Cathy's Art Diary

Excellent art trail around East Sussex featuring work by artists and makers from Lewes, Seaford, Newhaven and surrounding villages in their own homes and workshops. I have to admit we only had an afternoon to do this so we focused on the area around Lewes starting by heading to Ringmer and a show featuring work by Dion Salvador Lloyd, an artist we know from open houses in Brighton. We got a lovely welcome from his partner who had organised the show and were delighted to be shown his studio at the house. As well as his lovely calm seascapes there were lovely ceramics and work by complimentary artists. From there we headed to Glynde and had a wander round this lovely estate village dropping in at three or four events. The highlight was the show at Glynde Place which mainly featured sculpture both in the coach house and the garden. I particularly liked the stone carving there including work by Paulien Gluckman, Alyosha Moeran and Will Spankie. Closed 1 September 2019

Two glorious weekends at the Brighton Artists’ Open Houses looking at an array of art and craft work. The show was on longer but we only managed to do three days over two weekends however we went into full train spotter mode and got round 22 houses! We concentrated on the groups at Five Ways, Beyond the Level, Hove, and Dyke Road. It was a mix of old favourites such as the wonderful sculpture at Collectors’ Selection and Dion Salvador Lloyd’s lovely seascapes, although it was nice to see him branching out into delicate flower pictures.   New discoveries included St Augustine’s Rough Diamonds, not so much for the art but for the amazing things that had been done with the building. Random shout outs go to Claire Morris’s lovely garden sculptures, the eclectic 11 Rugby Road, Frances Doherty’s botanical ceramics and John Beetham’s paintings of archaeological sites and abstracted maps shown with wonderful ceramic heads by Alain Guy. Closed 26 May 2019

Eclectic open houses and artists’ studios in Brighton open for the duration of the Brighton Festival.   I spent two lovely weekends looking around this amazing collection of work. From paintings to ceramics to jewellery to sculpture to much, much more. The first weekend we concentrated on the Fiveways group and thanks to their excellent brochure managed to see nearly all the houses. Highlights include Dawn Thornhill’s papercut tableaux and Mr Craven : Raconteur’s wonderful series of Brighton men prints representing areas of the city. We also went to Francesca Grace McLeod’s preview party as we have bought from her in the past. I loved her new pictures based on photographs from her recent honeymoon. Thank you for the invitation. The second weekend was more random and more about finding parking then following a trail but we did make a point of going to the Collectors’ Selection to see Eve Shepherd’s recent small sculptures and to pop to Dion Salvator Lloyd’s to see his ...

Annual opening of Clarence House giving the opportunity to see five of the ground floor rooms of this Royal house currently home to Prince Charles. I mainly went because the descriptions said that some of the Queen Mother’s art collection was on show and I knew she had collected a lot of the artists I like from the first half of the 20th century.   I wasn’t disappointed as there were a couple of Sickerts, an Augustus John and more Pipers than I could count. I was also to see various models for sculptures I knew such as the one of Churchill and his wife by the lake at Chartwell. It was interesting to see the rooms as well. Although grand they had a homely feel to them and as ever at the Royal Palaces the guide was brilliant and really brought the place to life. She had a good blend of stories from the past and present and showed a real personal interest in some of the objects. Closed on 31 August 2017  

Varied and eclectic Artists Open Houses in Brighton. I only managed to do one weekend of houses this year but packed them in! There was the usual wonderful mix of pictures, ceramics, jewellery, textiles, basically you name it it was there! I manage to contain my purchases to a croquet hoot necklace, some cards and a small oil painting of a seascape. A highlight was John Constable’s studio which I’d learnt earlier in the day was now lived in by an artist so it was great to see it. As ever I loved the basement in Brunswick Square which was packed with lots of tempting things. A thank you goes out to Francesa McLeod for the invitation to her private view and drinks. Francesca painted the portrait I use as my blog profile picture. She’d done some lovely new work and I particularly liked seeing her pictures based on a cage of stuffed birds alongside the real cage. Closed on 29 May 2017

Interesting trail of open houses and studios as part of the Brighton Festival around the Brunswick area of the city plus a couple of other favourite houses. Highlights included Francesca Mcleod’s portraits and nice to see some new landscape works by her. Also wonderful detailed drawings by Ian Hodgson in the Naked Eye Gallery including a wonderful picture of a glitter ball. We also popped into St John’s Church to see the new pictures by Annelies Clarke based on Revelations which were fantastic as ever. I bought a clock from her made from one of her artists palette. If I can’t afford a painting this is the ne4xt best thing! Closed 30 May 2016

Great trail of open houses and studios as part of the Brighton Festival around the village of Ditchling. As ever an excellent selection of arts and crafts in this village. There was an interesting show about typefaces at the Jointure Studio and wonderful jewellery at Pruden and Smith including work made from Roman glass. I bought greeting cards of Vanessa Worrall’s lovely seascapes. It was nice to meet the lovely dogs at Four Free again however the best house was the Handmade House on the outskirts of the village which had wonderful and much needed cakes as well as some interesting works including sculpture by David Price. Closed 30 May 2016  

Stunning open studios at Phoenix Brighton as part of the Brighton Festival. We went along thinking we’d be there about half an hour and staggered out three and a half hours later having seen some wonderful art and had some great conversations! Almost too many favourites to mention! We headed first for our friend Eve Shpeherd’s studio. She produces wonderful sculptures and it was great to see works in progress in the studio as we usually only see her finished works at her open house. We had a long chat about a classical head she was working on and about how it had been commissioned and how she hoped to develop it from its current neat classical form. I was delighted to find a photographer whose work I’d seen earlier in the week at the Sony World Photography Awards, Denise Felkin, whose current series of pictures looks at women who have not had children. I’ve attached a picture of her work to this post. They are lovely caring pictures. She was kind enough to give me a c...

Wonderful trail of open houses as part of the Brighton Festival around the Fiveways area of the city. There was a wonderful selection of arts and crafts. Stand out work this year included ceramics by Yolande Beer who I always love seeing as I have a vase by her I brought a few years ago. I also like the lovely upholstery by Nicki Tarr combining funky materials and vintage chairs. There was nice jewellery by Charlie High which I think are casts of real leaves. Best paintings were Alison Rankin’s interesting still lives of fruit. The best house was the Ceramic House featuring the wonderful ceramic botanic work by Kay Aplin and Paul Scott’s interesting take on blue and white china. The house itself is beautiful as it is all decorated with Kay’s ceramic tiles and sculptures. As well as the house they show the studio and a new gallery up a small flight of ceramic steps. Closed 30 May 2016

Eclectic selection of artist open houses in Brighton as part of the May festival. Sadly I only made it to one weekend this year but we still packed it in! We did the Five Ways trail and some of the neighbouring ones as well as a few choice one that we love such as Eve Shepherds sculptures. I’m afraid it’s a few weeks ago so I can’t remember who was where but highlights included furniture by William Jay, jewellery by Deanna O’Keeffe made from old 1960s and 1970s costume jewellery giving it a modern twist, collages by Frances Bloomfield, ceramics of plants by Frances Doherty and Paintings by Annelies Clarke.

I just managed to do two properties this year during Open House weekend. On the Saturday I went to the Thames River Police at Wapping. I pass this each morning on the river and was intrigued to look inside. Only one room was open but that housed the quaint river police museum. This was a bit of a jumble of objects with uniforms, badges, photos and more. The gentleman who curated it was there telling his story and you could tell the museum was a real labour of love,. On Sunday I popped down the road to see Charlton House , a wonderful Jacobean House now occupied by Greenwich Council. It was a shame that a lot of it was closed and it might have been nice if the hand out was a bit clearer about that however most of the upper floor was open and it had wonderful grand, fashionable Jacobean fire places. The house had been built by the tutor of James I son Prince Henry who died, so it was the height of Jacobean intellectual taste.    

Another great weekend in Brighton doing open houses although I must admit it’s a while ago now and slightly fading in the memory. We majored on the Hove trail and saw some wonderful things as ever. The best house for variety was Collectors Selection at Hove Park Villas which had a great selection of painters including Diane Brandrett who adds golf leaf to the sky in landscapes. I also loved the small intricate sculptures of John Baldwin. In an Independent house I loved Francesca Grace McLeod’s portraits and life studies. This week’s star purchase was the necklace in the attached photo which uses the two ends of knitting needle as pendants. It’s really tactile to wear but I must stop playing with it in meetings!

Great weekend doing about 50 of the Brighton artists’ open houses ! We do rather go into train spotter mode when we get going. We did almost all of the Fiveways Group houses, most of the Ditchling ones and a splattering of independents which happened to fall in those areas. We saw super pictures, wonderful ceramics, fascinating jewellery, great textiles particularly those by St Jude’s, hats, clothes and much much more! I think my highlight so far has been the Revelation pictures by Annelies Clarke at St John the Evangelist Church. This built on her show there last year and included wonderful female representations of cities mentioned in the book. These are really fine and thoughtful pictures. My main purchase, see the poor photo, were two bowls by Tanya Gomez although some cheap earrings were acquired as well in another house.

Fascinating visit to the Sands Films Studio  as part of the London Open House weekend. This was a wonderful old docklands warehouse and the guide explained why it was perfect to use as a film studios and workshops because it had no windows and was virtually sound proof. We were also shown round the workshops and saw costumes in the process of being made and their amazing store rooms of costumes and accessories. I was particularly moved to see heads from the” Tales of Beatrix Potter” as I had loved that film as a child. Most interesting though was the sense of the place and what a wonderful company it seemed to be to work for. A real family atmosphere.

Another good weekend at the Brighton Open Houses concentrating on the Hove trail. There were some evocative seascapes by Dion Salvador Lloyd, more super ceramics and jewellery. She wasn’t on the Hove trail but I have to give a special mention to Eve Shepherd’s studio. I had loved her work last year so me made a special trip to her in Woodingdean and she didn’t disappoint. She had some lovely new works investigating war and I particularly liked a circle of men pointing guns at each other but they looked like elegant dancers.   She generously talked to us for a long time about her work and plans. I am still lusting after one of her zodiac bronzes!  

In two days I did 29 of the open houses which are part of the Brighton Festival focusing on the Five Ways and Hove trails! I There were some lovely things but I must admit after about 10 some of the houses have merged in my head! Exhibits raged from jewellery made from old watches, lots of ceramics, stained glass, paintings, sculptures and a garden full of upside down heads! My favourite paintings were the seascapes by Dion Salvador Lloyd which had a slightly abstract quality but really showed how light plays on the sea. I succumbed to a vase with the crackle of the glaze at the bottom representing a pebbly beach and a blue tip with seagulls on it, very Brighton! Also some stained glass bunting for the balcony! Roll on next weekend!    

I was kindly invited to a couple of Open House preview evenings for the Brighton Festival so I thought it was only polite if I’d drunk their wine, to blog them separately to my mass visiting which I’ll blog later! The first stop was actually a church rather than a house, St John the Evangelist’s Church in Knoyle Road. The centrepiece of their display was a fascinating work by Annelies Clarke called the Seven Sisters the first part of a work to interpret the Book of Revelations. These seven pictures address the first chapters of the book but she hopes to work through the whole thing. There were also fabulous clocks by Christian Cotton. The second house was Jo Sweetings in Ashford Road. Jo is a wonderful stone carver and the friend I was with had bought me a pebble with my initial on for Christmas made by her. I loved a new piece she’d made a memorial for the football ground. I also like the pottery there by Judith Rowe

I only managed to get out one day of this year's Open House weekend as the Sunday was so wet and windy. However on the Saturday I investigated events in my local area. I only moved to Woolwich about 6 months ago so I am still exploring. The most fascinating event was the barracks at Station Officers’ Mess Woolwich Barracks . The building has the longest Georgian frontage in Europe and it was so interesting to go inside and see how a modern regiment was using it. I was delighted to see they were still commissioning art works. The other half of the building held the mess for the King’s Own Troop who have only recently moved there from St John’s Wood. Over the road from the Barracks were the bombed ruins of St George’s Church which is now the VC memorial for the Royal Artillery. It was manned by a faithful band of ladies who are working to preserve it. Finally on the way back I popped into Woolwich Town Hall . This Edwardian civic building had a lovely faded grand...

The first weekend of the Brighton artists open houses and I managed to chalk up 18 in the Five Ways and Hove trails plus a few independents. The highlight so far has to be Eve Shepherd who was showing amazing sculpture out at Woodingdean. Her star piece was a double statue of a boy called “Face Off” but I also loved her zodiac statues and have come back to count my pennies! The joy of the open houses is getting to meet and talk to the artists and Eve was very generous with her time. I found the artist who had incorporated his wife’s ashes into a set of ceramic breast shape bowls a bit challenging. I thought it was a lovely gesture but I can’t imagine how he could let anyone else own any them. Bargain of the weekend (and one of only 2 purchases) was a lovely little seascape by Royston Hawley at All Saints Church in Hove for £20! He had lovely works which I felt were really underpriced. For the quality of the work you could have added another nought! Royston be more ...

A curated open submissions exhibition , open to all artists exhibiting in the May Brighton Artists Open Houses festival at Brighton Dome. This was a nice little exhibition just small enough to look round before a performance or in an interval showing and giving a good taste of what the open houses have to offer. The audience got a chance to vote for their favourite and I went for Vanessa Conyers who had produced a beautiful tea set with pictures of tattooed men on it!