Julie Colclough
Julie Colclough began her career as an illustrator, creating the covers for more than a hundred books and going on to write and illustrate her own collections of children’s stories, which are published around the world in various languages.
Julie also lays claim to a long and illustrious career painting for commercial clients including the Sunday Times, Royal Life Insurance, Teachers Whisky and Singapore Airlines.
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In addition to her commissioned artwork, Julie has always loved capturing the landscape and architecture of Cheshire towns and villages and after living for 25 years in Lymm, in 2019 Julie relocated to Chester and opened her eponymous gallery as a showcase for her work.
Paintings of Alderley Edge, Knutsford, Lymm and Chester have been snapped up by collectors and she has created a range of limited editions popular with residents of her chosen towns and villages.
Many of Julie’s pieces incorporate a map, adding a deeper sense of place to these pieces. This stems from her many years working as an illustrator, she says.
‘Wherever I travel I look out for old maps. Over many years I’ve developed techniques for using them as backgrounds for paintings. They are tricky to paint on but I enjoy the challenge, trying to decide which part to conceal and which to reveal. It seems natural to me to tell a story within the art: the more you look, the more there is to discover.’
juliecolclough.com
David Steeden
After briefly considering a career in architecture, David Steeden instead chose to study for an engineering degree at Manchester University and subsequently spent several years working in industry. A later career change took him around the globe, spending more than 40 years travelling the world as a valuer of industrial machinery and equipment.
‘My father was quite a good artist and I had a very good art teacher at school, so I have always drawn and painted but it wasn’t until my retirement I was able to dedicate any time to my love of art,’ he says, ‘and having painted in many different media including oils, pastels, acrylics and charcoal I have found my niche in pen and watercolour, which lends itself to plein air urban sketching.’
David can be found out and about in all weathers, sketching on location. He prefers to sketch what we might consider alternative views of the urban environment, rather than the more traditional ‘chocolate box’ village views. It is not unusual to find him working in back alleys or back streets, where he loves to include the realities of life, such as wheelie bins. His sketchbooks are therefore a record of this time and our place.
David is a founder member of Maccsketchers, an urban sketching group based in Macclesfield and 10 years ago joined the newly formed Manchester Urban Sketching group, which forms part of a worldwide urban sketching movement, encouraging sketching on location. He exhibits his work in local art society exhibitions and also enjoys the challenge of commissions.
Instagram: @davidsteedenart
Sarah Riley
Sarah Riley found her passion, and acted upon it, following the birth of her first son, Max, in 2020.
‘I have always been creative, and always painted’ she says, ‘but started my working life in television and marketing. After I had my first child I just thought, perhaps, maybe, my work might be something people would like and buy.
‘I started by selling my own Christmas cards in the local community and it’s snowballed from there. I’m in my fifth year now, and every year new things develop – I’ve just started running workshops, and they’ve all been fully booked, so far.’
Sarah is a self-taught artist, having not pursued her love of the subject beyond her A’ Levels, and describes her work as ‘colourful re-imaginings of the Cheshire landscape’.
This sense of the magical is perhaps most obvious in Sarah’s paintings of the Christmas lights at Dunham Massey, with their bold neon colours, but her imagery of The Cage at Lyme Park or the Salt Line at Sandbach, for example, while instantly recognisable, have a touch of the fantasy about them that lifts them into a higher realm. It is possibly this that appealed to the producers of Sky Art’s 2025 Landscape Artist of the Year, who invited her to join the ‘wildcard’ cohort at the heat that took place in Llanberis, in Snowdonia, last year.
‘I loved it,’ Sarah says, while remaining tight lipped about what may or may not have happened next. ‘There were 50 wild cards, and of course it’s all about painting outdoors. It was incredible. In my studio I am warm and cosy and have all my materials, but I love being outside – you have to be quick and you have to be selective and think. Under that sort of pressure I work quite well.’
The result of Sarah’s day in Llanberis has now been put up on her website, joining other scenes of Snowdonia and Anglesey she has added alongside her Cheshire collection.
sarahrileyart.com
