Fiona Moate studied fine art at the Hull College of Higher Education in 1982 and completed her MA at Manchester Polytechnic in 1983.  She worked out of artist studios including MASA and Sigma and later at her home in Stockport.

Moate taught on a number of art foundation courses in the North West and was visiting artist at MMU, Salford University, Manchester University Architecture School, Staffordshire University & Hull College of Art. She an art & design lecturer at the Manchester Adult Education Service until her retirement in 2015.

 Moate exhibited widely in the North West and London throughout the 1980s and ‘90s.  She was represented by the Ainscough Gallery in Merseyside and had a number of of solo exhibitions with the gallery. The last exhibition of her work in 2018 was ‘Landmarks’ with with peers including Sarah Feinmann, Steven Heaton, the late Kate Davies, Paulette Bansal, David Armes.

Moate’s paintings can be found in private and public collections in the UK, USA, Ireland, Germany, including Rutherford Collection, Oldham Art Gallery, Manchester University and Lancashire County Council.

Read the beautiful text in memory of Fiona by her friend Chris Lethbridge in MagNorth.

Helen Thomas is a contemporary British painter based in Wakefield, England. She graduated from Falmouth School of Art (BA Fine Art) and completed a year of postgraduate study with Turps Art School.

Helen works with drawing and painting, on site and in the studio, to consider humanity’s relationships with plants.

Helen’s Arts Council England Funded project ‘Dandelions and Double Yellows’ culminated in a solo exhibition at Wakefield Cathedral as part of the Festival of The Earth in 2021.

Recent group exhibitions include Planting Ideas, St Barbe Museum and Art Gallery, Hampshire, 2024; Precious Little, Mura Ma, Stockport, 2023; Rogue Women 2, Manchester 2023, Babble, Ilkeston Contemporary, Derbyshire, 2023; Entwined: Plants in Contemporary Painting, Huddersfield Art Gallery, 2022 and 20-21 Visual Arts, Scunthorpe 2023; Conversations with Nature, The Art House, Wakefield, 2022 and Jerwood Drawing Prize 2016.

Naqsh Raj (b.1984) is an artist, educator and a mother. Until December 2023, Raj was teaching at the Art & Design department at Nottingham Trent International College.

She has a Masters Degree in Visual Arts from the prestigious National College of Arts, Lahore. She served in Pakistan as an Art educator for ten years at Comsats University, Islamabad.

Raj has won numerous awards for her painting, including the 2024 Nigaah Award, presented at Mohatta Palace, Karachi,  and in 2023 she was the main prize winner of the Open 23 at Tarpey Gallery, UK.  Her work is exhibited and collected internationally.

International Group show

2023 Moving art XVA Gallery, Dubai

2023 OPEN, Tarpey Gallery, Derby UK.

Solo Show

2023 Escape with the Homeland, Galerie Klaus Braun, Stuttgart, Germany.

National Juried Exhibitions:

2022 Anna Molka Award Exhibition, Punjab University, Lahore.

2022 Art Exhibition on Kashmir Solidarity Day, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Islamabad.

2022 Inaugural exhibition of Islamabad art Gallery F9, Islamabad.

2021 Alhamra 3rd National Exhibition of Visual Arts, Lahore.

2017 9th National Exhibition, Pakistan National Council of Arts, Islamabad.

2012 Women Artist Exhibition, Pakistan National Council of Arts, Islamabad.

2009,2010 and 2011 “Young Artist Exhibition Award” Alhamra Art Council, Lahore.

Vic Wright (b.1976) is a sculptor from the North West of England,

After completing a BA Hons Fine Art at Lincolnshire and Humberside University, Wright  has exhibited widely in London and the UK with Cubbitt’s for LCW 2023 in London Paul Smith for the La Design Festival in 2021 and London Design Festival in 2021, and her work features in national and international private collections.

Veronica Cay is a highly respected Australian artist working in painting, drawing and sculpture and has work in National & International public and private collections, has had numerous solo exhibitions and been a selected finalist in many national juried art prizes and awards in Australia. Cay currently lives on Gubbi Gubbi land on the beautiful Sunshine Coast of Australia with her partner and two of their adult children. 

Cay is represented by two Australian galleries and Mura Ma is the first UK gallery to host her work.  Cay is featured in the Precious Little exhibition with a show of works on paper titled Paper Thin Skin.

Emma Richardson is a painter who graduated from Wimbledon School of Art, London with a BA Honours in Fine Art in 2004. She has exhibited in solo and group shows in London, Southampton, Hong Kong and Barcelona. She received DYCP funding from Arts Council England in 2021 and in 2022 completed three years on the Turps Correspondence Course.

Her paintings are held in private collections in Canada, America, Italy, Spain and the UK. Alongside painting Richardson is also a musician, and previously wrote and performed worldwide with Band of Skulls for over ten years. Her paintings appear on a selection of their album and single releases. She lives and works in London, UK.

Louise West is a Dublin based artist who graduated with a BA in Painting in 1996 from the National College of Art and Design in Dublin.

Having previously studied animation and completed courses in the Turps Banana mentorship programme, West has exhibited in both Ireland and the UK in site specific and group shows.

Significant shows include Crawford Art Gallery curated by Iwona Blazwick; Sited curated by Mark Garry; The Royal Acdemy Belfast, Draíocht Art Gallery curated by Caroline Mc Carthy; Kilkenny Castle Gallery; The Mermaid Arts Centre;  Artform Dunmore East and Fitzrovia Gallery London. 

She was selected as reserve artist on the 2014 Sky Arts Portrait Competition and has been shortlisted for the “Artform Artist of Merit award” in 2021. 

Commisions include, “Playthings” at Draíocht Gallery” and reviews in The Irish Times and The Cork Examiner, she was selected for interview as a part of  “Lesson from Still Life” open submission for the New York based “Artrepeneur” Art Journal “Sketch” in 2023.

After completing an art foundation in 1993, Joey Collins achieved a first class honours degree in Visual Arts at University of Salford, in 1997.

He went on to work in many different creative industries including graphic design, interior design, textiles and he even made chocolate.

In 2014 Joey moved into his studio at Hot Bed Press printmaking workshop in Salford and has maintained a full time studio practice to become a highly accomplished silk screenprinter.

Joey has exhibited in group shows across the city including Salford Museum and Art Gallery’s exhibition, Print Unlimited in 2018. He also has work in private collections internationally and in a permanent collection of Salford Museum and Art Gallery.

After completing an art foundation in 1989, Nan Collantine worked in visual and written communications for 25 years until 2016 when she moved with her family to Queensland, in 2016 which is where her self-directed art education began in studying Australian painting. She is the recipient of the Castlefield Gallery Artist Professional Development Award as part of the Manchester Open 2022 and has been undergoing a programme of professional development with the gallery for the past 12 months.

 In 2022 Nan completed a second year of the Turps Banana Correspondence Course and in December 2022 exhibited with the Turps cohort in London. Nan is also an alumni of alternative art school, the Islingon Mill Art Academy.  She works from her studio at Goyt Mill  in Marple, Greater Manchester.