When I visit any artists' Open Studios I obtain the brochure beforehand and try and choose just a handful of artists to visit, otherwise it can leave you exhausted trying to look around them all. Usually I choose an artist whose work I am familiar with, but often it is nice to be surprised by someone whose work you don't know. Bearing in mind that there were over one hundred and fifty artists exhibiting for the Cambridge Open Studios I flicked through their leaflet for just one other artist to visit, as did not know Cambridge at all and only had a limited time to spend there. My eye was drawn towards the above painting by Melanie Max in the Open Studios brochure and I decided her work would be another to view.
Melanie's work is wonderful; abstract landscapes inspired by East Anglia and the West Country. I was particularly interested in her most recent work which incorporated the drawn line and an exploration of space both of the scene she is inspired by and on the canvas:
Another bonus of going to see Melanie's work was in the beautiful surroundings her work was exhibited in which is the Kaetsu Centre in the New Hall in Cambridge. This was a really lovely space to exhibit work and I would love to see some of my paper hangings in this space as my work often has a Japanese aesthetic to it.
Exhibiting alongside Melanie was ceramic artist and printmaker Clare Crouchman. Clare's work is an exploration of order and chaos informed by maps, cities and mazes. Again another added bonus and lovely surprise of viewing an artist that I hadn't heard of before:
The artists' work complemented each other really well in this beautiful space and I shall be putting the Cambridge Open Studios in my diary for next year and looking forward to visiting these artists again and finding new ones to enjoy.
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