A bit about me.

Hi, I’m Gav Blackwell, an artist-maker based in Holywell, North Wales. I work from my studio in an old textile mill, nestled between Greenfield Valley Heritage Park and St Winefride’s Well.

I studied Fine Art at the University of Huddersfield and later trained as a teacher at the University of Wales in Cardiff. After several years teaching art and design in a Newcastle secondary school, I became a Programme lead at Newcastle College. Having access to state of the art equipment and workshops fed into my passion for making and aided in the development of many new skills that I now employ in my own practice. Throughout my time teaching, I endeavoured to continue exhibiting my own work; the most recent of which was at the 2023 Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy in London.

In 2023, I returned home to Wales to focus on my own creative practice and freelance work. Alongside setting up the new studio and creating a new body of work, I’ve contributed to a range of community focussed creative projects spanning 3D design, graphic communication and creative workshops in a range of school and community settings.

Gav Blackwell Artist- Maker based in North Wales.

I picked up the keys to my studio in May 2025, stepping into what was then a completely empty space filled with potential and some great neighbours in the form of the Carmel and Holywell Woodcraft association. Since moving in, I’ve gradually transformed the studio into a well organised and practical workspace, fitting a range of shelving and storage solutions to keep materials and equipment neat and tidy (most of the time anyway!). The studio is now home to a growing collection of tools and creative resources, but the centrepiece is undoubtedly a 100W laser cutter with a 100cm x 60cm bed, a fantastic size that allows me to produce a diverse range of work with precision and flexibility. It’s a bright, comfortable space that’s become a real hub for making and experimentation and I feel very fortunate to be able to create from here every day. You are more than welcome to come and visit my studio but please email in advance just in case I’m particularly busy and to make sure I’m there.