dogs on leads welcome.

Note: as part of the exhibition is in the fields, please wear appropriate shoes.

Any questions, please email:

contact@jonathanhateley.com

LOCATION:

Woodland Retreat, Kent Street, Sedlescombe (Near Battle) TN33 0SG.

Access to Woodland Retreat is via the A21 - opposite New England Lane (on the brow of the hill after Blackbrooks Garden Centre/Sedlescombe Golf Course depending on direction of travel).

Look out for the high vis reflector posts and signage marking the entrance.

Parking will be the fields.

See Map for further details.

Location What3Words: glows.greetings.rungs