the artists

Moish Sokal was born during the Israeli War of Independence to artistic parents who encouraged his talents. He grew up in a beachside town of the port city of Haifa.

At 20 he left his family to settle in Sydney, Australia when he married his first wife.

He studied Graphic Art and Design at Sydney Technical College and worked as a Graphic Designer and Illustrator for the next 20 years. However, he frequently left the commercial world to travel and paint, mainly in Third-world countries, but also visiting Israel and England with his Somerset-born second wife.

The Sokals came to live in England in 1990. Since then Sokal has had many one-man exhibitions, the most recent being his record breaking show "Hidden Waters" in the Malthouse Gallery at East Lambrook Manor Gardens.

Moish Sokal has two daughters, Liat, a performing artist and a mother, who lives in Brunswick Heads and Rachel a Photographer who lives in Bristol. Moish and Prue Biddle, a designer jeweller. live in Norton sub Hamdon, Somerset.

"I love watercolours. It is such a clean, clear, and simple medium and it fits my light traveling style. I can run around in a busy market place, with a plastic carrier bag in a Third World country and no one would even notice. When I get thirsty on the job, I just drink some of the water I carry with me."

Pauline Rook is an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society , ARPS. Pauline  works as an experienced portrait photographer but is equally well known for her rural documentary and landscape work. Based in Somerset for many years , she has a back ground in farming but studied photography to a high level to achieve qualifications with both the RPS and the Professional Photographic Associations.  since then she has had a successful career in the West Country and has held numerous exhibitions and has had her work published widely in books and magazines.   Her documentary work will form the major part of the opening exhibition in the new 'Museum of Somerset" due to open autumn 2011.

To me, digital graphics are the digital age’s equivalent of traditional photographic prints.    I’m a photographer whose roots are in conventional photography, but I found the possibilities offered by the digital age just too hard to resist and it’s this technology that has driven my creativity in recent years.

My work normally evolves from my travels.  I shy away from the well-trodden tourist haunts and look for the essence of the place – the often elusive characteristics of everyday life, rather than just the recognised landmarks.  But a camera is never far from my hands and so my work is varied and opportunistic and I like the freedom and diversity of subject matter that leads to.

My images are usually, but not exclusively, captured in a multiple exposure format, then edited using HDR (High Definition Range ) software, giving me the opportunity to alter, edit and hone the tonal characteristics and qualities of the image to get exactly what I want. 

For me – possibly because of my darkroom days – printing and presenting my work is just as important as the image itself.  I love experimenting with printing onto alternative media – such as aluminium - and I’m always exploring new ideas.    In fact, the ever increasing expansion of printing boundaries through the availability of alternative media has become an important factor in guiding me towards a particular subject matter - at the point of capture, I’m not simply thinking of the captured image itself, but the way in which I can most effectively present that image in its final printed form. 

Born in Kent England in 1958 Una spent her childhood living in the ancient, haunted countryside near Tintern on the Welsh borders. The mysterious forests and wild landscape were an inspiration , and she began painting at an early age. She studied painting and etching at Newport College of Art and was awarded a B.A. Honours degree in 1977.

In the early years of her career,she wrote and illustrated several books which were published by 'Dragons World', a publishing house set up by 'Yes' album cover artist, Roger Dean. She exhibited at the well-known 'Francis Kyle Gallery' in London for some 20 years, and had several one-woman shows there. Her work has been exhibited widely in the U.K. and also in Paris, Spain and the U.SA. Her work has also been used as book illustration and C.D. covers.