Journey through a stunning variety of original paintings at Affordable Art Fair Battersea Autumn, 16-20 October.
Welcome to our Original Paintings Route Guide at Affordable Art Fair Battersea Autumn! Join us on this exciting journey through a variety of beautiful paintings. Whether you like landscapes or portraits, the abstract or the figurative, the real or the surreal, this is the tour for you. So without further ado, let’s get going!
Start your tour on the right-hand side of the fair at Gallery G-77, stand K4, and lose yourself in the stunning and ambiguous works of Noriko Kurafuji. Noriko’s works blossom from figures, colours, and sounds of everyday life, using the word Nagare, meaning “flow” in English, to represent the flow of a river, cloud, time, or sound. At first, you might think her paintings are adaptations of Impressionist works, but as you change your perspective, the compelling brushstrokes of her ‘flowers’ reveal an illusion, presented almost as landscapes rather than still lives, not confined to the edges of the canvas. Your eyes are constantly drawn to the movement within the painting—whether it be an emotion, a melody, a light, or a breeze. That is the joy of these paintings; it is up to you to decide…
Noriko Kurafuji, Nagare – Blooming, Oil on Canvas, £7500, 116×116 cm, Gallery G-77
Noriko Kurafuji, Nagare-Waltz (yellow), Oil on Canvas, £850, 45×45 cm, Gallery G-77
Now head down to Greenstage Gallery at stand L9, where you’ll discover the works of Katie Brent and Julie Cross. Brent’s expressive, botanical-inspired scenes evoke the golden glow of autumn with intricate layers of colour and texture, capturing nature’s momentary atmosphere and beauty. Alongside her, Cross presents award-winning figurative paintings often featuring solitary female figures and faces. Her elegant compositions feature ambiguous backgrounds and abstract landscapes, inviting viewers to create their own narratives in a poetic, understated way.
Julie Cross, Crescent, £850, Oil on cradled wood panel, 55 x 55 cm framed, Greenstage Gallery
Katie Brent, Autumn Light, £1200, Acrylic and metallic leaf on canvas, 49 x 69 cm framed, Greenstage Gallery
Loop around the corner to artdog gallery at stand I6 to discover the vibrant, fun, and satisfying work of Sally Burch. She is influenced by colour theorist Johannes Itten and the principles of Bauhaus, emphasising simplicity and creating aesthetic value through the use of bold, contrasting colours. Burch draws inspiration from her travels around the world, transforming the visual elements she encounters into her own abstract artistic language, characterised by geometric structures, mark-making, and patterns.
Henry Ward, Cocktail 1, Oil on Canvas, £3,100, 61x76cm, Kittoe Contemporary
Right next door at stand I5 you will find Kittoe Contemporary where artist Henry Ward explores the fine line between abstraction and representation. His works grow from memories, colours, shapes, or gestures, often reworked to gradually build expressive rhythms of colour and form that feel familiar yet abstract. You could get lost in these for hours!
Now head towards the central bar (don’t forget to stop for a well-deserved drink!) before continuing to Hayloft Gallery at stand H1, where you will step into the dreamlike worlds of Daniel Ablitt and Lindsey Hambleton.
Albitt’s landscapes, drawn from childhood memories, travels, films, and novels, are a combination of reality and imagination, inviting the viewer into a world that feels both real and surreal. His delicate brushstrokes reveal subtle details, while larger areas of soft, washed-out mark-making enhance the dream-like quality of his scenes. His works evoke that sense of familiar places we all carry in memory. Meanwhile, Lindsey Hambleton beautifully balances a heightened colour palette with bold compositional elements often framed by trees to capture the emotive energy of landscapes, inviting the viewer into a vivid and enchanting world.
Lindsey Hambleton, Afternoon Sun, Frozen Ground – Flooded Wood Series, Oil & mixed media on wood panel, £6950, 180x120cm, Hayloft Gallery
Daniel Ablitt, Summer in the Garden, Oil on panel, £875, 27×32 cm, Hayloft Gallery
Next, walk down row F to Cameron Contemporary Art, stand F4, where Victoria Kiff and Velicity Gill’s portraits await.
With a central focus on the human figure, Kiff explores spatial elements that reflect a sense of place, person and memory. Applying painterly brushstrokes and the use of colour, space, line, and texture, she brings to light inner contradictions, such as emotion versus logic or reality versus imagination. By contrast, Gill’s intimate paintings use soft, muted tones and hazy, fluid brushstrokes to reveal emotion and vulnerability. She captures fleeting moments of human tenderness, as if pausing in time.
Victoria Kiff, Painter at The Blue Oak House, oil on canvas, £4,200, Cameron Contemporary Art
Felicity Gill, Fag Ash Lil, Oil on panel, £975, 20 x 15.5cm, Cameron Contemporary Art
Keep strolling to The Bakery Gallery at stand G8, where Emma Chambers highlights the small beauties of unnoticed plants and intricate landscapes beneath our feet. Her careful observation and insect-like perspective invite you to slow down and appreciate nature’s quiet complexity. They are so delicate, you feel that a petal might gracefully fall from the painting at any moment!
Emma Chambers, Hellebores in a Jar, Oil on Gesso Board, £750, 38x48cm, The Bakery Art Gallery
Next, on the far left side of the fair at stand A6, you’ll find the captivating coastal works of Henrietta Stuart and Trevor Scobie at the Nicholas Bowlby Gallery.
Stuart draws inspiration from moments that move her, blending the visible world with abstract forms to create atmospheric, emotive works that capture the essence of transient moments. Influenced by the techniques of Titian and Turner, she layers her paintings to exploit the interplay of light and texture, using colour to evoke a strong sense of time and place. Meanwhile, self-taught Trevor Scobie’s detailed oil paintings of seascapes and rock-pools reflect his life-long relationship with coastal waters, capturing the purity of light, colour, and fluid movement, while raising awareness for marine conservation and highlighting the transient nature of tides and the urgency for preservation.
And last but certainly not least, end your tour at Circus Gallery, stand B5, with the expressive works of Daniel Hooper and Abigail Bowen.
Hooper’s impasto brushstrokes and paint drips move fluidly between romantic florals and minimalist abstract works. In A Tribute to Monet, reminiscent of Monet’s impressionistic style, his vivid colours and textured layers evoke a gentle sense of movement, making you want to reach out and run your hands through the scene. Meanwhile, Bowen draws inspiration from literature, describing her work as painting “The Edge of The Rainbow” from Donna Tart’s The Goldfinch. Her ethereal pieces explore the boundary between reality and imagination, using shimmering, translucent layers of oil paint to capture the magical, beyond our reach.
Daniel Hooper, Rose Garden, A Tribute to Monet, Mixed Media on Canvas, £5000, 120x120cm, Circus Gallery
Abigail Bowen, Tess, Oil on Canvas, £2995, 100x100cm, Circus Gallery
We hope you’ve enjoyed this exciting adventure through our selection of original paintings! There’s plenty more to discover, so if you don’t already, make sure to get your tickets for our extra special 25th anniversary edition – and who knows, you might just find your next masterpiece!