Maureen Kennaugh is an unconventional artist who ‘paints with needle, stitch and thread’ using largely free motion machine stitch, densely stitching to build up texture and detail using multiple colours and shades. She has designed for magazines such as ‘Classic Stitches’ and ‘Needlework’ before completing a City & Guilds Diploma in Stitched Textless. More about Maureen and her work can be found on FB @maureenkennaughtextiles.

Jeremy Paul who was trained as a marine biologist is a completely self-taught artist who works in acrylics to accurately portray wildlife in its environment. Jeremy’s highly acclaimed work was awarded the BBC Wildlife Artist of the Year Category Winner in 2010-2012 as well as the National Exhibition of Wildlife Art – British Wildlife Award in 2015. His work can be viewed at jeremypaulwildlifeartist.co.uk.

Irini Newby is a director of one of the most prestigious law firms on the Isle of Man, Simcocks Advocates, celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. Irini heads up the firm’s Corporate & Commercial department and her client base ranges from major high street banks, large PLCs and boutique private enterprise to individual gaming companies and e-commerce entities. Irini came to the Island in 2001, originally from Greece and via Canada, where she worked at the Ontario Human Rights Commission. Find out more about Irini and Simcocks at www.simcocks.com.

Howard Bilton is Chairman and founder of The Sovereign Group – one of the world’s largest privately owned consultancies specialising in the provision of offshore trusts and companies and associated international tax advice. Howard holds a joint honours BA degree in classics and law from the University of Keele and is qualified as a Barrister and called to the Bars of England/Wales and Gibraltar. He currently lives and works in Hong Kong. He is a regular contributor of articles to The Telegraph and Financial Times. He is a visiting non-resident professor at Texas A and M University where he assists with their LLM and Masters degrees in International Tax and Offshore Centres. In 2003 he formed The Sovereign Art Foundation Limited, now registered in Hong Kong, Singapore, Guernsey, South Africa and the UK. He is the principal of Hillvalley Limited, which since 2005 has been making wine in Portugal, this is sold throughout the world under the Howard’s Folly brand name.

Howard Bilton will only participate in the online judging.

Eve Adams is a multidisciplinary artist, craftsperson and illustrator who graduated from the University of Derby in 2004 with a first class BA Honours degree in Sustainable Design and Practice. Sustainability has remained of great importance to her and she uses recycled, re-purposed or natural materials wherever possible in her three-dimensional work, and focuses on the natural world through her illustration. Find out more about Eve and her work http://www.eveadams.art/.

Carola Rush started her career as a Gallery Educator in a Contemporary Art Gallery in Cambridge. After moving to the Isle of Man, Carola worked as a professional photographer for Manx National Heritage, followed by several years as a freelance photographer. More recently, Carola worked as curator for the Sayle Gallery and currently teaches photography based at University College IOM. Carola’s commercial work can be viewed at icon-iom.com.

Anna Clucas, a freelance artist with a BA (Hons) degree in ceramics and printmaking from the University of Wolverhampton, who is mostly known for her large contemporary oil paintings that uses vivid colours and confident brush strokes to integrate landscape and abstraction with the idea of freedom and improvisation. Anna is a fantastic teacher and works with ART TANK at the youth arts centre and runs Clay Club at the Isle of Man Arts Society. She is also working on her new painting studio at the fabulous Engine House. Her work can be viewed at http://www.annaclucasfineart.com/.