Since CBC and I have bought our house, we were longing to buy some art works to adorn the walls. As artists ourselves (admittedly, we earn our money by teaching but we were originally musicians), we think it is really important to support artists, especially when times are tight and the arts are experiencing the pinch.
We decided to go and visit the Leigh Art Trail which takes place yearly in Leigh-on-Sea which is not so far from Southend. We really like it there. It is a really artistic, pleasant place to live. Pity houses are so expensive!
CBC picked up a Trail guide which gives a map with numbers and this links to pages showing a short biog for each of the artists and their style and shows where they were/are exhibiting. The locations included banks, hair-dressers, cafes, book shops, clothes shops, libraries, the train station, even the artists' homes!
We didn't have a huge amount of time, so we didn't get to see everything. Next year, we will be sure to set out earlier and reserve the whole day.
Some places had one or two works, others had many. In pretty much all places, the art was for sale.
Alas, I cannot remember all the locations and artist names but I thought I'd share a few we saw... and photographed!
In the Book Inn, a lovely book shop with a cafe, print maker Shelly Jupitus had many affordable prints of her works to purchase. I liked these large print blocks which had also been turned into art works.
We did stop for a bit of cake and a drink here but it was rather crazily slow!
In the most wonderful jewellery shop, Castle Collection Karina Parris, a textiles artist had displayed a beautiful array of her sewn works, handpainted, hand cut, handsewn- quilts, wall hangings. She was there so I had a nice chat to her. She was an ex-teacher also. CBC also really liked her beautiful art works.
In another jewellery store, this one making her own wire work jewellery, the artist had created one or two beautiful metal collages for the exhibition. I loved this wave one and would have gladly bought it. CBC was not so smitten.
We wandered along and CBC and I got seperated. I ended up in the Physic Garden to see some wire sculptures.
A friend of CBC's, Nicola Trevena, had some beautiful mixed media flowers in the Sandbar and Sea co. although they were on the staircase, so they were hard to view.
Continuing on, we saw a whole shop full of Jonathan Trim's seascapes. This large one caught my fancy. Again, very expensive but he is a popular, prolific, local artist and I can see why. Lots of his had sold on them!
Onto the Birdwood Bakery to see Amanda Jackson's works (another friend of CBC). Her collection was quite dark because they were painted at the time when her Mum died on their holiday in Cornwall.
She told us the story and then as I was looking, I saw this painting called Farewell and asked her if that was her Mum. She said it was. To my horror, because of the background she'd shared, I found myself with tears in my eyes! I had to hide!
Here were some sketches of her work!
Alas, at this point, after seeing a few more places (not photographed), we had to leave.
But...did we buy anything???
Well....yes!
We ended up buying two works by the textiles artist, Katrina Parris.
The first was, The Rock Garden, which was inspired by the rock garden at RHS Hyde Hall.
You can see it in our study down here:
What do you think?
xx
Have you any sort of art trail where you live at all?