Tracy Tate and Eloise Edge introduce six artists creating very different views of Cheshire and North Wales
Eloise Edge, a sixth-form student at Bishop Heber High School in Malpas, wrote this piece during a work experience placement with Cheshire Life
Sophie Parr
Sophie Parr is a contemporary landscape painter based in Bunbury. After completing her BA Hons in Fine Art, she dedicated 31 years to teaching art in secondary education in Ellesmere Port, before reducing her hours to further her ambition of painting professionally. Having now retired from school teaching, Sophie is painting full time, ‘striving to become a better painter’ and running workshops.
‘I’d describe my work as colourful, expressive landscapes. I take my inspiration from scenes that aren’t so obvious, those often overlooked because there is something more exciting nearby. At other times it may be the undergrowth – the shapes, the colour and the lines formed by the plants,’ she says.
While Sophie travels across the UK to paint, she favours Bickerton Hill and the Sandstone Trail, which she has walked since childhood, due to the undulating, changeable landscapes created by the rock-faces, foliage, bracken, gnarled trees, pathways and height.
In 2022, Sophie was chosen as a wildcard contestant for Sky Art’s popular TV series, Landscape Artist of the Year, an experience she found extremely useful if not wholly enjoyable.
‘It was a great learning opportunity. I learned a lot about myself as an artist and being on camera helped me understand how I come across when teaching my students. It involved very long days – 7am to 7pm – where the crew filmed shots outside of the designated time of four hours that we had to complete our paintings. Within those four hours of working time a camera was pointed at me. The producers would occasionally stop the competitors from working in order to take pictures; we were often stopped in the middle of painting to be interviewed by the judges and the host, Stephen Mangan. I found the interruptions made it difficult to maintain concentration and couldn’t fully immerse myself in my work.’
Sophie runs workshops in acrylics and watercolours from her studio at Bunbury Mill, encouraging her students to experiment and develop a range of techniques to produce their own work.
She says: ‘I lead the classes like an A-Level class, so each participant has a very personal experience and can create anything they want, developing their skills, interests, and confidence.’
sophieparr.co.uk
Andrew McFadden
Andrew was born in Liverpool and grew up on the Wirral/Cheshire border. After studying fine art at university, he went on to teach the subject himself, before retiring in 2021.
His work is wholly coastal, with scenes offering a bold visual of the sea and sky and where they meet.
Working in oil on board, he layers up his paints then wipes back to layer up again. The wipe-out, or rub out, method is quite a traditional approach used by old masters such as Rembrandt. Often labelled as ‘painting with light’, it gives an immediacy and drama to his work that draws the viewer in.
@andymcfadden_art
Ali Kippax
Ali loves to paint en plein air, heading off in her van, with a flask of tea, to sit and paint the raw landscape as Turner and his counterparts would have done, braving the varied Cheshire weather all year round.
She studied fine art at Bristol University before building a career as an art teacher in Chester and taps into her love of coastal scenes inspired by her childhood growing up in the Wirral.
Her style is responsive and intuitive. ‘I paint to capture the emotion of the coastline,’ she says. ‘The secret to working outside is layers, a flask and not checking the weather forecast.
I work on location and translate an immediate connection with what I see and feel with what I create on my canvas.’
alikippax.com
Andrew Kinmont
Born in South Africa, Andrew came to the UK 20 years ago to join Unilever. He fell in love with Cheshire, decided to leave his corporate life, taking a place at Wrexham University and studying fine art, graduating with First Class Honours in 2007.
He now lives in Pulford, travelling the area collating his ideas and sketches before returning to his Wrexham-based studio to create.
He has, he says, ‘always had a passion for art. My grandmother was an artist in South Africa and I have almost a compulsion to create as much as I can.’
Andrew’s style is notably abstract: ‘I see it becoming even more so going forward; not representational but with aspects of big skies and a mosaic of colour interpretations of the landscape.
‘I am not formulaic with my paintings ‒ I never follow trends. The spectacular and varied landscapes of Cheshire and North Wales are a vital influence on my work.’
Andrew runs workshops in Chester and Yorkshire, specialising in colour use in art and having confidence to use colour in abstract form, encouraging his students to engage in the subject emotionally, not just visually.
‘Encouraging others to find their path through paint is very exciting,’ he says.
andrewkinmont.com
Jon Clayton
Jon trained in creative arts at Manchester Metropolitan University before becoming a primary school teacher.
His style is loose, abstract impressionism, sketching what he sees in the moment and returning to his studio to create the final works. He uses mixed media, including collage and printing, to recreate the moments he has experienced while sketching en plein air, and as well as painting scenes of Cheshire and North Wales, he loves to visit Scotland and Cornwall.
Jon runs landscape painting workshops in North Wales and Cheshire where you can spend two days ‘reimagining the landscapes for a weekend’, while working outside and in across various media..
jonclayton-artist.com
David Kereszteny-Lewis
David trained in print-making before moving into teaching, ending his career as director of visual arts at The Grange School in Hartford, near Northwich.
His training in print making makes his approach very graphical ‒ bold mark making used to build an end piece that may not have an immediate sense of place but trigger an immediate response in the viewer. David often has several paintings on the go at one time, commencing each piece with detailed black and white sketches made en plein air, before returning to his studio to move between his creations.
David inspired Nantwich Museum to put on the first Nantwich Open Art Exhibition, which runs until June 20, and for which local artists were invited to submit up to three pieces of artwork based on the theme of Heritage.
@keresztenylewis
You can see the work of Ali Kippax, Jon Clayton, Andy McFaddon and David Kereszteny-Lewis in exhibition at Stockton Heath Gallery during September 2026. stocktonheathgallery.co.uk