We’ve dubbed ourselves the Fernlea Creatives and we had a fantastic 2026 Burnham Art Trail at Venue 3, the gorgeous garden at 4 Fernlea Road. I showed my experimental monoprints in the shed, Sue showed her oil landscapes in the outhouse, Joscelyn exhibited her paintings in the tent and our hostess, Frances, showed her mixed media pieces in the main seating area under the vine. Andrew, our host, took care of the admin and the pond, and kept us hydrated and caffeinated throughout the nine scorching days.

Click here to see a video I made of Venue 3 on day 1 of the Trail.

Here we all are, under the vine: from left to right, Andrew, me, Sue, Joscelyn and Frances.

As well as welcoming visitors and showing them our artwork, we had lots of laughs and chats, supporting each other through our creative ups and downs, and painted and drew throughout the week. I have been exceptionally lucky to have free access to harvest flowers from my friend’s beautifully abundant allotment, so as well as adorning our work and communal spaces I painted them in watercolour.

Andrew took these elegant post-bloom waterlilies from the pond and laid them in water (below).

I wanted to practice painting in just watercolour rather that using my default pen and watercolour method, hence the slight departure in style this season.

There were a couple of days when the temperature reached over 35C, so as well as emergency Magnums, we cooled our heels in a big bucket of cold water prepared by Andrew and modelled by me above. That dress in the photo is made from a duvet cover I found in a charity shop a few years ago, turns out it could’ve been donated by a friend of Sue’s!

As well as enjoying the community of fellow artists and visitors in the Franklin’s delightful garden, showing my work in their lovely garden shed is a very special treat (above and below).

Click here to read a little bit about the monoprints.

Our Fernlea Road hosts, Andrew and Frances, pictured in front of the taster wall in the museum on the launch night of BAT26.

Huge thanks for the generosity of: Roger Barcroft, the Trail coordinator in 2026; the Franklins; all the other artists who helped to organise the most ambitious Trail so far; the artists who entered their artwork; the people who made space to show that work in their venues; and all the visitors who braved the heat to lift our spirits with their warm words, positive feedback and, in some case, cash! It’s truly a privilege to experience this sense of community and creativity.

2026 is my fourth Burnham Art Trail and I’m delighted to be returning to the Garden Studio at 4 Fernlea Road, which is Venue 3. You can check out the map, venues, other artists and events on the Art Trail website.

I’ve had fun making monoprints with a gel plate and acrylic paints for this year’s Trail.

Each monoprint is a unique and unrepeatable print, made up of thin layers of acrylic paint which are rolled out onto the gel plate (it’s like a slab of silcone) and lifted with paper.

I added texture to the wet paint layers by pressing in materials such as corrugated card board (to make stripes), toilet rolls (to make circles), bubble wrap (to make little circles), fabric (to make a woven pattern), plastic containers (to get more complex repeating patterns) as well as leaves and flowers.

You can achieve interesting colour variations by changing the colours of each paint layer. I sometimes used metallic paints for extra interest. Stencils are a great way to create shapes – I cut and applied circles, rectangles and numbers.

The results are unpredictable which can sometimes be exciting and sometimes frustrating!

I’ve also experimented with image transfer: using photocopies of my drawings to lift some of the wet paint leaving the design on the plate. It’s tricky and only worked for me about 30% of the time.

When you do achieve a successful transfer of your image to the gel plate you can ‘reverse paint’ it. That means applying different colours to different sections of the plate with a brush or roller and allowing each colour plenty of time to dry. Once all the colours are on the plate you roll out a thin layer of paint over the whole lot and lay the paper down while it’s still wet. Pop some books on the top to press it down for several hours before carefully peeling back the paper to see the result.

I used a Gelli Arts gel plate, Amsterdam acrylic paint and Seawhite black paper. I liked the way the black paper made the colours pop!

Kathryn Hockey

Artist Illustrator

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Click here to read a little bit about the monoprints.

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