Jo Ellis Just Four is a member of Just Four Contemporary Artists.

Just Four Contemporary Artists

Just Four Contemporary Artists are a group of female artists who thrive on painting together. Jenny Hill-Norton, Anthea Stilwell and Jo Ellis started working creatively together after previous art-related careers: Anthea as an art teacher at Harrow School, Jenny as a glass engraver and landscape gardener and Jo as a Graphic Designer and Illustrator.

“We find that we produce our most inspirational pieces while working together,” says Jenny who co-founded the group. “It’s all experimental work covering a huge range of subjects – created for the sheer pleasure of painting!” Media includes oils, acrylics, mixed media, watercolours, collage and a range of drawing materials including graphite, ink and charcoal.

The three painters are joined by Craig Narramore a contemporary sculptor and furniture maker based in Buckinghamshire, who combines the latest technologies from working as a prop maker in the film industry together with skills from his early grounding in the art of cabinet making. He brings a unique twist with his creations and adds a 3 dimensional depth when the four artists exhibit together as ‘Just Four’. Their work is exhibited throughout the UK and sold at affordable prices.

Exhibitions

Just Four was launched in 2013 with an exhibition at The Cork Street Gallery, Mayfair, London. It’s success led the Four to continue exhibiting together as a collective group, taking stands in 2015 at the Affordable Art Fair, Bristol, and the Brighton Art Fair. Valuable contacts were made leading to an invitation to be Artists in Residence with a Just Four Exhibition at The Late November Gallery, Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire in 2016.

The City Space Gallery, Discovery Centre in Winchester, Hampshire was the next venue where they were invited to exhibit in the spring of 2016 followed later that year by an exhibition at Jardinique, Alton, Hampshire and then in London at the newly-refurbished Gallery at The Tabernacle, Notting Hill.

A change of scene in 2018 brought them to the Rock Institute, Rock, Cornwall for an exhibition hosted by Valency Fine Art for a hot summer week competing with record temperatures and World Cup Football.

In 2019 Just Four were hosted by the Quintus family at Bourton House Tythe Barn Gallery, Bourton-on-the-Hill, Gloucestershire to complement their famous garden which is open to the public. It poured with rain all week, so the visitors spent time enjoying the exhibition in the historic barn.

2019 also saw them back in Cornwall at The Crypt Gallery, St Ives Society of Artists in St Ives as invited artists exhibiting with Edwina Broadbent. Again pouring rain brought the visitors in to view the show to their advantage.

In 2020 all plans to exhibit stopped due to Covid lockdowns.

In 2021 the postponed Just Four + Two Summer Exhibition was held by invitation of Nadia Waterfield at her Fine Art Gallery at Goodworth Clatford, near Stockbridge, Hampshire. Jane Martin and John Mackinlay joining them as their + two. This lead to the artists subsequently exhibiting with Nadia in her Autumn, Christmas and Spring Art Fairs and Shows.

Just Four have throughout this time exhibited together with The Stilwell Art Group. The group was co-founded by Jenny and Anthea – who teaches and inspires the group. These exhibitions are have been held at: Josie Eastwood’s Gallery, Sparsholt, Hampshire in 2011; Riccos, Liss, Hampshire in 2013; The Oxmarket Gallery, Chichester, West Sussex in 2015 and at the gallery spaces at The Stockbridge Town Hall, Hampshire in 2017, 2019 and 2022.

June 2023 brings another opportunity for a Just Four + Two exhibition at the Bourton House Tythe Barn Gallery in Gloucestershire by invitation of the owners of Bourton House.

2025 will be a busy year with a Just Four + Two Summer Exhibition with Nadia Waterfield in Hampshire

Just Four Contemporary Artists

Exhibitions

Find out where and when Just four are exhibiting next…