I have been involved with Artist’s Open Houses for over 15 years and first naively opened my own house one Christmas just after my son was 2. There was no social media back then and I didn’t have a blog so it was mostly posters I’d made to advertise locally and try and get people to visit. I can’t even remember what work I was trying to sell and it was a very quiet open house that first Christmas. I joined my local open house group about a year after that, The Fiveways Artists Group, and it was a great learning curve, especially as I was the youngest member by far and didn’t really know what I was doing. I have fond memories of sitting around a table with lots of artists filling addressed envelopes for the ‘mail out’ during my first year of membership and taking my son to lots of private views in his pyjamas. Since then in both May and November I have opened my house and studio many times, always creating new shed installations ( you can see ’The Scented Shed’ post here ) as well as inviting other artists to show their work in my home. A few years ago I instigated and then edited our group’s now annual magazine for 3 years and have also provided this year’s cover image.
The whole of the Artists Open Houses movement in Brighton is very cohesive nowadays; there are brochures, a website, social media ( Instagram and Twitter here ) and local media which give you all the maps and information, including parking and cake options obviously, which you’ll need to plan your personal tour of open houses.
This year I’d decided early that I wouldn’t open my own house as my book deadline was at the end of April, but I was asked by Jehane Boden Spears if I would create one of my shed installations for her open house and show some of my work which I now sell on line. Jehane is an artist and designer as well as a licensing agent and has been part of the Open Houses for about 25 years and this year she has 17 artists showing in her beautiful home including: Iris Del Torre, Debbie George, Atelier Stella, Justine Allison, Sarah Hamilton, Paul Thurby, Eleanor Kolycheva, Cressida Bell, Marion McConaghie, Natalie Pedetti Prack, Ken Eardley, Annabet Wyndham, Jane Walker and Patternistas.
Artist’s Open Houses are an absolute gem during the Brighton Festival and are always open during the first 4 weekends of May, usually from 11am – 5pm. It’s a great chance to get to chat to the artists as well as have a nose around the house ( the artist’s are very used to people doing that! ). If you wanted a day out filled with creatives and loads of inspiration I highly recommend it and you can look on the Artist’s Open House website here for all the details of what’s on offer. You can also go straight to @jehane_openhouse instagram account to get more of a feel for it and have a look at my past open houses and updates on this year on my @64sandgate instagram account. I’ve also variously linked all the artists showing at Jehane’s to their websites and Instagram accounts so have a good click through to see more of their amazing work.
I’ll be around at Jehane’s open house this coming weekend so do just drop me an email at 5ftinf@gmail.com if you’re thinking of coming.
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