Take Ten

On Sunday 28th May open 12noon - 5pm Saturday 27th, Monday 29th 10am - 5pm

TAKE TEN was formed in 2016 at Leek School of Art (Buxton & Leek College under University of Derby) as a loose  collective of female mature students brought together by their studies on the college's Foundation Degree in Creative Art & Design Practice. Members are all passionate about the creative arts and wish to identify as working artists who are keen to learn from each other and from other makers and artists.
Take Ten have shown together at Derbyshire Open Arts and other exhibitions including Astound 2016 (Nicholson Gallery), Arts in the Park and the Staffordshire Creative Arts & Design Fair at The Foxlowe, Leek. Individual members also show at events such as Staffordshire Open and Sheffield Printmakers.

TAKE TEN are:

Sandie Bebbington who uses cast and modelled ceramics alongside borrowed artefacts from a collective past to tell the stories of The Potteries craftspeople, their lives and skills. Sandie comes from a family with long associations with the Staffordshire pottery industries.

Mitra Behnegar who works mainly in mixed media painting, drawing on her Iranian background and the rich symbolism of Eastern Art together with her observation of modern life to produce fresh, colourful images that are 'of the moment'.

Julia Brownsword is inspired by the Peak Park where she lives, runs and cycles in all weathers. The freedom and energy of her journeys is expressed in mixed media, texile collage and prints for cushions and lampshades.

Michelle Hart is inspired by pattern, shape and texture, exploring these qualities in found objects such as stones and seaside artefacts using a mixture of collograph and drypoint printing. She has developed a range of textile prints.

Sarah Jane Higgins is a contemporary impressionist watercolour artist featuring local landscapes, wildlife and architecture. She has also created a range of decorative ceramic vessels using surface patterns and soft, rich glazes.
Laura Hyland is a contemporary mixed media artist whose works, which are often on a large scale, are expressionist and vibrant with immediate visual impact. She is currently working on a humanitarian project highlighting the plight of the Syrian refugees.
Marie Keane is developing her practice as a printmaker using linocut and screenprint. She is inspired by the social activity of birds in rural and urban landscapes, seeing her subjects as characters with stories to tell.
Norma Lucas paints still life oils and watercolours in a fresh, contemporary vein using a limited and harmonious palette. Her compositions contain simplified objects, subtle abstraction and elements of Cubism.
Lesley Nixon paints intuitively to capture her feelings of place in the landscape, inspired by the rugged windswept terrain and big skies of the Staffordshire moorland uplands where she lives 'on top of the world'.
Margaret Yates is currently working with fabrics and paper using natural processes and recycled materials to reflect her experience of the world. Recent work includes a range of vessels in handmade and moulded fibres which explore the idea of fragility.