River Culture, Entertainment & Celebration

Julia Manning’s majestic relief prints celebrate the preciousness and strength of nature. Her fascination with animals began at an early age, and has developed throughout her life. In her prints, Julia aims to capture the spirit of the natural world that she maintains a close relationship with through regular drawing trips and coastal walks. She recently won the The Conservation Through Art Award at the Society of Wildlife Artists Annual exhibition at the Mall Galleries, London.

As a dedicated fly fisherman, Dexter Kazmierkiewicz possess a deep reverence for the serene beauty of natural environments. His leisure activities frequently involve immersing himself in the peaceful wilderness, where he partakes in the refined practice of fly fishing, seeking wild trout in the small streams.  Fundamentally, he is an artist with a focus on creating intricate trout-inspired pieces. He finds himself moved by the turbulence of nature, and is committed to the ecological restoration of our rivers, ensuring their integral preservation for generations to come.

Distraught and disgusted by the discovery that her beloved local river, the Wandle, was being routinely polluted by discharges of untreated sewage by Thames Water, local textile artist and costume maker, Elly Platt, started crafting a response to this ongoing problem, based on her observations of the Wandle. Among other works, Elly will present her wearable art: Wandle Vs The Wet Wipes at The UK River Summit & Festival.

Both an artist and a conservationist, Jo Minoprio is passionate about highlighting the situation under the surface of our waterways; about saving our rivers and the species within them. A keen angler, river fly monitor, and voluntary water bailiff, Jo is a key part of the Exmoor Rivers and Streams Group (ERASG) and her work shines through in her prints. Each impression she creates is a lengthy process of trial and error, the wonderful randomness of the results and the exquisite details that are revealed of our fabulous underwater friends make it both exciting and intriguing.

Al Simmons is a photographer and fly fisher based in North London. The focus of his photography is landscapes and rivers. Al’s prints are made by hand using the cyanotype technique, and the work you see today is all made using water from the River Wandle as part of the process. Specifically, the water is from the stretch of the river where Al caught his first trout.