Staff & Tutors

Sarah Jane Moon BA (Hons)

Antony Williams RP PS NEAC

I work almost exclusively in egg tempera, which can be a painstaking and exacting medium, but one which allows me to express a feeling I have about the look of the world. All my work is the product of direct and intense observation, which can produce as a result a heightened sense of realism, where every surface detail is given almost equal consideration.

Melissa Scott-Miller RP

Born in London, 1959. Melissa studied at the Slade School of Fine Art 1977-1981. In 1999 she was elected a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and the New English Art Club.

She has won numerous awards, amongst them The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Award, Second Prize in the South Bank Painting Show, the Oakham Gallery Prize at the New English Art Club, and most notably First Prize in the Lynn Painter Stainers Prize exhibition in 2008.

Melissa mainly paints views of London, working on the spot in oils. She likes to fill her canvasses with tiny details applied thickly with size five-nought brushes. Her portraits often feature complicated detailed backgrounds.

She exhibits regularly with the Royal Academy Summer Show, The BP Portrait Award, The Royal Society of Portrait Painters and The Lynn Painter Stainers Prize.

She has also had three solo shows, at The Albemarle Gallery in 1987, The Grosvenor Gallery in 1995 and the Mark Jason Gallery in 2007.

Carl Randall BA MFA Doctorate

Tessa Eastman MA (RCA) MRBS

Tessa Eastman is an award-winning artist with over twenty years’ of experience working with clay and glaze. Her dynamic sculpture sits at the vanguard of the contemporary ceramic art scene, offering originality, skill and a daring approach to the art form. Her sculptures appear curiously alive with movement and her Cloud Bundles have found a serious following among collectors, gallerists and ceramophiles alike. Work has been presented by the financial firms Abacus (2003), Gresham (2006) and Clifford Chance (2019).

Tessa was shortlisted for the Young Masters Art Prize (2017) and she won the Craft Emergency Award (2016). Solo shows include ‘Cloudspotting’ with Jason Jacques, NYC and ‘Le désordre en délice de l’imagination’ with Galerie de l’Ancienne Poste, France (2019). Her work has been selected for the British Ceramics Biennial (2015) and she received an honourable mention at the Korean Gyeonggi Ceramic Biennale (2017).

Tessa has been teaching since 2005, currently working at ceramic studios providing professional development including the Kiln Rooms and the Clay Garden. She holds a ceramics BA Honours from the University of Westminster (2006), and a MA from the Royal College of Art (2015).

Adebanji Alade PROI

Adebanji Alade, otherwise known as ‘The Addictive Sketcher’, features regularly on the BBC’s The One Show, and can often be found sketching travellers on the London Underground. He trained at Yaba College of Technology in Nigeria, later obtaining a diploma in portraiture from Heatherley’s School of Fine Art in Chelsea.

Adebanji is the president of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters; a full member of The Guild of Fine Art in Nigeria; and in 2014 was elected to the council of the Chelsea Art Society. He also belongs to Urban Sketchers Worldwide and Plein Air Brotherhood.
His awards include Buxton Spa Sketchbook Award (2014); winner of Pinta Rapido Plein Air Event at Chelsea Town Hall in 2013; winner of Best Painting of a London Scene, Chelsea Art Society in 2010; the Alan Gourley Memorial Award at the Royal Institute of Oil Painters Exhibition 2017, and numerous others.

Adebanji has a strong following in the US as well as the UK. He writes regularly for The Artist magazine and exhibits with the Royal Institute of Oil Painters as well as teaching at the Heatherley School of Fine Art. He also runs workshops and demos for schools, colleges, universities and art societies.

Katya Timoshenko

Katya Timoshenko is a London-based artist and printmaker, and a member of the Royal Society of Printmakers.

Her practice centres on drawing and printmaking, with a particular focus on multi-plate colour etching.
Her work explores themes of memory, identity, and personal narratives, often developing through layered processes and intuitive image-making. Colour plays an important role in her practice, acting as both a structural and emotional element within the image.

Alongside her studio practice, Katya teaches printmaking at Middlesex University and Goldsmiths, University of London, supporting students in developing both technical skills and a more experimental, process-led approach to print.

James Lloyd RP

James Lloyd graduated in the 90s with an MA from the Slade School of Fine Art, following a BA in Fine Art from Coventry and a Diploma from Blackpool College of Art and Design.
He teaches at the Royal Drawing School and has won numerous awards including the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Award, Paul Smith Scholarship, Windsor & Newton Young Artists’ Award, Carrol Foundation Young Artist of the Year Award, First Prize in the BP Portrait Award, and the Ondaatje Prize for Portraiture.

Lloyd has undertaken commissions for many private and public clients and institutions including Newcastle University, the Bank of England, Queen’s College, Lords Cricket Ground, the House of Lords, the Royal Collection and the National Portrait Gallery.

James is represented in the UK by Browse & Darby and in Germany by Hübner & Hübner.

Vanessa Lim

Vanessa originally trained in Fine Art and Art History at Goldsmiths, University of London (First Class Honours, 2016) and later completed her Master’s degree in Aesthetics and Art Theory at the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy (Merit, 2021). Her sculpture and installation work has been exhibited in London, Glasgow, Jakarta, and Singapore. She began working with clay in 2017, creating sculptural maquettes for a Landscape Architecture firm in Singapore. Vanessa’s current practice is focused on wheel thrown forms alongside glaze development. Currently, she makes her work in her London studio in East Sheen.

Laura Postle

Laura Postle is a figurative sculptor based between Bristol, London and Italy. She first graduated with a B.A. in Illustration before going on to classically train, for 3 years, in Figurative Sculpture and Drawing at the Florence Academy of Art, Italy.  She was awarded ‘Sculpture of the Year’ 2011, ‘Anatomical Sculpture of the Year’ 2010 and ‘Best Anatomical Drawings’ of 2009.

As a figurative artist, Laura’s work focuses on her fascination with the human form and the nuances of our complex yet simple beauty. With a keen focus on gesture and the figure in motion, Laura’s work aims to push the boundaries of what we can do; the dynamic and elegant poses we can hold and the beautiful movements we make.

With a strong craft background in the field of sculpture, Laura has worked alongside various other artists; in most recent years working closely with Yinka Shonibare CBE RA, as well as with various top UK bronze foundries, sculpting for Madame Tussauds and working within the International film industry. 

Laura currently teaches both group and private classes in her studio at Mivart Street Studios, Easton, Bristol and runs annual sculpting retreats in Tuscany, Italy. She also teaches Figurative Sculpture & Anatomy at both The Art Academy, London and Heatherleys School of Art, London.

Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco

I was born in Genova, Italy, in 1967. My ancestors were a family of Florentine Renaissance painters, the Rossellis. I followed classical studies in Rome and subsequently trained as an illustrator but I soon turned to oil painting and printmaking, taking classes and teaching myself through the study of Old Masters. I’ve been living in London since 1999.

Eugenie Vronskaya

Eugenie Vronskaya is a Russian-born artist currently living and working between London and the Highlands of Scotland.

She began her artistic journey studying traditional icon painting techniques from an early age, later attending the Krasnopresnenskaya School of Art and a Fine Art University in Moscow.

In 1989, Vronskaya moved to the UK, and by 1991, she became the first Russian student to enroll in the MA programme at the Royal College of Art in London.

Vronskaya was invited by Sir Anthony Caro to participate in the International Triangle Workshop in New York State, USA. Following this, she played an active role in organizing several Triangle International workshops across Africa, including in Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Botswana.

Her work is held in numerous private collections worldwide, as well as in major public institutions such as Tate Britain, the V&A Museum, the Borchard Collection, Art UK, the Pushkin Museum, and the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. Between 2014 and 2023, she was represented by John Martin Gallery in London, participating in numerous group exhibitions and projects. Her paintings have also been regularly selected for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.

In early 2024, Vronskaya held a large-scale solo exhibition at Messums West. She was also invited to partake in the renowned ‘Small is Beautiful’ group show at Flowers Gallery.

Emilia Radlinska

Emilia Radlinska, polish born Australian artist. Ceramics graduate from the Australian National University in 2002, living and working as a practicing artist and teacher in the UK since 2006.

I create wheel thrown ceramics, functional and decorative porcelain and stoneware. I am a ceramic artist and teacher. I love to make and to share my experience and joy of making with others.

My work explores the ephemeral qualities of memory. Moments in our memory are remade every time we recall them. What is lost from our memories is lost from our lives, while people and objects lost in time can live on in our memories.

I am a collector of objects, linking each with a part of my life, so they become a kind of time line that anchors me to existence. There is something of the captured moment in the art of making, something that flows, yet is set in a single moment of time. The work is fluid, like the moment of creation on the potter’s wheel, and then it solidifies into an object that can live on beyond us, taking that moment of creation for ever with it.

My work is ergonomic. It is designed to be individual, personal, tactile and to be held by human hands.

Christina Niederberger

I am interested in the language of painting and how this language has been framed by its cultural conditions, historical tradition and gender politics. My studio practice examines how a renewed consideration of these contextual elements offers possibilities for a contemporary painting practice. These interests are grounded in my research for a practice-led PhD in which I explored the notion of cultural recycling (abstract).

In my studio practice I approach this notion of ‘recycling’ with paintings that deal with mimetic assimilations and re-interpretations of Modernism’s formal vocabulary and stylistic devices, re-presenting them in a manner that deliberately goes against the prevalent ideology of their time.

Since 2016 I have been focussing mainly on Abstract Expressionism and its legacy, ‘translating’ (masculine) expressionistic brush-strokes into an illusionistic mark making which mimics embroidery/textiles and as such alludes to feminine materials and craft. Borrowing from both the vocabulary of Modernism and of textile art, my painterly translations from one visual language to another can be read as hybrid texts engaged in a process of interpretation between languages and cultures, Modernism and contemporary art, between painting and textile as well as between a culture dominated by masculinity and a feminist perspective.

Alex Duncan BA (Hons) (Rome Scholar)

The son of a watercolour painter and a sculptor, Duncan’s formative years were strongly influenced by the images and objects being worked on in the studios, the same studios in which he was to find his own nascent drawing and painting skills.

He studied at Berkshire College of Art and Central Saint Martins, a period where he was able to formulate his interest in many visual art disciplines and where the flexibility of mixed media and crossing boundaries allowed him to move freely between painting, print, collage and fabrication.

Allan Ramsay BA (Hons)

Allan Ramsay attended figure drawing classes at Edinburgh College of Art from 1978-1982. He then went on to study drawing and painting at the Glasgow School of Art from 1982-1986. He also trained at the Art Students League in New York.

In 1988 he won first prize in the John Player Portrait Award / BP Portrait Award at the National Gallery in London. As part of this prize he was commissioned to paint the portrait of Sir Alan Ayckbourn for the NPG permanent collection.

Other notable commissions include a portrait of Dr.John Mackay, Lord Provost of the City of Edinburgh District Council.

He was also a recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Award (Canada), a prestigious award for figurative painting.

He has regularly exhibited with the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and the Royal Academy summer exhibition.

Atul Vohora BA (Hons) PGCE

Atul Vohora is a painter who has lived and worked in London since 2001. He studied at Canterbury Christchurch and The Prince’s Drawing School.

Christopher Moock BA MA

Chris has a B.A. in Painting from the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London (1977-81), and an M.A. in History of Art from Birkbeck College, University of London (1988-90). At the Slade, where he was taught by Patrick George and Euan Uglow, he received the Monnington prize (1979) and the Taylor prize in Fine Art (1981) and he was awarded a Distinction in the History of Art examination by Professor Sir Lawrence Gowing. Having studied both painting and art history he now teaches both at Heatherley’s. He says: “There is probably some connection between studying past art and producing art now, but although it is not straightforward I do find this dual focus of my work interesting. Each aspect is revealing about the other, sometimes in ways which cannot be articulated.”

At Heatherleys, Chris ran the Open Studio from 1986-96, he now teaches painting on the Diploma in Portraiture, and organises and delivers the art history programme of lectures.

Having studied Italian art of the 14th century under Professor John White at UCL, and Professor Francis Ames-Lewis at Birkbeck, Chris has lectured for Birkbeck since 1991 specialising in Italian art from the Early Renaissance to the Baroque. He has also lectured at The National Gallery, The National Portrait Gallery, The Open University, Sotheby’s Institute, The History of Art Studies and for many other organisations. He has written for Art History, The Art Newspaper, and The Art Book.

His publications on British figurative art include the Introductions to the exhibition catalogues Patrick George, Recent Work at Browse & Darby, London, 2010; Susan Engledow. The principle of tranquillity. Paintings and drawings from 1985 to 2015, (El Palacio de Congresos de Ronda, Spain, 2016), Patrick George: From Prose to Poetry, (Cobbold & Judd, Colchester, 2018) and the Introduction to The Likeness is in the Looking. Collected Writings of Patrick George, edited by Susan Engledow, (Sansom & Company, Bristol, 2020). His most recent publication is the Introduction to the exhibition catalogue Patrick George 1923- 2016 Landscapes, Browse and Darby 2021.

His paintings have been exhibited in solo shows and group exhibitions at The Mall Galleries, The Royal Festival Hall, and three times at the Portrait Award Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, where his 1983 entry was commended, and was used for the poster in 1984. He has painted portrait commissions in this country and abroad.

Claudia Carr HDFA (Lond)

My work explores the territory between ‘still life’ and ‘landscape’, between the intimate and the epic.

I paint from the landscape of debris and clutter, organic material and small plastic animals that accumulate in my studio.

Because of the random juxtapositions of objects, specific lighting conditions, and the process of long slow looking, the perception of scale is skewed and the spaces become ambiguous, evoking prehistoric wildernesses, wastelands, secret gardens and savannas.

I am interested in activating greys; exploring the elasticity within grey; animating colours within a relatively narrow chromatic range by means of their mutual interaction. For me the atmosphere in the painting is as dependent on this kind of optical tension, and on the manipulation of rhythmic structures, as it is on the illusory quality of the image itself.

Daniel Shadbolt BA

Daniel Shadbolt studied painting at Chelsea College of Art after which he completed the Drawing Year at The Prince’s Drawing School. He has exhibited regularly since getting into the BP Portrait Award in 2002, including The Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and the Lynn Painter Stainers Prize in 2005 and 2007. He also participates in group shows and holds open studios. He was the second recipient of the Bulldog Bursary; a new award for portrait painting from The Royal Society of Portrait Painters.

David Stubbs MA

David Stubbs was born in Brighton and grew up in West Sussex. He trained at the Slade School of Fine Art, graduating in 1981. Painting, drawing and printmaking have remained his principle occupation, supported by part-time lecturing in art schools. He has exhibited his work widely in solo, group and open exhibitions, most notably in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, the New English Art Club and the Discerning Eye. His work is held in numerous private collections in Europe and the United States.

Fred Crayk BA PGCE PGC

Fred Crayk, BA; PGDFA(Edin.); PGCE; PGC(3D Design, Distinction)(UAL); PGC (History of Art & Architecture, Distinction)(University of London) Fred Crayk was born in 1952 and grew up in Malta and the Highlands of Scotland. Initially he studied in Paris at the Academie Roderer and the Musee du Louvre and then went on to full-time study at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee. This was followed by post-graduate study at Edinburgh College of Art. Fred presently lives and works in London but has spent extensive periods working abroad. Throughout the 1980s he lived and worked in Hungary and from 1994 to 1997 he was invited to work at Cite des Arts Internationale in Paris. From there he went to the British School at Rome as an Abbey Scholar.

He has exhibited extensively both in the United Kingdom and abroad. Solo exhibitions include the Talbot-Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, The Pilgrim and Bruton Street Galleries, London, the White Gallery, Budapest , the Galerie Samy Kinge, Paris, and the Kunstraum, Starkow, Berlin, Germany. His work has also been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery (John Player, now the BP Portrait Award);The Discerning Eye Exhibition and the National Open Art Exhibition at the Royal College of Art.

Committed to painting and drawing, his work deals with portraiture within the context of narrative figure composition. Images and ideas flow from religious iconography, socio/political events and film. Equally committed to the teaching of painting and drawing Fred believes that Heatherleys is the best place to learn the skills necessary to become a good painter as it preserves a traditional approach to teaching founded on objective observation and analysis.

George Levantis HDFA (Lond)

Born in the UK of Greek Parentage. After leaving the Slade school Fine Art University College London, Levantis accepted an Artist Placement Group residency with Ocean Fleets of Liverpool, taking him to Japan, Africa and South East Asia. The work produced constructions made from canvas paint bamboo etc. materials acquired in different ports. These are documented in a publication Pieces of sea fall through the stars: “These themes have surfaced again and the work I am presently engaged in features narratives that are once more related to sea, salt, wind and birds.’

Gianluca Rotelli

The work of painter Gianluca Rotelli can be found in private collections throughout Italy and abroad. His paintings are executed directly from life, using the traditional techniques favoured by the great masters of the Italian Renaissance.

Gianluca Rotelli was born in Livorno, and graduated from the Accademia delle Belle Arti di Firenze in 1997.

In 2000, studying under the supervision of Daniel Graves at the Florence Academy of Art, he was awarded a scholarship in recognition of his artistic talents. During his three years of study, he learned in-depth the sight-size method and specialized in oil painting techniques. His charcoal drawings of classical statues on “carta Roma” paper can currently be seen at the exhibition gallery of the Florence Academy of Art.

In 2009, his interest in the Russian drawing method led him to study with Russian Professor Vitalii Borovik, from the Repin State Academy of Fine Arts in St Petersburg.

Gilbert Whyman ARBS

Gilbert Whyman qualified in architecture at Manchester University and studied sculpture at Kensington & Chelsea, Morley College and South Thames College.

As the passion for sculpture took over he retired as an architect and is now is a well established sculptor receiving regular commissions.

He has exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, The Society of Portrait Sculptors and has work in private collections in the UK, Australia and New York.

He has recently been elected as Associate of the Royal British Society of Sculptors.

Hilary Daltry MA (Rome Scholar)

Hilary Daltry is a painter printmaker who studied at the Slade School of Fine Art (B.A. Painting) and at Chelsea School of Art (M.A. Printmaking). She was awarded The Prix de Rome Scholarship in Printmaking in 1985-6 and a Greek government scholarship to Athens in 1988.

Always working from life she draws directly onto woodblocks. The subject matter of her prints includes portraits, allegorical figures and fruits and flowers. Her prints are often included in The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and she is a council member of the Royal Society of Painter Printmakers. Her work can be seen at the Bankside Gallery.

Ian Rowlands BA (Hons) PGC RAS

Ian’s work is mostly concerned with painting the landscape and the architecture of the human head. He studied at Norwich School of Art and Royal Academy Schools.

James Hague

Born 1970 Nottingham. Lives and works in London and Copenhagen. Studied at University of Northumbria at Newcastle 1989-1993, Royal College of Art 2004-2006. Member of The Royal Society of Portrait Painters & Contemporary British Portrait Painters. Winner BP Portrait award 1996, Winner The Ondaatje Prize for Portraiture 2018, Winner The RP Award 2019.

Lucy Le Feuvre BA (Hons)

Lucy Le Feuvre studied BA Hons Fine Art at Newcastle University, Postgraduate Sculpture at the Royal Academy Schools in London, was a guest student at Vestlandets Kunstakademi in Bergen Norway and has a Post Diploma in Sculpture from the Ecole D’Art de Marseille-Luminy, Marseille France. She is the recipient of numerous Awards and Scholarships including The Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Award and The International Studio Program Award New York City one year studio residency. She has exhibited her work in Britain, Europe, Scandinavia and America.

Working in wood, her work sensually explores utility, scale and form.

Laura Smith BA MFA NEAC

Laura Smith completed her BA at The Slade School of Fine Art in 2003 and went on to win the Richard Ford Award from The Royal Drawing School in 2004.  She graduated from her MFA at The Slade School of Fine Art in 2012, winning the Clare Winsten Memorial Award.  She was shortlisted for the Threadneedle Prize in 2011 and 2016. Laura became a member of the NEAC in 2022. Selected group shows include: Small is Beautiful, Flowers Gallery, 2018; Spring Exhibition, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, 2018; Little Clown My Heart, Arthouse1, 2018; Control to Collapse, Blyth Gallery, 2017; Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, 2014 and 2016; Models and Materialities, Bay Art Gallery, 2016; Creekside Open, APT Gallery, 2015 and 2017; Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize, Mall Galleries, 2015; The Jerwood Drawing Prize, 2012.

She positions her work near the edge of still life painting, where it approaches abstraction. She is interested in dissolving our familiarity with everyday objects. Currently, she is working with the idea that repeated motifs not only allow for a deeper investigation of the objects themselves but also a freedom in their portrayal. Her work often depicts emotive gestures and actions. Objects take the place of the loved, the abandoned, the closely held.

Kate Hopkins BA HDFA

Kate Hopkins (born 1964) is a painter, with still life central to her practice. Working from appearances, she has a particular interest in the nature of visual perception, which underpins her teaching.

She studied at the Slade from 1985-1991 BA(Hons) and HDFA), and shows her paintings at Browse and Darby, with a solo show in 2016.

Natasha Lien

Penelope Anstice BA (Hons)

I have returned to painting the landscape of my native Scotland where the subtly shifting light and its effects over the land hold an endless fascination for me. I favour oil as a medium because I love its blending qualities, well suited to the myriad nuances of tonal shift I am trying to convey. I also paint in gouache and watercolour. Working directly from the landscape and from sketches, my work seeks to explore the boundary between realism and abstraction, the point at which an image transcends the purely representational. I usually start with reference to a particular place but often the painting moves off in another direction, always remaining within the realms of realism but becoming more about an evocation of place than a faithful replica. I use brushes, palette knives and often my hands, working fast across the canvas to try to capture a fleeting moment.

Ron Best MA (RCA) PGC

A classically trained artist and teacher, Ron Best has exhibited widely. Ron’s art explores the boundaries between figuration and abstraction, the frontiers where the classical tradition of painting and printmaking fuse with a Modernist sensibility. His work has an instinctive sense of the creative process. Searching out the rich and sensual possibilities of paint, collage and printmaking, Ronald typically creates a dense matrix of layered form, colour and texture, offering a new perception of reality.

Susan Wilson

Susan studied at Camberwell and RA Schools, Fellow of Painting Cheltenham & Gloucester University. Richard Ford Award to Madrid, British School at Rome Abbey Award Holder. Illustrated Katherine Mansfield Short Stories for the Folio Society 2000. Her works are in public and private collections in UK, New Zealand, Spain and Italy, (including portraits) and she is represented by Browse & Darby.

Sharon Low MA SWA

Sharon Low | Liu Guo Fei  MA SWA is a British and Australian artist of Peranakan Chinese heritage. Her work has regularly been exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts, the Mall Galleries, and Bankside Gallery.
Based in London, she is a fine artist specialising in printmaking, painting, mixed media and book arts, with a particular focus on children and families.

Fascinated by people, her work takes inspiration from family and friends: contemplating the idea that, as we age, life is written on our faces, our hands, and the way we hold ourselves, telling the stories of all the tragedies, happiness, laughter and tears.

She has an MA Visual Arts: Printmaking from Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts, London (UAL). Other studies have included the Diploma in Portraiture from The Heatherley School of Fine Art, and Fine Art at the National Art School in Sydney, Australia, as well as studies in Japan in washi making (Japanese papermaking) and mokuhanga (Japanese water-based woodblock printmaking).

Robert Turvey MA

Rob Turvey studied Fine Art Sculpture at City and Guilds of London Art School and has an MA in Sculpture Studies from Leeds University (an academic MA in the Theory, History and Practice of Sculpture). He has also worked in antiquities and building conservation/restoration, sculpture fabrication and as a sculptor’s assistant to various sculptors. Rob Turvey has been teaching sculpture since 2000.

Joletta Thorburn

Joletta Thorburn is a print technician and tutor at The Heatherley School of Fine Art.

She trained at the London Print Studio.