Shift and Drift
by Wendy Smith and Steve Betts
Weekends at The Riverside Gallery in July 2025 · Part of Medway Open Studios
Sun Pier House is proud to present Shift and Drift, an evocative new exhibition by artists Wendy Smith and Steve Betts, showing weekends throughout July 2025 and as part of this year’s Medway Open Studios.
Bringing together sculpture and painting, Shift and Drift explores the edges of experience, where land meets water, nature meets structure, and narrative meets material. Both artists are drawn to transitional spaces and shifting environments, responding to them through process-led, site-sensitive practices.
“Looking forward to the next exhibition adventure with Steve Betts. We will be showing our latest work at the Riverside Gallery, Sun Pier, Chatham. We have both been working with sea, estuary areas, tidal & non tidal rivers for a few years and have the connection to the river Medway”
Gallery & Café Opening Times
Friday 4th July, 6pm – 8pm
Saturday 5th July, 11am – 4pm
Sunday 6th July, 11am – 4pm
Saturday 12th July, 11am – 4pm
Sunday 13th July, 11am – 4pm
Saturday 19th July, 11am – 4pm
Sunday 20th July, 11am – 4pm
About the Artists
Wendy Smith
Wendy finds inspiration exploring places that are on the edge of changing environments. The experience is both psychological and emotive, referring to the sense of place, environmental happenings and the experience of immersion in the landscape. The exploration includes topographical elements. The textural surface, materiality and weathering combined with an engagement with a place, exceeding a purely visual experience.
There is a curiosity with ‘edgeland’ areas or the overlap where natural wild spaces meet the more contained. Also, edges where land and sea or rivers meet. The transitional and liminal spaces created between rural and urban areas. These spaces often neglected or overlooked become areas of fascination. Working with the materials in the landscape, pigments, raw canvas, mud, drifting vegetation and submerging canvases in tidal and non-tidal areas of the river Medway, to absorb the process of weathering, responding to the essence, atmosphere and materiality of place.
Steve Betts
A marine artist with a passion for boats and the sea, Steve explores seascapes through sculpture and painting, working with the margins where land and sea meet. Exploring the idea of seascapes through narrative, storytelling, the exploration and documentation of man’s adversity. Lifeboats and the relationships we have with the sea are key elements. The stories and struggles of saving souls, pulling lifeboats and man’s struggle of preservation against the elements. Also, exploring the ebb and flow, immersion, stormy conditions and the shifting of time and tides through historical research and factual based story telling.
The boat sculptures are part of the ‘nervous wreck’ series of vessels left abandoned, sunk, discarded and others represent real life scenarios of man’s survival and struggle at sea. Currently living on a historic Dutch sailing barge on the river Medway, is also a key influence and inspiration for this artwork.
Exhibitions at The Riverside Gallery
Located in the heart of Chatham’s vibrant cultural quarter, Sun Pier House is a dynamic riverside arts venue where creativity comes to life. Overlooking the tranquil River Medway, our light-filled gallery spaces provide a striking and ever-changing backdrop for an exciting programme of exhibitions, installations, and community-led art projects.
Have a look at what’s coming up next in the Riverside Gallery!
