A GROUP of ‘Just Four Contemporary Artists’ from Hampshire – two of them from East Hampshire – are to be joined by a sculptor and three fellow artists for a lively exhibition of ‘Painting, Drawing and Sculpture’ at The City Space Gallery in Winchester.

The subject matter on show at the gallery in the Winchester Discovery Centre from June 17 to July 10 will range from landscapes and figures to still life in a variety of media, including watercolours, acrylics, oils, and collage with charcoal drawings.

An unusual sculpture will add a unique 3D dynamic to this work, using natural wood, metals, composites and coloured resins. The live wire linking the artists’ work is the evident vitality and energy of the group and their way of painting, which creates an interesting and diverse exhibition to visit.

Just Four Contemporary Artists is a group of four female artists who thrive on painting and working together.

Jo Ellis, Jenny Hill-Norton, Anthea Stilwell and Sophie Bartlett have all been involved in art and creative careers, including teaching, garden, interior and graphic design.

Jenny Hill-Norton is based at Newton Valence, near Selborne, where she has travelled from the detail of engraving glass, through scaled drawings for garden design to bursting out into the freedom and energy of watercolours. She is adding oils to the fun, particularly enjoying the depth of colour this brings. Her wide subject matter includes landscapes, flowers, still life, animals and nudes.

“The four of us find that we produce our most interesting and inspirational pieces while working together,” said Jenny, who co-founded the contemporary artists’ group. “There is a collective energy when we meet and our work is created for the sheer pleasure of painting.”

Their creative collaboration has made them brave and free to take risks which is releasing for them and exciting for the viewer.

“Our work is all about experiencing a place or object not about representing it,” said Jo Ellis. “Emotional reactions to what we are looking at are an important part of creating a painting, something unexpected often reveals itself in the process of working.”

Located in Swanmore, near Southampton, Jo trained as a graphic designer and illustrator. Returning to fine art she draws expressively in charcoal and then works into paint, enjoying the layering qualities of using mixed media, including watercolour, acrylic and oils.

With an emphasis on allowing the image to reveal itself in the process of working, she abstracts subject matter from nature, landscapes, seascapes and still life, but with a strong sense of the place or object.

Sophie Bartlett is based at her studio in Four Marks, near Alton, where she works in a variety of media, sometimes combining it with collage, working directly from the subject, from drawings or from memory. She describes her work as “loosely impressionistic” and encompassing still life, figures, as well as urban and industrial landscapes.

While group tutor Anthea Stilwell has now moved on and lives and works in Herefordshire, she studied at the Ruskin School of Drawing in Oxford before teaching art at Harrow School for 25 years.

She said: “My subject matter is wide-ranging, sometimes becoming abstract or semi-abstract, always built on drawing and often memory. I just enjoy the conversation and the struggle with whatever medium I have chosen. I never have an end in mind, I just stop when the work feels right”.

But this diversification is what makes the work of Just Four individual and expressive.

In Winchester, they will be joined by sculptor Craig Narramore and three fellow artists and friends – John Mackinlay, Elizabeth Shard and Jane Martin, from The Stilwell Group. This Hampshire-based art group has been working together for 10 years under the teaching of Anthea Stilwell.