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 currently lives and works in Hong Kong.

Howard holds a joint honours 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. As a visiting non-resident Professor at Texas A and M University, he assists with their LLM and Master’s degrees in International Tax and Offshore Centres. He is a regular contributor of articles to numerous newspapers and technical new wires.

In Hong Kong in 2003, Howard formed The Sovereign Art Foundation (SAF), a charitable organisation also registered in Guernsey, Malta, Singapore, South Africa and the United Kingdom. SAF runs a range of art prizes designed to increase the exposure of artists in the region, while raising money to help disadvantaged children. SAF has raised over US$9 million and has helped thousands of disadvantaged children using expressive arts as a means of education and rehabilitation.

Howard is also the Founder and Chairman of Howard’s Folly Wines, Portugal. All wines use art on the labels and often feature work by finalists of The Sovereign Asian Art Prize of the same year. A proportion of the wine operations revenue goes to support SAF.

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The beautiful Isle of Man has been my home for over 40 years. I live in a little house at the edge of Glen Elfin, surrounded by trees, perched on the slopes on North Barrule, and spend an irrational amount of time with the cats, watching birdies outside the window when I should be working.

My biggest influences, growing up, were probably Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac, the Grahame-Johstone sisters, Harry Clark, Archibald Knox, Alan Lee, plus a plethora fantasy and comic book artists & illustrators. Their love of intricate detail weaving it’s way into my own work. The product of being an only child, happiest when left with a stack of books, a pile of paper and a bunch of drawing implements. Some things never change.

Light years ago I gained a BA Hons. Degree in Multi Disciplinary Design (Graphics and Illustration) and have been a freelance illustrator & commercial artist since 1989 (yes that IS a long time). I have produced all manner of work for all manner of clients large and small, on Island and much, much further afield.

Being freelance, jobs are varied - from intricate technical historical reconstruction drawings for Manx National Heritage (extremely interesting), to the inside of a nasal cavity (not quite so interesting); caricatures of ex-gangster bosses (scary) and brides (even scarier), book illustrations, cartoons, postage stamp design for the Isle of Man Post Office, logo, label and packaging design, tattoos, and lots and lots of hairy beasties from Manx folklore. Presently, I have the pleasure of creating the branding and label design for the Fynoderee Distillery; and am also curator of the Hodgson Loom Gallery at Laxey Woollen Mills, Isle of Man.

I have exhibited in solo and joint shows on the Isle of Man, won the Singer & Friedlander Art Competition, Public Vote five times; the 4under40 Business award; the Italian Steampunk Festival 2017 Character illustration award and European packaging design awards with Okells Ales designs; alongside international digital gallery awards. I was lucky enough to be chosen to represent the Isle of Man in the EuroCelt Art Exhibition at the 2019 Lorient Interceltique Festival, France. ‘Elemental’ was my most recent collaborative exhibition, delving deeply into all things Celtic, ancient and elemental, examples of which can be seen on my website. Currently, I am, amongst a pile of commissioned projects, working towards a joint exhibition called ‘Deeper’, showing in the Hodgson Loom Gallery October 2021.

My favourite medium has to be graphite, it's just the best for getting from imagination to paper without the brain getting in the way. When left to my own devices, I love to create characters and beings from my imagination, often inspired by ancient myth and fantasy; sometimes using with media that isn't necessarily supposed to end up on paper, like nail varnish to achieve a certain colour, but generally using a mixture of pencils & pens, charcoal pencils, felt tips, coloured pencils, watercolour and whatever else is to hand. I also find I work particularly well with chocolate.

I have three erstwhile feline studio assistants - who generally hog the fire and sit on the chocolate and test the effect of gravity on various drawing implements.

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Juan was born and raised on the Isle of Man and studied at Falmouth College of Arts in Cornwall in the UK. In 2006 he graduated with a first class BA honours degree in illustration and in 2013 achieved an MA degree in 3D computer animation from Bournemouth University’s NCCA.

Juan has worked as an illustrator and fine artist since 2006 and has produced work across many areas including publishing, advertising and editorial with his work appearing in the Guardian newspaper for many years. clients include Scholastic books, HBO, Stamp design for IOM post amongst many others. Juan has (and still does from time to time) produced a number of limited edition small press books that have proven very popular over the years. He has also exhibited his work not only on the Isle of Man but also in Cornwall, Wales, London, France and New York. Some of Juan's artworks are part of both the Isle of Man Arts Council's collection and the Manx National Art Collection.

Juan has produced 2 highly successful projects for the IOM arts council, Welcome to the Neighborhood, which involved putting on art exhibitions in places that don’t normally host exhibitions and 2014’s image a day project which involved producing and displaying a finished artwork every day for an entire year.

Aside from illustration and fine art Juan has also worked on several animation projects, notably as a digital colourist on Chico & Rita, which received an Oscar nomination in 2012 and, more recently, he has written and directed 2 animated shorts, one of which won best animation at the IOM film festival.

In the summer of 2019, Juan Illustrated all the cards for Weird Alchemy a quirky and funny card game by Clever Unicorn games, this has reinvigorated Juan to produce more fantasy and quirky works and was the main reason for producing this website.

Currently Juan is working on numerous projects in areas he’s not worked in before such as prop making for TV and producing illustrations for board games. He has an interest in folk lore and is about to embark on an ambitious project related to Manx folklore which is near and dear to his Heart. Juan also lectures illustration, painting, graphic design and digital art at University College Isle of Man.

Irini Newby is a director of one of the most prestigious law firms on the Isle of Man, Simcocks Advocates, established over 70 years ago. 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.

Carola has enjoyed a lifelong career involved with the visual arts, working within the fields of: professional photography; art and media education (in both the formal education sector and less formal gallery arenas); exhibition curation, organisation and design; support and promotion of artists, and art venue management.

She has had a passion for visual art from an early age and loves to see a similar passion emerging in young people today. Carola has been involved with the Sovereign Art Prize since its first year on the Isle of Man and feels privileged to have seen some of the best artworks produced by young people during that time.

Although now semi retired, Carola remains voluntarily active within the arts on the Isle of Man through the Creative Network, a collective of nearly 70 artists living and working on the Island. Through the Network, Carola jointly organises the IOM Art Festival and other Arts initiatives, most recently she has instigated and organised the ‘Boundaries’ exhibition currently on show at the House of Manannnan.

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 energetic 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, runs Clay Club tutored sessions at the Isle of Man Arts Society and facilitates adult oil painting and print making classes at the UCM. She also finds time to work on new paintings in her Douglas studio, and is working on an exciting Pen Pals project that is taking her all over the world. Her work can be viewed at http://www.annaclucasfineart.com/.