Sarah and Alaric Pugh are two businesspeople who moved into Well House just eight weeks ago. Their two boys now having embarked on careers of their own, Alaric and Sarah have brought their two businesses to Clare. Both have recently joined Clare Business Association. Alaric has also already been spotted planting spring bulbs with Clare in Bloom and is an enthusiastic supporter of the Town Plan process having been involved in community projects in other parts of the country.

Sea Pictures Gallery

Sarah hopes to breathe new life into the historic Well Lane premises that until quite recently housed interior decoration shop ‘Cornflowers’. Given time to sensitively carry out some vital repairs and renovations, Sarah intends to go through the official planning process to convert the former ‘dining room’ back into the artisan shop that it has been since the late eighteenth century. Hopefully, with plenty of local support, Sarah will then open Sea Pictures Gallery in Clare.

She reports, in a spirit of optimism, that planning for next year’s shows has tentatively begun. In the meantime, www.seapicturesgallery.comcontinues to operate successfully on the internet, as it has done for almost four years. Visitors are welcomed to the site and encouraged to sign up for the regular newsletter, as this is not a catalogue or auction website but a proper ‘virtual’ gallery, where one can browse or attend Private Views of regular themed exhibitions or get invited to events held by the gallery around the UK.

Items seen on the web can be seen in reality by phoning Sarah and visiting the gallery at home by appointment or, in some cases, the items can be brought to you to see if they suit a particular location you might have in mind. Sea Pictures Gallery does ‘exactly what it says on the tin’ and specialises in artists with a connection with the sea.

The gallery was a partner of ‘Sea Britain 2005 – the Year of the Sea’ and is still linked to maritime charities and coastal regeneration organisations, as well as the Royal Society of Marine Artists and the East Anglian Group of Marine Artists. Sarah and Alaric also have a particular interest in artists of Wales and the Scandinavian countries and hope to bring the fruits of this enthusiasm to Clare soon. Sarah’s phone number is 01787 279 024.

Alaric Pugh Associates

Alaric runs a business strategy consultancy, when not helping in the gallery! He has been advisor to large US and UK ‘blue-chip’ companies such as Otis and Powergen, while also acting as a small business advisor working for a local enterprise board. At one time he was a journalist abroad and then even edited the financial advice magazine of the Woolwich Building Society – long before the current crisis, he stresses!

Nowadays, he specialises in writing business plans and designing and executing public relations programmes for companies or organisations that need to manage their reputation – and that seems to be all of us. His experience spans all types of commercial or community activity from the arts via architecture to education via energy conservation and engineering. His phone number is 01787 277 599.

Date : 07-11-2008