ARTISTS from across the dale are gearing up for a busy timetable of open studios and workshops next month and hope residents will get onboard, literally, with their bus tours.
Members of Teesdale ArtNet will once again throw open the doors of their studios in what has become a popular feature of the group’s calendar.
The open studios event runs from May 4 to May 12 and celebrates the visual arts in many forms bringing together sculptors, jewellery designer, printmakers, textile artists and water colour-painters.
Teesdale ArtNet’s Holly Scott said: “The open studios is a great opportunity for artists to sell their work, but it also lets people see us all in situ and gives them an understanding of what is involved in creating our artwork.”
As with last year, bus tours to help those without transport to see some of the more out-of-the-way studios have been organised.
There will be two tours taking in different studios and the cost is £10 per person for one tour or £15 for both.
The first will leave The Hub, on Shaw Bank, in Barnard Castle, at 10.15am, on Saturday, May 4, and will visit the studios of Mitsi Kral, at West Auckland, before moving onto Whorlton to see artists Jane Young, Kirsty Common and Ann Gill.
After a lunch break in Middleton-in-Teesdale, the tour will move onto to the gallery of lino print artist Holly Scott before returning to The Witham and The Hub.
The second tour on Saturday, May 11, will again leave from The Hub at 10.15am, but will take a different route.
Visitors will visit the workshop of ceramicist Stef Ottevanger, in Barningham, before heading over to Cotherstone to see the galleries of Ingried Swan and Judith Walker.
Following a lunch break at Mickleton, the tour will continue on to see potter Judy Caplin in her dale studio before finishing with a visit to textile artist Sara Cox.
Running alongside the open studios, Teesdale ArtNet members have organised nine workshops to encourage more people to have a go at a number of hands-on creative activities.
The workshops include working with concrete, making your own vase or mug, learning how to linocut, watercolour florals, designing your own tea towel and free motion sewing for beginners.
In addition to the open studios and workshops there will be a showcase exhibition, opening on Thursday, April 25, at The Witham titled Re-Fresh. The exhibition will run until Saturday, June 1, and copies of the Open Studios brochure, will be available. It can also be downloaded at www.teesdale artnet.org.uk.
