Meet the debut artists offering fresh perspectives at Affordable Art Fair Hampstead, 7 - 11 May.
Meet the artists making their debut at Affordable Art Fair Hampstead. From 7–11 May, join us on the stunning Hampstead Heath to discover fresh talent from around the globe. This edition, we’re welcoming 187 new artists, each bringing their unique style and perspective. Let’s meet a few of them!
Kick off your visit with Fresh Perspectives, a curated display at the main entrance. This eye-catching display features standout artworks, from colourful abstract mixed-media pieces by Jonathan Lawes to detailed linocut prints by Kate Willows, and many more!
Now head into the fair and visit Mill House Gallery, stand K1. Here, contemporary landscape and seascape painter, James Bartholomew captures the fleeting relationship between light, movement and place.
Painting with watercolour and pastel, Bartholomew brings energy and spontaneity to the surface through sweeping strokes and gestural marks. Often inspired by breaking waves on the Cornish coast or the vibrant façades of Venice, his work explores how shifting weather and light can completely alter the mood of a scene.
The interplay of wet pastel within paint creates space for experimentation. Each piece feels uplifting, dynamic and full of life!
Next head to Feather & Shore where you’ll find emotionally charged oil paintings by Emz Finch. Finch developed her practice after experiencing PTSD. During this dark period, she learned one day that being in nature, and particularly laying under trees, allowed her to look to the sky and see the full range of beautiful colour again.
“I often see public response to my work as a deep breath – a deep breath for those who get caught up with the business of life and a reminder to look up to the sky wherever you are, and take a moment to be present.”
– Emz Finch
Walk further along the aisle to Anrad Gallery, stand L9, and experience the vibrant and intricate work of Jyoti Lal Karn, who continues the traditional Madhubani art of her native Bihar.
Using natural pigments derived from flowers and leaves, and painting with broomsticks and bamboo sticks, Karn’s work carries the spirit of her community and heritage. Rich in symbolism, her paintings reflect a reverence for the natural world, where forests and wildlife are seen as sacred, interconnected with ancestral and divine presence.
At Mint Art Gallery, explore the evocative works of Minu Achrekar, a Leeds-based artist who uses alcohol inks to express emotion and personal reflection.
With a background in healthcare, Achrekar is moved by the complexity of grief, loneliness and healing, and sees nature as a soothing balm for the soul. Drawing on her upbringing in a creative family in India, she approaches her practice as a way to find beauty and hope, offering new ways of seeing the world through delicate colour and fluid form.
Right across the aisle, visit Narrative Gallery, where you’ll find landscape paintings by debut artist and architect, Jim Reed.
Reed brings a unique visual language to landscape painting, with compositions featuring a one-point perspective, a nod to his architectural background, but his style stays loose and slightly abstract.
Drawing inspiration from spaces like Bushy Park, Reed captures both the structure and softness of the world around him, inviting you to view familiar spaces through a fresh lens.
Continue to Iona House Gallery, where you’ll be introduced to the intricate linocuts and woodcuts of London-based printmaker, Lizzie Wheeler.
Inspired by the form, movement, and colour of wildlife, Wheeler’s prints reflect a deep connection to the natural world. With a background in graphic communications, she balances clarity with warmth, infusing each composition with care and curiosity.
Right next door is Nadia Waterfield Fine Art, where Clare Maria Wood’s abstract scenes reflect a personal response to place. Working from her home studio in Knaresborough, Wood draws from the North Yorkshire Moors, the Sussex coast, and the Cornish cliffs to build compositions that feel alive with rhythm and space. Her paintings are shaped by physical movement and intuitive mark-making, allowing the energy of the land to emerge through colour, gesture and form.
Just around the corner, you’ll find Gray Area Gallery – home to debut artists Alice Liptrot and Marion Stuart.
Marion, a Norfolk-based artist, works primarily in painting and ceramics. Her wood-fired vases are created using a traditional and demanding technique: a hand-built kiln that must be fed wood continuously for several days. This unpredictable process leaves each piece with one-of-a-kind textures and colours, as flames dance across the surface, leaving behind beautiful, organic marks.
Conclude your journey at Will’s Art Warehouse, stand G4, to encounter the powerful oil on linen paintings of Fiona Scheibl, who explores the life cycle of peony flowers in sensuous detail.
Tracking each bloom from bud to decay, Scheibl captures the shifting beauty of petals as they grow translucent and sculptural. Her physical engagement with paint – its texture, weight, and movement – reveals a deeply personal relationship with both medium and subject, where fragility and intensity coexist on the canvas.
That concludes your New Artists Route Guide. We hope you’ve enjoyed meeting this year’s debut artists and discovering their unique visions. There’s still plenty more to explore across the fair, so take your time, stay curious, and enjoy finding something new.