About
I'm Michele Payne, an abstract expressionist artist based on the South coast in Sussex, in the UK.
Since graduating from Brighton University in 1994, I've been lucky enough to have a long career as a surface and textile designer. Over the past few years it's been a joy to return to my love of painting and making original art and exciting to see my work developing and unfolding.
My practice is emotion-led, usually starting with colours that have an emotional resonance for me. Recent themes for my art have been connection and belonging, which have inspired bright, evocative paintings that incorporate elements of symbolism, fragmented, imagined landscapes and structures created from blurred memories and glimpses of nature.
Exhibitions + Selections
SKYWAY GALLERY
Open call / Group exhibition
Skyway gallery, Shoreham
21st-25th September 2026
Worthing Art Trail
VENUE 34
19th/20th + 26th/27th September 2026
FLOCK
Group exhibition
Gallery North, Hailsham
8th August - 19th September 2026
VIVID
Colonnade House, Worthing
23rd-28th June 2026
Juxtapose + Deconstruct art Installations
Worthing Festival Sound Garden
Homefield Park
21st-22nd June 2026
DIVINE
Group exhibition
Phoenix Art Space, Brighton
April 2026
The Other Art Fair
The Truman Brewery, London
5th-8th March 2026
CONNECTION
Exhibition
Newland Gallery, Worthing
June - September 2025
'Softly Sundown'
Jackson's Art prize Longlist 2025
Worthing Festival Artist 2025
RESONANCE
Group exhibition
Colonnade House, Worthing
September 2025
'Feel The Happy'
Atelier Brighton Open Call 2023
Lost in the Water'
Cuckmere Haven Open Call 2023
GLIMMER
Exhibition
Colonnade House, Worthing
June 2024
COEXIST SPACES
Group exhibition
Worthing Artists Open Houses 2023
RIOT + PAYNE
Joint exhibition
Colonnade House, Worthing
September 2022
