Peterborough Open Studios Weekend

This weekend and next artists in Peterborough are opening their doors to share their work and their creative spaces with the public.  There are 26 venues taking part and, in many cases, several artists are sharing each venue.  Today Wendy took me and another friend Roz for a tour round some of the studios.  We had a short list of 4 that we hoped to visit but ended up adding in another that we saw advertised and which turned out to be a real prize.

First port of call was Art & Stitch (venue 16) where I have been for workshops and which as ever was buzzing with people chatting and learning.  The artists displaying their work were Angela Watson, Sarah Payne and Pam Pardoe.  I was pleased to be able to see Angela's poppy wall hanging which she featured on her blog recently and which she is justifiably proud of.  Angela, it's so much more lovely in real life!

Sarah was busy teaching a beading class when we arrived but she had plenty of her work on display and also, even more delightful, her sketchbooks were available to browse through.  Don't you just love looking through other people's sketchbooks?  It's fascinating to see how artists work through some of the potential problems before they start working or explore an idea to see where it will take them.  (Note to self, make better use of your own sketchbooks, like, use one!!!)

This is a very small sample of the work Sarah had on display.  You may be able to see that Sarah has been inspired by the glorious colours and patterns of the artist Hundertwasser. Sarah is a vibrant and enthusiastic artist and her work encompasses textiles, quilting and beading.  One of these days I am going to get round to doing a beading class with her at Art & Stitch!

Pam Pardoe is a skilled quilter and many of her quilts were on display both inside and outside Art & Stitch but, for my sins, I didn't take any photos of them.  Apologies Pam!

Tearing ourselves away from the lively atmosphere at Art and Stitch we got sidetracked into Pondskippercrafts  which is on the same industrial estate.  They specialise in items for the paper crafter and card maker but they carry things that can equally be used in mixed media and sketchbook-making and their prices were very competitive.

Next stop on our tour was venue 4 which featured the work of Sue Shields, a painter and printer who doesn't seem to have an internet presence, Carol Burnett who makes beautiful beaded jewellery inspired by the coast.  Her pieces were beautifully displayed on pebbles and beach finds and added to the atmosphere of the rooms which displayed Sue's beautiful paintings and linocuts, no photos I'm afraid :o( Also on display was pottery by Lindsey Wisniewski, also no internet presence.

While we were at venue 4 we picked up a flyer for another venue that we had missed and which offered cream teas in the garden! What a fantastic venue this was!  The work on display was beautiful restful paintings by Julie Reid who had also designed the beautiful garden, Kathryn Moore who was showing her woven wall hangings, shawls and bags and Ann Bellamy who makes wonderful jewellery including brooches from glass fragments and beads.  I was very tempted!  Julie Reid is also a garden designer and her garden was a very special place, so much so that we sat a spell and had a cream tea!!

Suitable refreshed, and spurred on by sat-nav we moved on to venue 8 in the home of Kay Hall, a lovely textile and mosaic artist.  Also here was Nadine Gereson who works in silver jewellery.

This wonderfully sculpted shrub greeted us at the door.  We thought maybe it was a laurel.

Do go and take a look at Kay's website, she has some beautiful work displayed there and you can see that her textiles and mosaics inform each other.  

Kay also had a delightful garden that she allowed us to wander in.  Both hers and Julie's showed the flair of an artist at work , and had lots of quirky bits and pieces to keep you interested and inspired, small strings of mirrors spinning in the wind, rusty bits, small stone figures hiding in the borders, wooden toadstools, windchimes with different tones, mosaic tables and pots.  

 This gorgeous bark was on a pine tree (cupressus?) in Kay's garden.  If you click on the photo to enlarge it you will see the depth of colour and the textures.  I don't think I would have expected to see this colour bark on a cypress tree. 

Our last port of call was Venue 13, The Cavell Centre, which had a wide selection of work from local artists across Cambridgeshire. (Unfortunately they did not have the bowls on display that feature in the publicity for PAOS). Needless to say by the time we had walked round the centre we were tiring and ready for home.  You still have time to visit the Peterborough Open Studios either this weekend or next weekend and judging by the work we saw today it is well worth a visit if you live near enough.