MEET THE ARTIST

“Feeling awe cracks us open. It is a vulnerable experience; it softens us in a time when it’s so easy to harden.” Katherine May

Hannah Pugh is a UK-based contemporary visual artist, with a background in Fine Art from Birmingham and Falmouth. 

Acclaimed for her unique intuitive ink and bleach paintings, she pays tribute to places she has been, tales she has heard and the liminal spaces in between. Capturing the mesmerising serenity of elsewhere in her studio from memory and imagination.

An ongoing love-affair with the horizon provides a fickle palette of ever changing light and dramatic interplay between expansive oceans, undulating landscapes and vast celestial skies.

Her work has been collected, published and exhibited internationally. Hannah was recently shortlisted for the prestigious ING Discerning Eye exhibition, she has worked with various art consultancies on the interiors of luxury hotels and designed in conjunction with Estee Lauder on a limited edition design for their brand Creme De La Mer.

Hannah takes inspiration from Whistler’s practice, the Romanticists, Antony Gormley and illuminated medieval manuscripts, the writings of Tolkien, the ideas of Le Guin and the mute language of alchemy, amongst an eclectic hoard of other sources. 

‘I puddle, splash, drip, pierce, paint, spill, draw, scratch, layer and gild onto canvas and paper with a hotchpotch of mixtures of water, inks, bleaches and paints; using most things within reach as receptacles and tools - and then I wait, absorb and respond in turn. My process is one of call and response, listening carefully to my intuition.

Currently, my work is concerned with liminality, the visual sublime, and our increasingly personal dialogue with awe, ritual, stories, the esoteric and our connection to the natural world. I endeavour to notice magic and paint places and spaces to fill with stories and maybes.’

Bring a glimmer of All Is Not Lost's alchemical art into your home ...

Commission me to paint you an original for your space. I'll guide you through the whole seamless process, and I can then frame and install should you want me to.

You can buy a ready to hang, hand gilded, giclee print, or an original small study from the collection that I refer to as my ‘Inklings’. (Named after Tolkien and Lewis' pub dwelling group of writers and thinkers.)

The ‘SomeWear’ jewellery collection are my miniature paintings mounted under glass, framed as a pendant or ring, and ready to wear - each is one of a kind and unrepeatable.

Why All Is Not Lost?

For me it means to keep moving forward no matter how incrementally, to keep trying to find the crack where the light gets in, to keep asking questions and being curious, to keep noticing, never lose your sense of wonder, live as authentically as possible.

"Not all who wander are lost.." JRR Tolkien

“In a world of diminishing mystery, the unknown persists.” Jhumpa Lahiri

Find my portfolio

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Education

  • Degree: BA (hons) Fine Art. 2:1
  • Falmouth College of Art, Cornwall, UK
  • Foundation: Bournville College of Art, Birmingham, UK 
  • QTS - 2006

Exhibitions

  • Shortlisted ‘Summertide’, Ing Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London - 2024
  • Creative Art Showcase, Bromsgrove - 2024
  • Birmingham Open Studios, Nook Gallery and Studios, Birmingham - 2024
  • Warwickshire Open Studios, The Makers Space, Alcester - 2024
  • Jefferson Art Lodge, Leamington - 2024
  • We Are The Witches, House of Smalls Gallery, Glasgow - 2023
  • RBSA Summer Show, Birmingham - 2022
  • Leamington Society of Artists Exhibitions (monthly) - 2022 - present
  • Broadway Arts Festival Competition Finalist, Cotswolds - 2022
  • Birmingham Open Studios, Moseley Exchange - 2022
  • Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, Prize Exhibition - 2022
  • Ikon For Artists, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham - 2021
  •  Balance Exhibition, Artists Workhouse, Studley - 2018 
  • Death or Glory Records, Redditch - 2014
  •  Leicester Museum and Art Gallery Open - 2011 
  •  RBSA Open - 2007 
  • Whole, Artrix Theatre, Bromsgrove - 2007

Art Fairs & Workshops

Art Fairs

  • Compton Verney Gift Fair - 2024
  • Malvern Autumn Show, Cotswold Guild - 2023
  •  Discover Gather Give Contemporary Arts Fair - Stratford Upon Avon Town  Hall 2019, 2018, 2017, 2022, 2023, 2024 
  •  Etsy Made Local Winter Makers Market - Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery  2019, 2018 
  •  MAC Arts Markets - 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018
  • Seasonal Markets - Digbeth, Birmingham 2015, 2016, 2017

Workshops

  • Teacher wellbeing session. Inset day. Shires MAT - 23/24
  • Inklings - Intuitive painting. Stirchley Library - 2024
  • Life Drawing - Compton Verney Art Gallery - 2018/2019
  • Adult Art Tutor, Art in the Afternoon - Compton Verney Art Gallery - 2019
  • Learning Facilitator - various workshops - Compton Verney Art Gallery - 2018-20

Design collabs, licensing projects & publications

The House of Taiping, International

  • Project Description: Rug for an exclusive sports venue - The Canterbury League Club, Sydney, Australia.
  • Liminal II (detail)
  • Year: 2015

Estee Lauder : Creme De La Mer, NYC, USA

  • Project Description: Limited edition holiday packaging design licence for face cream, lip balm, and face powder.
  • Liminal II (detail)
  • Year: 2016

Palette Perfect by Lauren Wager, Internationally published

  • Project Description: Book feature - ‘Colour combinations inspired by Art, Fashion and Style.’
  • Liminal II (detail)
  • Year: 2018

Trend Bible, Online and physical catalogue, UK

  • Project Description: Autumn/Winter Style feature
  • Liminal II (detail)
  • Year: 2019

SOHO Art Consulting

Project Description: Various images licensed for private and public properties across the States.

Including but not exclusive of - Liminal II, Below, Sky Map II.

Year: 2017 - present

  • St Regis Marriott Hotel, Belgrade, Serbia. (Artelier Consultancy)
  • Project Description: Four original ink and bleach paintings, turned into 36 hand finished prints.
  • Fluency. Print hand finished with moon gold.
  • Year: 2022

Private Commissions

K Melnick, L.A, USA

  • Project Description: Liminal Motion.
  • Ink and bleach painting on canvas, unstretched wall hanging. 125 x 72cm 
  • Year: 2016

J Horton, Stratford, UK

  • Project Description: Storm Moon. 
  • Ink, bleach & gold leaf painting on canvas, framed and installed. 120 x 50cm 
  • Year: 2020

S George, London, UK

  • Project Description: SomeWear pendant. 
  • Ink, bleach & gold leaf painting mounted in solid silver frame with 24 carat gold granulation and diamonds. 
  • Year: 2021

B & S Whitty, Croyde, UK

Project Description: As Above So Below 

Ink, bleach, watercolour and gold leaf painting on canvas, framed and installed. 180 x 90cm 

Year: 2022

  • L Saunders, Woking, UK
  • Project Description: Litha.
  • Ink, bleach, watercolour and marbled silver leaf painting on canvas, framed and installed. 180 x 90cm 
  • Year: 2023

Other relevant information

  • Mum of 2
  • Secondary art teacher and head of department for 20+ years
  • Decor manager, and build & break crew - Compass Presents at Shambala festival - 10 years and counting