Welcome to our Events page
Dragonfly Framing organises a selection of events each year to both engage and support local artists as well as provide attractions within the Bicester area.
We are co-ordinators for the popular Oxfordshire Artweeks that happens every May and run our own exhibition each year to help raise the profiles of artists and of course our chosen charity.
In 2024 the Bicester Art Network voted to have Bicester Autism as its chosen charity and there will be a series of activities to help raise much needed funds for them during this year.
We really hope that you'll join us as either a visitor or an artist and come along to support our events and we look forward to seeing soon, thank you.
Oxfordshire Artweeks Exhibition | 4th - 11th May 2024 | Weston Manor
Bicester Art Network is delighted to bring a fabulous collection of artists together in 2024 in a 12th-century Weston Manor Country Hotel set in 12 acres of mature gardens.
Venue
Sponsors
Speakers
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I am inspired by countryside walks and the changes in weather and season upon the landscape and enjoy translating these scenic discoveries into colourful linocuts. Themes for my work include trees, water and flowers and more recently a trip to Japan. My work is impressionistic in style; I’m interested in colour, light, depth and detail. Most of my prints are reduction linocuts which are relief prints formed with layers of colour which are cut and printed from the same block of lino, destroying the block in the process. I create a small, limited edition of every work, as each piece is created by hand, small variations make each one original.
I’ve been a full-time printmaker since 2012 when I moved to Bicester and created a simple printmaking studio at home so that I could develop my skills to the highest standards. I am a best seller on the Artfinder online marketplace and my linocuts have been displayed at the Royal Academy, the Bankside Gallery and Mall Galleries in London. My work sells to collectors across the UK and internationally.
I teach group lino cutting workshops at the Phoenix Studio in Towersey and other venues. Check my website for upcoming courses for adults at Stowe School. -
Hi, I am Amrita, a Surrealist Artist. My artistic journey began since childhood, in Odisha, India. Schooling & college colours for Art at Mayo College Girls’ School, Ajmer, Rajasthan, India. A Bachelor’s degree & two gold medals in Visual Arts from Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University, Baroda, Gujarat, India, I found myself in the retail sector as a Visual merchandiser, then followed my surreal energy to being an artist.
My paintings are my expression, a colourful surreal escape into my world. Concept driven & represents the invisible to be visible in my artworks. Everything around us - dreams, experiences, feelings & emotions inspires me in UK and India. My artworks are bold, bright, colourful with an element of nature & movement in them, engaging the surreal in real !
I am honoured to have showcased & achieved recognition for many of my works, through exhibitions in London, Northampton, Stafford & Milton Keynes and other competitions, in UK. I conduct 'Arty with Ams' art classes for children & Adults, Volunteer & get invited to Brooklands Farm Primary School as an Artist, & work on commissions as well.
Member of the newly formed South Asian Artists’ Community (SAAC) January 2024, Milton Keynes. -
Hello! My name is Carole Mockford and I have been making pottery since 2017 although, like many, I actually made my first pot at school many years ago. I worked for 20 plus years in higher education as a researcher in health services research at Oxford and Warwick universities. When I took early retirement in 2017, I signed up for an evening class in ceramics in Leamington Spa and I was hooked. I have since attended many individual workshops with experienced, well known, professional potters and have tried several different approaches to pottery making including slipware, raku, hand building and wheel throwing. I have my own small studio at home and my inspiration is drawn from what makes us smile when we use pottery which might be a casual drip of colour down the inside of a mug to a caterpillar munching the edge of a teapot lid! There is usually some humour in my designs. However, 2024 will be my third Oxfordshire Artweeks and this year I am trying something a little different and I have been focusing on wall and decorative art rather than functional but quirky items, although some smaller items will be available.
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Carolyn is a professional artist who paints a wide variety of subjects including seascapes , harbours and country scenes .,
Her iconic seascapes and harbours are featured in the RNLI calendars and diaries. They have an International following .
Her wave and beach scenes capture the movement and mood of the sea. She is widely recognised for her ability to paint the translucency of the water as the waves crash onto the shore .
Her paintings are in collections throughout the world from SanFrancisco to Sydney , from Canada to New Zealand .
Limited edition fine art prints are available as well as the beautiful original paintings she produces.
If you’d like to be transported to the sea, to your happy place do visit Carolyn’s exhibition for Art Weeks . -
Contemporary artist Cathy Read creates urban landscape paintings that reflect city life in all it's glory.
As an Occupational Therapist, Cathy used art to develop fine motor skills in children. Realising the artist dream remained during a career break, it was now or never or regret it. Since then, Cathy has tenaciously built her career, learning on the job.
The Style developed from early, predominantly circle based abstracts into urban landscapes, fuelled by a lifelong interest in buildings – rooted in a childhood dominated by the giant cotton mills of Middleton, Manchester. Cathy exhibits around the UK, Europe, and is collected as far afield as Canada, Africa, and New Zealand.
She lives in a chapel near Buckingham, which she converted with her husband. It is close enough to London to get an Urban Architecture fix when needed. Cathy splatters paint and sings loudly in her Buckinghamshire Studio, when not steering a canal boat along the British waterways and wielding a windlass. -
This year, I am exhibiting a very eclectic art selection, from seascape through to Still Life, human subject and even delicious food! I tend to paint a subject that attracts my attention, whether it is related to the balance of colours, the composition or the theme.
I am French and have lived in Oxfordshire for over 30 years. I started crafting and drawing with my daughters when they were growing up. In 2018, I set up a website and joined the Bicester Art Network, which was a newly created group of enthusiastic local artists. I started taking part in exhibitions and craft fairs and selling my art.
Although I first created my art using watercolour, acrylic and collage, I now almost exclusively use technical technology, designing on my iPad using a couple of fabulous Apps. I usually work from pictures which appeal to me, whether they are from holiday escapes or a bunch of flowers on a table, a personal experience or inspiration from a movie… I challenge myself painting various themes and playing with colours and shades. I am self-taught and love challenging myself with new styles.
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Hi, I am Amrita, a Surrealist Artist. My artistic journey began since childhood, in Odisha, India. Schooling & college colours for Art at Mayo College Girls’ School, Ajmer, Rajasthan, India. A Bachelor’s degree & two gold medals in Visual Arts from Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University, Baroda, Gujarat, India, I found myself in the retail sector as a Visual merchandiser, then followed my surreal energy to being an artist.
My paintings are my expression, a colourful surreal escape into my world. Concept driven & represents the invisible to be visible in my artworks. Everything around us - dreams, experiences, feelings & emotions inspires me in UK and India. My artworks are bold, bright, colourful with an element of nature & movement in them, engaging the surreal in real !
I am honoured to have showcased & achieved recognition for many of my works, through exhibitions in London, Northampton, Stafford & Milton Keynes and other competitions, in UK. I conduct 'Arty with Ams' art classes for children & Adults, Volunteer & get invited to Brooklands Farm Primary School as an Artist, & work on commissions as well.
Member of the newly formed South Asian Artists’ Community (SAAC) January 2024, Milton Keynes.
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My Name is Daniel Craft and I am a BA Honours Fine Art graduate from the University of Northampton.
Currently based in my home county of Oxfordshire, my artistic practice focuses on the utilization of digital editing and sculpting software to create colourful and vibrant images. These images are responses to how I and many other feel in the moment in relation to current politics and queer identity.
I am known for having input (while also exhibiting as well) in the curation of different exhibitions. These include (with support from art galleries Two Queens and NN Contemporary), “Constellate” (2022) and working with the owners of the Grade I Listed House Lamport Hall in a show entitled “Forecast” (2022) -
David R Meeks - born in Kettering Northamptonshire. David now lives in Oxfordshire working as a professional artist and tutor.
He received no formal training whatsoever. He relies purely on his own talent and natural versatility. His work has been published as greeting cards as well as open and limited prints.
His paintings and prints are now eagerly collected by UK and overseas visitors. His success has led to his paintings being in many private collections in this country and abroad. His work can be found as far a field as America, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Australia, where his water colours of the Oxfordshire countryside have become renowned for their pleasing professional appeal. -
Dianne Augustine (b. 1965, UK) is a disabled women of colour who uses art as therapy for pain management. While dealing with her health challenges Dianne’s aim her artwork to transcend the limitations of her disabilities.
Dianne’s practice, she prefers to uses mixed media of acrylic and oil paints, collage, pastels, ink, pens and crayons to illuminate and transform her idea on to the canvas.
An Artist comment on Dianne series “Sanity” “to be contradictory as it shows proof of an enviable creative health.” Dianne has found great healing and comfort in her artwork. In this series she also wanted to show her audacious, vibrant and inner strength she gets this series. -
I have always loved creating artworks. It is an enjoyable (and sometimes frustrating) challenge to try and capture the beauty and interest of a subject in a form that people can then enjoy in their own home. I am inspired by the beauty of flowers, gardens and the countryside. Being originally from the south coast I also love coastal scenes and these feature in some of my paintings. I mainly work in oils but also like using pastels and other media.
I have taken part in numerous exhibitions throughout Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire.
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I am a local bicester artist, I have been painting and drawing my whole life, learning and teaching myself new techniques constantly, I love colour and texture and exploring all kinds of themes, my style and taste is eclectic and I think that shows through in my work. I still love to play with the paint and explore its capabilities.
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Miranda Markham
Miranda Markham is an Oxfordshire based artist painting in watercolour and oil. She took up painting 8 years ago and enjoys painting across a wide variety of subjects although her speciality is still life and portraiture. Her style is loose and impressionistic inspired by her frequent trips to France and the beautiful summer light.
Miranda founded the Art in the Countryside charity exhibition in Newton Purcell where she partners with organiser Graham Perryman every June to celebrate local artists exhibiting and selling their work with a rural theme.
Miranda paints and sells her work throughout the year and is available for commissions -
I am an amateur ceramicist who enjoys nothing more than playing with clay in my garden shed studio. I like to create functional items that will be bring joy to the every day, but I am also exploring the more sculptural side of the medium. I prefer hand building techniques, and intend for things to look and feel hand made.
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Susan Harding
I've been taking photographs since I was 11 years old. Starting with a twin lens camera that once belonged to my father.
I mostly take pictures of wildlife and fauna as well as military aircraft.
Resently I decided to print some of favourites out.
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From books, buildings, and beyond.
An illustrated journey to over 800 independent booksellers via Oxford and Oxfordshire, landmarks and landscapes, maps and the imagined world. With a style somewhere between Rex Whistler and Edward Ardizzone, my work is both detailed and playful. -
As a relative new comer to painting, my initial interest was in using watercolour, however I also enjoy creating images through oils on canvas. My work in both watercolour and oil is based on images that I have captured from visits to numerous locations, some local to where I live and many from much further afield. My own photography has played a large part in sourcing topics for my paintings, however I also enjoy the concept of creating outdoor sketches, which have materialised from visits to coastal areas, national parks and the more rural areas of the Scottish Highlands. My involvement with the Bicester Arts Network has enabled me to liaise with many other painters through similar local art groups and enjoyed the opportunities of working with more experienced artists.
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I’m a Chinese Brush Painter who dabbles in oil, acrylic and collage. In fact, any medium which captures the essence and life force of the subject.
After a lifetime ( and a half!) in commerce, I'm following the career I should have had - in art. I discovered Chinese Brush Painting ten years ago, and immediately felt at home with the beauty, spirituality, philosophy and the culture of this ancient art. So much of my work is ink and chinese watercolour on plant based papers like Mulberry or on silk. However, I also love the lusciousness of oil and the brightness of acrylic. Whatever the medium, I aim to follow the traditions of Chinese art to capture the essence, the lifeforce, the "chi" of the subject matter and transmit this to the viewer.
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Born in Lancashire, I have lived in Oxfordshire for approximately 30 years. I only came to the discovery that I could draw in 2018 on the death of my father. I picked up a pencil and drew a lily and couldn't quite believe I'd done it. I then went on to draw a few pencil portraits for friends and relatives.
Drawing then stopped until I was furloughed in 2020 when I decided to try coloured pencils. From that point on I have been on a rollercoaster of a journey which resulted in my first exhibiting in Oxfordshire Artweeks, followed by Artists in the Countryside in 2022. Initially my work was animal portraits but as my confidence has grown I have explored other subjects and, more recently, a different medium. I draw what inspires me and as a country girl I am very much drawn to wildlife, the countryside and the coast. I do however love challenging myself and as a result braved human portraits and the human form. My new medium is pastel pencil which I am loving.
This has turned into a real passion for me, it’s my yoga with pencils, my happy place, my escape! I particularly love taking the opportunity to showcase my work and I am very happy to talk to people about it. It has been quite a journey and being completely self-taught I hope I can inspire others just to try.