Andrew, Meggan and Amie all live and work at College Farm in Preston St Mary. Meggan and Amie run a framing business from here, with Susie joining the team in 2024. All four are artists - together they form The Weighbridge Studio.
Andrew Haslen is an internationally acclaimed wildlife painter, printmaker, sculptor and author who has appeared on TV and radio. He co-owned The Wildlife Art Gallery in Lavenham for thirty years before concentrating on his art full-time. He is a long-serving member of the Society of Wildlife Artists. After being diagnosed with Parkinson’s, he has had to adapt his way of working which brought sculpting back into his practice while his painting has become even more free and expressive. Andrew’s favourite subjects are the more colourful of our native birds like kingfishers, woodpeckers and finches. Hares also play a big part in Andrew’s work, having hand-reared three - giving him the opportunity to produce a body of work that culminated in the publication The Winter Hare.
Amie Haslen is a painter and printmaker drawing inspiration from the land; in particular her garden, nearby wildflower meadow and woodland. As well as depicting the larger landscape, its smaller creatures are a constant source of inspiration too - from butterflies and moths, to bees and bugs! Amie makes sketches on location using them as reference when developing finished works in the studio. Capturing the vitality of the place and its inhabitants is pivotal to Amie. Whether painting or printmaking, she always builds up layers of colour and texture to create dramatic, expressive images. Being outside and observing the insects as they weave through the sculptural plants and flowers brings great joy, as does working in a landscape that she knows well and loves dearly.
Meggan Haslen is a ceramist, who enjoys throwing colourful stoneware items. She likes designing functional, tactile pots for everyday use. Ideas come from her interest in the countryside and her love of geometrical patterns. No two firings are ever the same, and it is with wonder that she opens the kiln. Meggan has always had a creative career. Starting as a scientific illustrator, moving on to being a painter specialising in animal portraits, building a signwriting studio, and then becoming a picture framer. Whilst she continued to run her picture-framing business, she started pottery lessons and soon became hooked.
Pottery is now without doubt her biggest passion. Glaze-making and the continual journey of learning and experimenting provides a constant delight. She loves the feel of clay in her hands and is at home throwing on the wheel or hand building; creating bowls, mugs, plates and jugs. Making patterns using sgraffito and mishima is the newest venture, a search for the perfect balance of fun and functional. The avenues of exploration are endless, and she is never happier than pottering about in her pottery.
Susie Scott describes herself as a ‘maker’ of abstract works that shift in tandem with everyday life, capturing ephemeral moments that hint at the traces and trails of our life and times - the in-betweenness of things - in both nature and the human condition.
Susie lives, works and walks in the beautiful wilds of Suffolk, obliquely weaving recurring thoughts, words and observations into the abstract layers of her work. Her choice of materials and processes - as well as the physical act of making - shift in response to the world around her and become integral to the narrative. Whether using cyanotype processes, upcycled materials for sculptural projects, paper clay for ceramic works or combining drawing and collage with mixed media painting – she always aims to invite alternative perspectives and conversations about the world we share today.
We very much look forward to welcoming you to our open studio this June!
Susie's instagram @susie_artist and new website coming soon!
Meggan's instagram @meggan.meggan15
