“Love them all – hard to choose!!!”

Visitors, Shirley and Andrew Clark, 17/08/2022 – they bought 5 pieces in the end!

Well, it’s a year since my very first open studios as part of Herefordshire Art Week 2021. What a whirlwind it’s been. I loved the event last year after I’d created a gallery room at home. But in 2022 I tripled my visitor numbers! It was so rewarding to show here in my working art studio and dedicated gallery room at Skirrid Studio & Gallery (find me on Google Maps). Plus it made me get off my bum and sort out my hoarding problem, haha. You probably know exactly where I’m coming from!

Since then I’ve adjusted the model of short open studio events to offer gallery visits (or ‘private views’) year round. It’s been a real boost to developing and sustaining my art, which is still a new venture. I only progressed from being a hobby printmaker to becoming an earning artist in 2019.

The encouragement isn’t because of sales through the gallery – although they really help pay for my materials addiction – it’s because I meet great people here through a shared love of art and creativity. They are interesting, sensitive and very much alive to creative possibilities in themselves and in others whose work they appreciate. Without this engagement, I think art making full-time could become insular, quite lonely and harder to sustain.

So I feel a genuine appreciation for anyone who supports artists by attending open studio events like this one.

This year was a bit strange, as I had work back from The Perfect Hill exhibition in the middle of open studios. So there was a rehang on Monday 5 September. Thankfully all my fine art prints were beautifully framed and filling spaces for the first few days and I had a number of new woodland etchings to show. There was an evening get together (with booze, yes!!) on Wednesday 7 September and sales that evening were flying out the door.

I’m very grateful to have such a lovely space to share. I’m able to teach from Skirrid Studio too, as the studio has 2 storeys. What a spoiled artist I am!