Gulls of Hastings is a new exhibition from Charlie Moon.
After his successful exhibition at The Crown in the snug at age 11, Charlie is bringing his new works back to the main room at The Crown at the age of 13.
Inspired by his home town and love of common birds, Charlie believes that creatures don't need to be rare to be fascinating, exciting and appreciated, especially where the magic of nature is at play.
Where others see pests, Charlie sees unique characters and personal stories of Hastings and hopes that you will too through his bright bold colours.
5% of all sales will be donated to Mallydams Wood animal rescue centre, RSPCA.
"Hi, my name is William Ede-Smith, I'm an autistic artist who lives in Eastbourne. I'm a sculptor, and landscape painter.
In my paintings I try to invoke a sense of liminal space, fixed geographically but not to a moment in time.
I'm a member of the indiVISIBLE art collective which promotes artists from underrepresented backgrounds, and Outside In which promotes artists who face significant barriers to the art world.
As The Crown very generously doesn't take a commission on art sales, I'll be donating 20% of all sales here, through my own website, and anywhere else throughout April, to Little Gate Farm, which supports autistic people into employment."
“Folklore and history, especially the stories from the land around us, are central to my work. They tell stories of resilience, transformation, and survival.
This collection of work explores my personal experiences of mental illness, including Body Dysmorphic Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and my hospitalisation at ‘Bedlam’ (Bethlem Royal Hospital).
My stay at Bedlam was the hardest, most intense experience of my life, and often, not what I expected...Death days, superstition obstacle courses, fear-themed fancy dress, singing, dancing, and art. I faced my fears through pioneering therapies.
Now in a place of reflection and recovery, my work represents a vital reconnection to artistic expression that was once suppressed by illness.
I’ve been working with textiles, stemming from my complicated relationship with clothing and an interest in costume. I’ve been cutting up my own clothes and repurposing fabric, inspired by signal flags—simple shapes and bold colours that convey urgent messages. While we are encouraged to talk about mental health, it can be difficult to find the right words. I’m looking for new ways to say things.”
dedicated to Lyra
“In the corners of my memory live my Enchanted Creatures. Fragments of Fairy Tales, the magic of the circus, Memento Mori of Victorian taxidermy, the wonder and fear of childhood ~ all exist and collide in my imagination and have been brought to life as my Enchanted Creatures with precious fabrics and loving stitches. Each piece is unique and handmade by me in my little cottage by the sea. And they may, or may not be, renditions of creatures that are real…
There is a memory to cloth and the ability to heal in the working of each stitch and each of my creatures embodies this process of healing and memory. Antique textiles, my great Nana’s broken string of pearls, Victorian jet, discarded wedding dresses ~ precious scraps and mementos are stitched into life ~ A cabinet of enchanted curiosities in the heart of Hastings Old Town.
By day, I run a dressmaking school and delve into the archives of fashion and film history and share my sewing and crafting adventures through videography. By night, I bring my enchanted creatures to life.”
Tara Deighton is a Textile Artist specialising in heritage and traditional Stitch Craft.
Emma Scutt is an artist and illustrator living in Hastings. She studied art at O and A level, followed by a BA degree in Illustration from Norwich School of Art.
Emma creates hand-painted illustrations for her own range of prints, greetings cards and mugs featuring feminist icons and popular characters from film, television and music, as well as painting commissions. She also uses her art to help raise awareness of human issues, exhibiting paintings which tackle subjects such as FGM, refugees, childlessness and menopause.
Like so many artists Emma was lured to the seaside by the extraordinary light and constantly changing colours of the sea and the big skies. Since moving from London to Hastings she has drawn on the town, the people and the ocean as inspiration for her art, and for the past three years has produced a limited edition Hastings calendar featuring watercolour illustrations of favourite places, views and buildings, and the Jack in the Green and Bonfire night processions.
Emma has exhibited extensively at London venues including the Houses of Parliament, the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow, and the Mall Gallery; and in Hastings in group shows at the Hastings Museum and Tadhg Mae Gallery. This is her first solo show in Hastings.
All framed original watercolour paintings are for sale, giclee prints are available to order.
I am a printmaker living in St Leonards and I specialise in Limited Edition Etchings which involves the skill of making a printing plate and then printing that successfully.
My work is cartoon like and amusing and colourful and full of texture and patterns. Recently I have been cutting up and combining different types of printmaking to make a unique one off picture. Working like this leads to ideas such as adding beads and buttons which in turn catch the light and add an extra element to the picture. I specialise in birds both real and imagined, but also have dogs, cats, giraffes, fish, seahorses and now boats on the sea in my repertoire…
I try and add some movement to my characters and my birds are often walking or flying and I hope people will smile when they look at my pictures as I have tried to make their everyday lives amusing…
"Meaning in Moments" explores how even fleeting experiences can carry profound significance. The show reflects on how emotions—both joyful and difficult—bring depth to our lives. At the same time, it reminds us that even the bad moments won’t last forever.
The work has been created using scrap and reclaimed materials, breathing new life into things often overlooked or discarded. It’s about finding beauty in the imperfect and telling stories through textures shaped by time, reflecting the wabi-sabi philosophy of appreciating the transient and the unfinished.
I paint from memory, and I am interested in the interpretation of the natural world, the way that landscapes and memories change over time and how these changes can be reflected in painting. Through these imagined landscapes, which often slip into the dream-like, I sometimes use repetitive lines to echo the fluid, wave-like patterns of dreams and thoughts, like stepping into a place between waking and sleeping, transforming the landscape into something otherworldly.
By using layers of translucent paint which allow shadows and shapes to be partly revealed, I try to convey the ongoing process of change and adaptation that defines the landscape with a sense of what came before. I like this idea as a visual metaphor for memory. I find the layers of past paintings or ‘under paintings’ intriguing, they form the story of the painting. They are the ‘mistakes’ and the compositions that didn’t quite work, but are integral to the finished piece.
My previous experience as a wallpaper and textile designer has influenced the way I work. I will often use simplified shapes, blocks of colour and repeating patterns in my landscapes and the finished piece often has a strong sense of design and print-like quality.
Sun, Sea and Saveloys is a cheerful mash up of local landscapes, street art Saveloy motifs and illustrative detail. Georgie Wheeler is a local artist and muralist, known primarily for her disgruntled seagulls on Bt boxes, she also curates group shows, teaches and illustrates for local enterprises.
This exhibition introduces a body of work produced in response to Georgie's enjoyment and immersion in our local landscapes around Hastings, Fairlight and Alexandra Park. A number of pieces were painted in situ, and added to later, lending an air of spontaneity and expression in the mark-making.
The saveloy character came about through Georgie's love of street art and impactful murals, she wanted to juxtapose a raw and slightly cynical character alongside the natural beauty and detail in landscapes.
Each tiny saveloy has been meticulously spray painted using a stencil and then painted into. The repetition of the act, is almost trying to impress on the audience the notion of the saveloy existing in real life in those locations.
Georgie recently sold a saveloy at Pett Level beach, in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, and was short listed for the RBSA portrait prize; she exhibits broadly across East Sussex.
The exhibition is up from Friday 1st November, with a private view from 6.30 on Thursday 7th November.
Tricia Bowler is a painter of land and townscapes in the Hastings, Rye area in both oil and watercolour. Her style is mainly figurative and she uses a natural colour palette, preferring muted earthy shades.
She studied art at A level and returned, after a long gap, to painting after she retired in 2014. She has developed her skills further by attending classes with local artist, Mike Funnell as well as workshops with local artist, Mark Fisher. She is a member of East Sussex Art Club and Tuesday Painters of Rye and exhibits her work at their annual exhibitions.
Tricia has a love of the coast and the sea as well as town scenes – she has painted landscapes of her home county, Norfolk and after moving to the Hastings area 25 years ago, has learned to love the Sussex coastline and the towns of Hastings and Rye. She has tried to capture the quirky nature of Hastings Old Town and the Stade with its iconic fishing boats as well as the charming streets of Rye in her paintings.