Artist: Catrin Edwards-Jones

Hi Kitty and Judy – your Open House is, in part, a homage to your mothers, both of whom sadly died in 2025. Can you tell us a little about your mothers and their previous experience of taking part in Artists Open Houses?

 Kitty: My Welsh Mother, Catrin Edwards-Jones was renowned especially for her textile and embroidery work. Catrin’s art work is diverse – sculptured portraits in terracotta and various interpretations of the Sussex coast including Brighton Marina and Seven Sisters – in oils, watercolours, textiles, stained glass and hand painted lampshades of local views of the changing seascape and Marina. She had a passion for her cats and painted them all.

Catrin Edwards-Jones

 Catrin founded The Sussex Quilters in the mid 1980’s; a TV programme was made to explain the methods used. She later set up The St Ives Quilters in the 1990’s when she and husband Crawford moved to St Ives, Cornwall. Catrin opened a studio, (formally a Pilchard cellar), where she exhibited and sold her work in the bustling heart of St Ives. She taught textile art at the ‘St Ives school of painting’ and Truro. Much of her work went on tour to America at this time.

Artist: Catrin Edwards-Jones

 She learned her textile skills from her Welsh grandmother and was making dolls clothes at the age of six. In the 1960’s she studied portraiture in oils and exhibited a painting at the Royal Academy Summer exhibition. She designed and made dolls for Liberty & Co., with commissions from Heals, Harvey Nichols and exhibited at Foyles, London.

Catrin Edwards-Jones

Catrin returned to her beloved Brighton in 1999 where she opened her Brighton studio in Roedean to take part in Artists Open Houses on two occasions which were a great success. It included opening the unique ‘Lutyens Sunken Garden’ to visitors, which has since received a Grade 2 Listing from Heritage England.

 Catrin has published two books:  ‘Cornish & Sussex Recollections in Textile Art’ and  ‘New Quay Wales Remembered’ – memories of a young girl growing up in the 1930’s and war years, of Dylan Thomas and the colourful characters in this small town…the soulful singing of the male voice choirs on the pier of an era gone by, it was she says “Heaven on Earth” .

Artist: Catrin Edwards-Jones

Judy: So my mother never trained (she left school literally 3 months after the 2^nd World War finished, her education having suffered because of being evacuated), but she painted all her life, attending various adult education classes and occasional painting holidays with me.  She loved painting flowers most of all, exploring different styles, and we have paintings which go back to the 1960s showing in the Open House!   She became interested in Chinese painting in the 1970s and then moved to more exact botanical work.  As she got older, her style got freer and she got more experimental; then as her eyesight started to go, she moved towards slightly more abstract, but still representational, work.  She loved exploring new styles so there is a huge variation in what we are showing, spanning 60 years!

Mum lived in Hove in the 1950s (my brother and I were born here) and moved back here in 2012, having kept a connection to Hove through me over the past 20 years, often visiting the Open Houses.

Although she was already in her 80s when she moved back, we helped her to do Open House as part of the West Hove Art Trail in May 2012 as well as the following year.  She was joined by a friend who made lovely bags from recycled fabric, and I exhibited a few of my paintings as well.   This time Kitty and I have banded together and invited some guest artists.

Anne and Judy Carney

Both of your  brothers are also exhibiting your work – would you like to tell us about this?

Kitty: My brother, Catrin’s son, Huw Edwards-Jones, is also showing a small selection of his bespoke wood work. A former Sussex Guild member and member of The Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers, Huw has been awarded 5 guild marks in recognition of his work and is a Liveryman of the City of London  – he took his sheep across London Bridge with Griff Rhys Jones in 2014 on the centenary of Dylan Thomas! He designed and made the spectacular Spitfire Memorial Table which was shown on TV and can be seen on his website: hejpiecemaker.com.

What has it been like for you curating and exhibiting your mothers’ work as well as your own?

Judy: There are so many framed pictures, and neither my brother or I have any space to put them on our walls (apart from a very few) and we are both pushed for space to store them.  We are showing them to honour her work really, but if others can enjoy them then that is the best outcome.  We have sold several and that is wonderful.  It was quite cathartic going through my mother’s paintings before the show.  There were some I had never seen before, many unframed paintings, mainly flower studies, which we have put in a folder which people can buy for just a small amount.

Kitty you are an interior designer, how has your experience influenced the exhibition? 

Kitty: Unlike the freedom and wild sweeping strokes of my mother Catrin’s art work, I tend to lean towards a more visually disciplined approach, more architecturally influenced that can be calming and restful on the eye. But I also love the mix of old and new – antiques and modern sit well together and are the ultimate recycling combination. New furniture alone can be bland and a back story is so much more interesting.  How to light a space is crucial so in this instance I was annoyingly cleaning windows and removing curtains to get in as much natural light as possible.  My passion is historical and conservation work and I love doing one off consultations to get clients kick started into action with simple solutions. I also have a love of textiles and this is definitely my mothers’ influence having watched her for years. It was challenging setting up, bringing in so much diverse talent into the open house, formally Judy’s mothers’ home – nice high ceilings and good proportions were a bonus in finding a harmonious balance which celebrated not only our mothers’ work (mainly hung on walls), but also celebrating the work of our guest artists – a fine jewellery silversmith Jenny Turtill, ceramicist Yolande Beer and Sarah Packingham’s  fresh acrylic jewellery all Sussex Guild members.  I would have liked a more ‘gallery’ feel but a compromise was met and the feed back from visitors is that the exhibition has a charm and diversity of its own and we must remember why we are doing this….

Artist: Judy Carney

Would you like to tell us more about how being  artists/creatives impacted your relationship with your mother and ways in which you influenced one another?

Judy: When I was really quite young I tagged along when my mother went to a regular art class.  It was for adults, but I was allowed to sit at the back of the room, also doing some work and that’s where I remember exploring lino printing.  She always encouraged me to draw.  After that, as an adult, I went on a number of painting holidays with my mother (especially to France) and it was a lovely bonding experience

Artist: Judy Carney

Kitty: Judy is a lifelong friend and it is an honour to collaborate and show work of our two wonderful mothers who died last year at 95 and 96 years old.  I would say my mother influenced me rather than the other way round, but encouraged me to enrol at the Chelsea School of Art interior design course as a second career after being in the theatre as an actress. It has been cathartic and a privilege to exhibit my mothers’ work retrospectively and there is so much more to uncover in her Brighton studio!