The View from Here: Community Art in the Roundhouse – Meet the Artists

Puddle with Leaves, Vale of Health, Hampstead Heath
Photograph
Framed £100

Clocktower Puddle
Photograph
Framed £50

Emily first discovered the Meadow Orchard six years ago singing there with local choir Songworks N8. She was struck and inspired by the magical space and the wonderful sense of community and collaboration which has made it the beautiful sanctuary we experience today. She now runs several singing circles and fireside jams there with local musicians across the year.

Local photographer Emily Hannah was born and raised in North London. Her passion is finding hidden worlds and beauty in our everyday lives. The two photographs exhibited here were from her series of reflections and puddles. Her images are mainly around Crouch End, Hornsey, Highgate and Hampstead Heath.

Email emilyvhannah@gmail.com
Website EmilyVHannahPhotography

Willow Arch, Meadow Orchard Project 2024
Water-colour
Price: £190

This original water-colour was painted at the Meadow Orchard Project garden on a cold drizzly January afternoon. Suddenly, late afternoon sunlight appeared and all the wonderful colours of the willow were revealed. 

My name is Susan Carter, I am a local artist and private Art teacher who has lived and worked in N8 for over 30 years. My artworks, predominantly water-colours, result from my own response to natural forms, particularly flowers and plants, land and seascapes. 

I am inspired by the effect of changing light and weather conditions in our local area, as well as British areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and overseas. I sell my originals, prints and greeting cards throughout North London through galleries, shops, craft-fairs and my studio-based Art sales.

My adult and children’s Art classes run separately from my own N8 studio. I also run an after-school Art club at Rokesly Junior School. We use a variety of briefs and mediums exploring the individual blossoming artists’ creativity.

Email sjc.artinn8@gmail.com
Website susancarterartinn8.com

Angel
Acrylic
Price: £100 Framed

Angel was 3/4 painted in the hills of Andalucía and completed recently here in Crouch End. It’s in dedication to my beautiful friend Joaquin who taught me the art of scratching and channelling.

Email carolinejones41@yahoo.co.uk
Website facebook.com/61557417173767

Meadow
Acrylic
Price: £50

Meadow was created as a recent reflection on my experiences at the Meadow Orchard Project in Crouch End (N8). My connection with the project began in 2008 when I met mosaic artist Rachel Fell. At the time, I was working as an arts therapeutic coordinator at Highgate Wood School, working closely with students with special educational needs (SEN).

Rachel became an integral part of our initiatives, leading several mosaic workshops at the school. Our collaboration resulted in multiple projects where students not only learned the art of mosaics but also showcased their creations in exhibitions over the years. Notably, their work was displayed at venues such as Lauderdale House (N6) and Coffee Circus (N8), with the added honor of featuring some of Rachel’s exquisite pieces.

During the summer months, we extended our workshops to the Meadow Orchard, a volunteer-run community garden, meadow, and orchard located in Crouch End . The students were deeply engaged and took great pride in their mosaic projects. One significant exhibition took place at Grahame Fine Arts in Crouch End, where we hosted a private viewing attended by the Lord Mayor of Haringey.

Each of these exhibitions garnered attention in the local press, with write-ups in the Ham & High newspaper highlighting the collaborative efforts between Meadow Orchard and Highgate Wood School.

BRAVELY BACK TO EARTH
Acrylic on canvas

ON A MOROCCAN FARM
Balhaaje Oliviero and friend, offers to
help his blind life-long friend.

Love of meadow and a need to express this has carried us through covid times. We are blessed to be here, sharing wonderful energies. So our drawings, paintings express this joy. Or our fears, as in painting Bravely Back to Earth, if we do not care enough to change old habits! Come bring your joy.

Email annaloucreative@icloud.com

Ruben is a local artist, who regularly exhibits with the Islington Art Society, recently in the Hornsey Library show. He has done many sketches and drawings of the Meadow Orchard project in it’s myriad stages and seasons over the last 15 years.

He has a longstanding connection to the Meadow Orchard project from the very beginning in 2010. His partner, Geraldine, was one of the founding members of the project and led and contributed enormously to the everyday running of the site, coordinating volunteers and involving the local community with a true sense of consensus and generosity of spirit.

Instagram @cyclefloresart
Email cycleflores@gmail.com

Professional mosaic artist, Rachel Fell, is one of the founding members of The Meadow Orchard Project. She was involved in it’s humble beginnings in 2010. The rest is history!

She has two mosaics on the show, exploring the themes of nature and DNA. Also on display is her linocut of the oak tree that greets visitors next to the Cob House.

Rachel created the main entrance gate signage of the Meadow Orchard logo in mosaic form. If you come down to see the art show be sure to look up at the sign as you enter the site.

Rachel was also involved in the construction of the beautiful Cob House.

She says, ‘My mosaic making life grew, all are handmade with love. I try my best to recycle/ upcycle broken plates cups tiles etc to prevent landfill overload. Like the Meadow Orchard Project ethos I share people care, earth care, fair share.’

Email rachelfell@hotmail.com
Instagram @thirdrockmosaics

Margate,
February 2021
Photograph

I’m an East Finchley resident originally from Milford Haven in West Wales. Have been a Londoner for 17 years. I studied professional photography during lockdown with London Institute of Photography and now work as an event and portrait photographer and creativity coach using somatics.

I first discovered Meadow Orchard when taking photos for the beekeepers website recently and want to spend more time there when possible.

My personal work focuses on capturing moments rich in atmosphere and mood, often with a cinematic quality. Each image carries the weight of an untold story, leaving space for the viewer to fill in the gaps. This photo was taken in Margate where my Grandmother lived as a small child.

Email sarahhowells.com
Instagram @sarahhowellsphotography

Small village
Summer 2022
Coffee on paper

I am donating this painting to The Meadow Orchard Project in memory of my grandmother who died in November 2024.

Liubov Dutka is a Ukrainian artist and illustrator from Kherson region.

This coffee painting is a heartfelt memory of the artist’s grandparents’ homeland in Western Ukraine, before they moved to the Kherson region.

It captures not a specific moment, but the feeling of a place that lives on in the heart.The scene shows rolling hills, forests, a river, and a quiet house with a thatched roof, surrounded by nature. It’s a peaceful village landscape filled with warmth, nostalgia, and a deep connection to family roots.

Using coffee adds depth and softness, as if the warmth of memory has soaked into the paper. More than just a landscape, this is a portrait of memory, preserved in earthy tones.

Instagram @artbyliubovdutka

Kothar, 2023
21 x 20 x 4cm
Glazed terracotta
From the series The Masks of Carthage

The Masks of Carthage and are named after Canaanite and Phoenician deities.

Gad – Fortune and good luck
Eshmun – Healing, renewal of life, spring vegetation
Reshef – War, plague, the underworld
Kothar – Craftsmanship, magic and poetry, the divine artisan
Aglibol – Moon god

I am predominantly a ceramic artist, I enjoy working with my hands, playing with earth, with plants, minerals and metals, air, water and fire. My practice tends towards the ancestral, in dialogue with ancient worlds, real or imagined.

The granddaughter of Orthodox Jews from communities in the Carpathian Mountains, who fled to Palestine, where my mother was born, I am drawn to look beneath my family’s founding narratives. To research their roots. To find wisdom.

I made the Masks of Carthage during a period of connection with the deities worshipped immediately before the arrival of the one all encompassing God. On a quest to understand what may have been lost.

Website amywilsonpottery.com
Instagram @amywilsonpotter

Meadow Orchard Dwelling

Becky Boo is a digital artist from Ireland living in north London who specialises in video and modern dada art forms. She also likes exploring other art forms such as collage, acrylic and watercolour.

Becky discovered the meadow when exploring local volunteering opportunities in her area.

Since discovering the garden she loves visiting and taking parts in events. She often visits to capture content for the Meadow Orchard social media channels and she likes photographing the plants and wildlife in the space too.

Instagram @becky_boo_art

Flower Garden Mid Summer
Coloured glass, copper foil, and lead came

Iris
Coloured glass, copper foil, and lead came

Alan was drawn to the Meadow Orchard due to the amazing potential of the site. Offering a beautiful outdoor space for learning, sharing knowledge, and the sheer range of possibilities it offered. Natural building, willow and oak coppice, green wood, community workshops and permaculture. With people care one of the projects founding values, Alan embraces the power of community to help achieve more together.

Alan is a maker, working in a multitude of different media and enjoys the process as much as the resulting work. Working in both 2D and 3D. The leaded glass panels on display at meadow orchard were an attempt to help capture some of the strength of flower colour at the height of summer in a flower garden. Sharing some of the joy that the beauty of nature brings us each year.

Alan has been a regular volunteer at Meadow Orchard for almost two years. Helping to facilitate many of the current projects and running a regular Saturday Ukulele club too.

Email Briggs_bughouses@yahoo.co.uk
Twitter @Briggsbughouses

The Meadow Orchard in Spring
Watercolour on paper

The Meadow Orchard in Summer
Watercolour on paper

Kristin is a visual artist, mainly working in painting and photography. These watercolours showing the meadow and trees in their spring and summer glory were painted on site. She enjoys spending time painting and drawing in the natural surroundings of the site together with other artists and volunteers.

She is a regular volunteer and member of the Meadow Orchard Project, primarily involved in the looking after the wild spaces such as the meadow itself, tree care and hedging and pruning. Kristin is mindful of the importance of permaculture principles and community in the daily work of the project.

Instagram @kristin.erken
Website kristinerken.com

The Blue Shed, Meadow Orchard Project 2024
Goache and pencil original

As someone who is passionate about wildlife and urban rewilding initiatives I was delighted to be welcomed to Meadow Orchard on a trip with Crouch End Sketchers. It was a rainy winter’s day but the sun came out and picked up the light on the humble blue shed.

I try to work sustainably in my art practice, choosing water based oils and gouache and taking care to minimise anything toxic which goes into our waterways when I wash out my brushes and pots. In fact I rarely waste paint and use any leftover to create backgrounds for my next painting.

It’s a pleasure to be involved in this precious project and celebrate the achievement of everyone who’s made it happen, and of course Nature herself.

Instagram @thesensitivescribbler

Cate is a local visual artist and designer who has volunteered with the Meadow Orchard Project for the last 3 years.

These illustrative and decorative images were created on site working together with other artists and draw their inspiration from the trees and flowers that grow here.

Breda has been a member and volunteer with the Meadow Orchard Project over a number of years.

Her chosen medium for this show is mosaic.

Confidence
Acrylic on paper

Email angeliquesmith@gmail.com
Website elementalhomeeducation.co.uk

Life Force
Carved and polished sycamore, Japanese cedar, and oak,  mounted on Ancaster stone. H = 80 cm
£850

Vortex
Carved and polished oak, polychromed pine and lignum vitae mounted on Ancaster stone.
H = 132 cm
£850

Hand-built four-corned vessel
Fired raku, with applied wax colour
H = 21 cm
£80

Hand-built vessel
Raku fired, waxed, with gold paint inside
H = 30cm
£80

David T Waller – Visual Artist, Teacher and Art Therapist. 

I was born in Bedford (1963) and survived a village upbringing! Following an amazing 2 year foundation course I left home to study Art and Design in Cheltenham. Here I graduated with BA (Hons) Fine Art sculpture. Moved to north London (Crouch End) in 1987 where I’ve lived ever since. Following a number of years in full time theatre admin work I trained to become a post-compulsory teacher. Taught variety of Art disciplines to adults for over 20 years. Further training allowed me to become an Art Therapist. Recently finished two years volunteering for a charity. I’ve my own studio in Wood Green. I currently teach stone carving in an un-used Vicarage at St. Luke’s Church in Holloway; Life clay modelling at The Art Stables in East Finchley, and private wood carving lessons in Wood Green.

I was introduced to the Meadow Orchard Project by Madeleine my ex-wife herself a retired artist, and current singer/songwriter. I’d planned to visit for quite a while, and as I’ve recently become involved with working two allotment plots in Peckham with my Natasha, my partner, I felt the confidence and impulse to come along and take a look

I’m a sensitive, imaginative, practical, and clearly creative person. I seek a balance and harmony in all things! As a visual artist I have explored many mediums; particularly I enjoy creating installations (often with my twin brother, John)  where we use 100’s of toy cars to create a mosaic design resembling a rainbow. See below: Car Atlas – Rainbow Ally Pally Festival 2012. 

Following a number of years making and selling figurative sculpture, paintings and drawings, wood and stone carving, and ceramics, I now create 3-D ‘scenes’ in hand-built wall frames. These reveal parts of my personal journey. They are detailed, and finished to a high standard. They offer a sense of nostalgia, playfulness, surprise and personal insight! I could describe my working style as an ‘Imagineer’ (a term I came across in an article recently) . Here’s two examples: ‘The Consequence of Flight’ , and Dreaming of Just and Un-just Causes’ 

The Consequences Of Flight (Temple of the Unconscious series) 2016
Assembled wood, brass and metal objects, wallpaper, gold wedding rings and iron handle.
H = 36cm
£495

Email dtwaller@hotmail.com