Here, Now Booklet final

Anexhibitionoflocalartists

3 April - 13 May

Roxana de Rond

A Cambridge-based artist and illustrator, Roxana de Rond captures everyday moments with warmth, humour, and a keen eye for storytelling. Her illustrations, often set against the familiar backdrop of Cambridge, reflect a sense of contentment and connection to place. Alongside her Illustration practice, she creates bespoke commissions for individuals and businesses, translating shared experiences into vibrant, narrative-driven imagery.

“The works in this exhibition are all about storytelling. I see stories playing out everywhere I look it might be between dogs, friends or a group of people admiring a baby (see if you can spot them in the Fort St. George). These stories connect us to those around us, whether through recognition, empathy or just a little bit of humour. Cambridge has many beautiful landmarks, but it is also a place filled with everyday experiences. No matter how busy or calm the space is, everywhere has a story to tell. You just might have to look a little closer. In that sense, my pictures are just like life.”

Gianne Amparo

“I would love to have collaborated with Saul Steinberg, (known for his mid-century illustrations in The New Yorker) as his line work was impeccable. Another artist I admire is Taro Gomi, a Japanese children’s book author and illustrator. His simple stories and playful images have always been inspiring.”

Gianne Amparo draws inspiration from her Filipino heritage and childhood memories. Her work is rich in texture, created using offset monoprinting, colour pencils, acrylic, and pastels. After completing an MA in Children’s Book Illustration at Cambridge School of Art, she developed a passion for creating layered imagery. Gianne hopes to continue crafting board books and picture books, bringing cultural representation to young readers.

Holly Sandiford

“In alternative photography, I enjoy pushing boundaries by combining unconventional processes. This includes techniques like double exposures and film soups, where I incorporate materials from the environment such as sea buckthorn berries rich in vitamin C, soil, mud, water, and local lichen—into the development process. “

Merging art and science, Holly Sandiford’s practice is rooted in experimental photography, fieldwork, and direct engagement with nature. Working with analogue and cameraless photography, she explores the hidden narratives within soil, plants, and the night sky. Her Space and Soil series features expired photographic paper painted with soil gathered during nocturnal walks. As a finalist in The Royal

Photographic Society’s Female Science Photographer of the Year 2023, she is dedicated to making art that is accessible and thought-provoking.

Helen Cook

A painter working in watercolour, Helen Cook transitioned from a career in computational biology to explore the intersection of art and sustainability. Her delicate watercolour paintings depict common wildflowers often dismissed as weeds, inviting viewers to reconsider their beauty and ecological significance. The soft, blurred edges of her work suggest reflection of categorisation in both nature and human perception.

“Before I was an artist art is my third career — I was a scientist. The process of experimentation is something I use constantly in my art practice, especially in understanding the technicalities of working with materials as I do without tightly controlling them.”

Katherine Leckie

“I feel like I fail to travel in nature as much as I “should “ as a nature inspired artist due to limits of time and commitments. But I’ve travelled widely in my imagination and a lot of my work has developed out of this day dreaming process. ”

Katherine Leckie’s paintings navigate the space between observed reality and the realm of daydreams. Her work celebrates the sense of immersion we experience in nature and the spontaneous flow of imagination it sparks. Using acrylics and mixed media on canvas, Katherine creates rich, textured layers that convey the dynamic interplay between nature, water, earth and botanical forms. Rather than relying on preconceived landscapes, her creative process is driven by intuition, guided by memory and the emotional power of colour. As her paintings evolve, they blend past experiences with impressions of the natural world, becoming a visual record of both external landscapes and inner reflections.

Emily Jolley

“Being willing to fail is so important to learning and creating something new. What might start out as mistakes could turn into a breakthrough. Pulling something back from the brink of disaster needs energy and problem solving which is very different to going through the motions of a tried-and-tested formula. I also love including a balance of spontaneity/chance and deliberation in my work. This extends to when I draw, for instance using ink and feathers as well as more traditional pencils and pens. ”

Concentrating on form, line and colour, Emily Jolley’s abstract paintings explore the delicate balance between structure and spontaneity. Inspired by Abstract Expressionism and artists such as Lee Krasner, Helen Frankenthaler and Joan Mitchell, her work is a dialogue between intuitive marks and considered compositions. Jolley’s process embraces accident and control, creating gestural, expressive pieces that invite contemplation.

Sarah Street

Sarah Street explores myths and fables of ancient Greece as depicted in Italian Renaissance paintings by artists such as Rubens, Poussin, Botticelli and Tiepolo. As a counterpoint to these turbulent themes and as a complimentary source of imagery she also paints and draws from life, with the Fenland landscape and the garden outside the studio amongst her favourite subjects. Her work often features lush orchards and plants, evoking a sense of natural beauty and harmony, balanced somewhere between reality and illusion. Brushstrokes sweep across the canvas with movement and energy and a strong interplay of light and dark, depicting worlds that are ambiguous in meaning.

“Self doubt can easily become the enemy of creativity as it inhibits intuitive and emotional responses to the work as a painting develops. Analysis and enquiry into what I am trying to achieve is helpful to an extent but navigating the line between self examination and raw expression can be difficult. Too much in either direction leads to failure and the only way out of this is to draw and sketch from great paintings until some confidence comes back.”

Louise Stebbing

As a printmaker specialising in linocuts and etchings, Louise Stebbing creates striking images of landscapes around Suffolk and East Anglia. Her work captures the character of the region, distilling its rural beauty into bold, textural compositions. With a deep respect for traditional printmaking techniques, she brings a modern approach to this long respected craft.

“I have been printmaking for many years and have tried to be as painterly as possible in my approach to lino printing. I don’t always work out the exact layers/colours beforehand, but I have a brief idea and let the work dictate as I go along. On another day an artwork might turn out totally differently”.

Roxana de Rond

Original

Rowing Eights in Fen Ditton

54 x 44cm

£345

Fort St George 81 x 61cm

£1200

Creak, Creak

Sidney Sussex College 81 x 61cm

£1150

Philippine Eagle

70 x 50cm £150

Visayan Spotted Deer 70 x 100cm £200

The Backs with King’s College 54 x 44cm

£450

Bould Brothers 54 x 44cm £280

Flowers 54 x 44cm £550

Cafe Foy and Magdalene College 54 x 44cm £360

Gianne Amparo

Philippine Flying Lemur

100 x 70cm £200

Nipa Hut

Monoprint, colouring pencils & collage

50 x 70cm

£150

Visayan Warty Pig 70 x 100cm £200

Filipina

Rufous Hornbill 70 x 50cm £150

Monoprint & acrylic 98 x 41cm £200

Binturong 50 x 70cm £150

Katherine Leckie

Haven

42 x 30cm

£425

Hidden Waters

42 x 30cm

£425

Over the Horizon

60 x 42cm

£675

Breaking Through

91 x 60cm

£995

Spring Awakening I

55 x 46cm

£650

The Marsh from Memory

60 x 42cm

£675

Spring Awakening II

55 x 46cm

£650

Punting on the Cam Edition 5/18

57 x 34cm

£340

Brasserie Edition 10/18

55 x 70cm

£520

Garden Apiary & Tulips Edition 1/16

55 x 66cm

£520

Night Cafe Edition 1/20 55 x 72cm

£520

Emily Jolley

Swallow Flight

Emulsion paint on canvas

90 x 120cm

£1,250

Shards and Ashes series

Emulsion paint on board

67 x 67cm

£450 each

Sarah Street

Summer

45 x 45cm

£650 each

Moonlit Waves

42 x 30cm

£425

Lone Cloud

55 x 46cm

£650

Tulip Splendour Edition 3/12

67 x 57cm

£520

View from the Tent Edition 1/12

68 x 56cm

£520

Growing Reflections

Emulsion paint on canvas

90 x 90cm

£950

31cm

£750 each

£600 each

Here, Now brings together a dynamic group of artists from Cambridgeshire and the surrounding areas, whose work explores themes of nature, memory, storytelling, and abstraction. Spanning painting, printmaking, and experimental photography, the exhibition highlights the diverse ways in which artists engage with their surroundings and creative processes.

From the gestural abstraction of Emily Jolley and Katherine Leckie to the reimagined mythological narratives of Sarah Street each