Farnham and Haslemere are creative hubs for the visual arts in Surrey and many local artists will feature in AppArt 2023.

Both towns have thriving art societies and the area is home for a number of professional and leisure artists. 

Ronnie Ireland is a leading light in the Farnham art scene and he is always busy teaching and providing demonstrations for groups throughout Surrey and beyond. His own work is intriguing, drawing the viewer in and requiring them to make their own interpretation. 

There is often a slightly surreal feel to his work and Hush and Dark Laughter are both thought provoking. 

Roger Dellar can often be seen outside in the Haslemere area painting en plein and he is a prolific artist. His interest in observing people in their environments has influenced him to record and interpret them, capturing light effects.

Preparing for rehearsals is his observation of a ballet class in nearby Headley. 

He has a busy schedule of demonstrations and shows his work in national exhibitions and is honorary president of Haslemere Arts Society. 

Denise Jaques is a master of mosaics and an award-winning artist, based in Farnham. She makes contemporary shimmering mosaic art for the home and garden.

Her work has a strong sense of colour, pattern and rhythm and plays with the idea of distorted reflections. Her wall-mounted panels dazzle the entrance to the Sculpture Trail and provide a glittering and colourful display.

Emma Godden is a ceramicist and teacher living in Hindhead. Her time is split between making her own ceramics and teaching pottery to adults. Her inspiration comes from nature, including wildflowers and seed-heads that she finds while walking in the local countryside, as well as flowers and birds in her garden. 

AppArt will be showing  several groups of her exquisite and detailed plant sculptures including Seed heads. 

A sculptor with a sense of mischief and fun is Alan Wallis and he creates some wonderful animals, such as Mr Fox complete with a pheasant feather in his mouth.

His stoneware fairies, elves and Mr Gnome will be appropriately partly hidden in the many nooks and crannies of Prior’s Field School’s  Gertrude Jekyll-inspired garden.

All art mediums are represented at AppArt and professional photographer Peter Searight (The Remarkable Studio) has won national awards for his work. He explores light and colours in the landscape and skies. He has produced a series of black-and-white images of scenes from the western isles of Scotland and Touching The Heavens is a view of a rocky shard piercing a dramatic sky.

Shirley Watson’s medium is lino prints and she is showing a number of well-known local attractions including Frensham Little Pond and Box Hill. The detail she achieves represents hours of work and multiple prints to achieve the range of colours displayed.

One of the benefits of running AppArt exhibitions and sculpture trails is that Evelyn and Gwyn Phillips have developed their own small gallery and sculpture garden in their home in Grayswood. 

Each year we add to our collection and last year it was Flow by Andrew Lee. Andrew has created a mobile sculpture of stainless steel “telltales” that react to the wind, sun and rain to create ever changing vistas that we can view from our studio. 

As part of Grayswood’s Village Open Gardens, our sculpture garden will be open to the public on Sunday, June 11.

AppArt will open daily from Saturday, April 1 and run until April 16 from 10am to 4pm. Admission is free. 

For further information go to https://www.appartonline.co.uk or https://www.facebook.com/AppArtSurrey or email Evelyn or Gwyn Phillips at [email protected] or call 01428 648393.