Visiting Open Studios

On Saturday afternoon Susie and I decided to visit some of the Open Studios in St Albans. Steve and David were both away on their yearly cycling adventure to Italy. While we have had a few good days of sunshine here it has been raining heavily in Italy, unlucky! We visited three studios in close proximity of each other, but all different. First we visited Wendy Hyams she paints miniature portraits and detailed illustration in waterclours. Wendy's work is very fine and meticulous. She had greetings cards of her work for sale, I think this is a really good idea. People are very happy to purchase a card even if they cannot afford a piece of art. The next studio we went to had three artist exhibiting. Pratima Kramer's work was very vibrant. She takes her inspiration from the sights, sounds, cultures and customs of Gujarat and Rajasthan. William Francis uses collage, and small-scale sculpture made from readily available materials to create his pieces. Erica Roch uses textiles in a very effective way to create her art. Because I am interested in textiles I was drawn to the rich textures and colours she employs. But then in contrast I particularly liked the freshness of the 'stone' pictures she had made. Daryl and Tony live near by so we called in for tea and a chat. Tony had been out foraging for mushrooms in the morning. The wet weather this summer has at least been beneficial for fungi. When he showed us his haul of mushrooms I thought their colours were beautiful, they were worthy of photographing. Our last studio was that of Sue Edwards. Sue works in mixed media. She was exhibiting both paintings and prints. Susie and I both agreed her lino cuts were very effective.