The Wells next the Sea community is rich with artists and makers.
In early 2022, Wells Maltings led an initiative that opened our Handa Gallery to any artists living and working within the NR23 postcode area, and we were overwhelmed by the response. The resultant exhibition later that year featured over 40 local artists and was universally declared a great success.
Above all, it signalled how we as a creative organisation can work to give support to artists at all levels and stages of their careers, and the richness and diversity artists can offer to a place like Wells Maltings.
Although the exhibition ended, it was clearly not the end of the NR23 network. Since then, the group has met regularly, and has discussed ways with us to embed this exciting development and take it forward.
A second exhibition, NR23:23, took place in September 2023, followed by a Maker’s Market in December 2023. In 2024, NR23 artists were out in force during North Norfolk Open Studios with pop up studios and a taster exhibition. An Art Fair, combining great art, local artists and affordable art, took place in June 2024, and the third major group exhibition, NR23:24, took place in September 2024 to much critical and public acclaim.
The group thrives and thrives, with more members joining every month, making this the most vibrant and creative local artists’ collective in north Norfolk.
We’ll be posting news and updates here, including information on other work and exhibitions across artists within the NR23 network.
If you are a practising artist or maker living or working in the Wells area, we’d love you to come aboard – particularly if you wish to be part of the pilot sessions in November. Contact us at [email protected].
NR23 Artwork
Artists’ news
Lino Printing Workshop with Sue Rainsford (Wednesday 11th February 2026)
Design, cut and print a Lino block.
Suitable for all abilities.
All materials provided.
Please bring an apron and images of any ideas you might like to try and print.
You will be shown exactly how to make a drawing suitable to turn into a print, how to cut a Lino block and how to print successfully from a Lino block. You will take home a series of prints made from your block. You will have the information to confidently carry on at home if you wish. There will be chances later in the year to further your skills.
Please click here to book.
Painting Seascapes with Acrylic, with Linda Pattrick (Wednesday 4th March 2026)
Painting Seascapes in acrylic using a palette knife.
Canvas, paints and palette knife provided.
All abilities welcome.
10 places available.
Bring an apron or old shirt, an old plate for mixing colour on, a newspaper and a jam jar for water.
We will begin with colour mixing and I will demonstrate how to use a palette knife and how to build up texture and colour.
Then you will plan your canvas.
Break for tea/coffee
Now the real fun begins! Enjoy applying colour and texture to your canvas with palette knife.
End by looking at the finished pieces.
Please click here to book.
Stone Set Silver Ring Workshop with Tracey Adam (Wednesday 8th April 2026)
Silver stone setting ring workshop.
Suitable for all abilities.
Maximum of 8 students.
You will make a sterling silver hammered ring and then solder your setting and set a stone of your choice.
All materials and equipment will be provided.
Please click here to book.
Improv Quilting: Making a Mini Quilt with Roberta Cummings (Wednesday 6th May 2026)
All materials provided.
Suitable for beginners and sewists of all abilities.
Max: 8 students
Improv quilting is a spontaneous and freeform exploration of patchwork that is made without a strict plan or pattern. It allows for playful experimentation that does not require accurate cutting or piecing.
This workshop will cover the principles of improv patchwork and will include strip piecing, sewing curves, hand quilting and finishing techniques. We will sew primarily with the sewing machines provided, five of which are antique hand-cranked Singers.
Each participant will work on creating their own mini-quilt, taking away all materials and resources required to complete it at home.
For more information please email: [email protected]
Please click here to book.
Brian Ryder ROI 1944 – 2025
It is with great sadness that we have learned of the passing of the influential and renowned artist and NR23 contributor Brian Ryder ROI.
Brian’s evocative work has featured prominently in exhibitions at Wells Maltings for many years, including the Handa Gallery’s inaugural CONNECTION exhibition in 2018, and most recently the NR23:23 show in September 2023.
His national reputation and standing as an artist did not detract from his connection with artists along the north Norfolk coast, and he provided a great inspiration to countless through his kindness, teaching and support.
He will be remembered with great affection, and his legacy will be felt deeply.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Nina Bilbey & James Spedding
Abraxas Academy
We have some incredible news from two NR23 artists, Nina Bilbey and James Spedding, who, working as part of the Abraxas Academy with their colleagues Charlotte Howarth and Sue Aperghis, were chosen out of nearly forty entries to design and build a piece for the National Memorial Arboretum; commemorating the contribution of the past and present serving LGBTQ+ community and to celebrate twenty five years since the lifting of the so called ‘gay ban’.
We are privileged to be able to show you a couple of photos of the maquette that they designed and submitted to the judges.
The piece is called ‘The Open Letter’. It is a combination of words taken from evidence that was collected from veterans who were personally affected by the LGBTQ+ ban. The concept for the memorial symbolises the personal letters of endearment collected as evidence to convict, expel and imprison LGBTQ+ personnel during the ban, and the anxiety of living in constant fear of receiving a formal letter of accusation.
The actual memorial is planned to be made in 10mm thick aluminium bronze and stand 2.5 metres high on a 4m circle of York stone paving, with hand-cut lettering in the stone for dedications.
Congratulations to Abraxas Academy for designing such a beautiful and powerful piece.
Linda Gower
RHS Botanical Art and Photography Show
Royal Photographic Society
This competition is held annually by the RHS in partnership with the RPS (Royal Photographic Society), and for the last four years an exhibition of the finalists has been
held at the Saatchi Gallery in London. In 2024 this will run from June 14th until July 7th. It runs alongside a category for Botanical Art.
Entrants must submit a body of work based on a series of six images that have a cohesive theme within the spectrum of gardens, gardeners, wildlife in gardens and plants.
My Portfolio was shot at Pensthorpe’s beautiful Millennium Garden and was awarded a Silver Medal!
Linda Gower
Pink Lady® Food Photographer of the Year
This competition is the world’s leading celebration of food photography, and was founded in 2011 by Caroline Kenyon with a small team dedicated to the promotion of this important art form. Since then, well over 100,000 entries have been received from almost 100 countries.
Open to professional and non-professional, old and young, these photography awards celebrate the very best i
n food photography from around the world, so I was thrilled to be a finalist in the 2024 awards, and invited to the celebration event at the Mall Galleries in London. Hosted by TV chef Andy Oliver, the evening was sponsored by Champagne Taittinger, and the canapés were superb!
My photograph, “Shall I Share?” taken on Cromer pier, was Highly Commended.
Joy Pitts
10,000 Used Labels
The 10,000 used labels represent our best clothes set aside for wearing to church on Sundays, the ceremonial garment revealing stories of image renewal and twenty first century consumption. The sculpture has been described as ‘an extravagant rescue of fashionable waste’. It provides a record of people and their garments, the shops that sell clothes and the speed of change in fashion and dress.
A medieval cope worn by a bishop was designed to advertise news; finely embroidered detail would depict the life of Christ and seek to transform the wearer during ecclesiastical processions. In 2012 the sculpture was selected for the North Norfolk Exhibition Project at Salthouse 12, St. Margaret of Antioch Church, Cley-next-the-Sea, Norfolk.
Joy Pitts
Turning 1000s of clothing labels into works of art.
Debbie Lyddon
Bark Tanning
Sails, tarpaulins and nets are found all around the coast and I take inspiration from how they are made and used. Referencing traditional practices of waterproofing and preserving these utilitarian objects I evoke my surroundings using the materials and processes of the natural environment to create a connection between the world we live in, and the lives and actions of its inhabitants
The work in these images was inspired by a visit to the Grimsay Boat Haven in the Outer Hebrides where I saw old sails that had been dyed with cutch to preserve them from the effects of the weather. Cutch comes from the heartwood of the Acacia Catechu tree which grows in East Asia, India and other parts of Asia. It is a
As well as cutch other tannin rich plants can be used and all around the world fishermen and sailors of the past have used various plants and barks to preserve and protect their sails and ropes. In the South Pacific mangrove tree bark was used, and in Newfoundland sailors and fishermen harvested and boiled their ropes and sails in birch bark.
I like to make work that connects to my environment and so as well as using cutch,
These images show small pocket like containers that have been bark tanned with both cutch and oak.
________________________________________