READY...

One week today is the preview evening for my Cheltenham Open Studio exhibition!

My home, studio and garden will be open to the public for 9 days. It is a really positive experience and I get lovely visitors. This will be my 5th Open studio event and I started this blog with the 2009 exhibition at Hampen. So much of my artistic life has been documented during the last 9 years here.

But I am not looking back, I have 7 days to get things ship shape. So this is all about how I prepare for Cheltenham Open Studios.

The lovely Mr Brown and I started with the garden over a month ago, unlike dusting the house or painting a wall, gardens take a little more time to recover from tweeking.

Unlike the Chelsea flower show I seem to have no control over when things flower, so you will have missed my peonies, oriental poppy and may get a last glimpse of the bearded iris. I watch helplessly as prize blooms flower a week too early or get munched by snails.

With the garden tidied and bedding filling in gaps my tidy mode turns to the shed...

You don't want to see it too tidy, you want to believe that I am inspired by my surroundings and can find what I need at any moment, on the whole I am and I do. Now the shed is ready for you to find a print or enamel bargain. I am ready for technical discussions and point you to the right yard:ARTspace workshop to get your creative juices flowing.

So two down, only the lounge to go.

The lounge is more of a responsibility as I have invited two other artists to join me, Sharon McSwiney is back and Caroline McCatty exhibited with us both at Hampen 9 years ago. Talk about coming full circle!

I have cleared my eclectic collection to all corners of the house, filled and painted a wall and cleaned, yes you heard me, cleaned!!

Just trying a few things out before properly hanging work this weekend. In fact I will be collecting framing today.

Then there is the signage, pricing and labeling.

Caroline will help me put the show together on Sunday and

Sharon will race up from Cornwall and place her gorgeous work on Wednesday. 

Then the fun will begin.

This year I have made a couple of prints especially for Open Studios. Both etchings as part of my print a month...I know there are 2.

So that is me putting together the Cheltenham Open Studio event, I am sure you will believe me when I say I may not have mentioned everything, the sourcing artists for the yard event happened last year, meetings and marketing talks and of course the drip feeding of information to social media for weeks. And I am not alone, Cheltenham will be awash with artists opening their homes and studios from 10-18 June, we have so much talent here and it comes out ever two years to delight you. There is a parallel exhibition at the yard:ARTspace with Claire Baker, Carole Bury and Susan Wilkinson showing their work and giving people a chance to look around the yard.

I will keep you up dated with the Open Studio progress if you can't get to sunny Cheltenham but hopefully...

look forward to seeing you next week, I will be calmer by then!?