Shrewsbury Open Studios

A few weeks ago I visited some artists' studios in the Shrewsbury Open Studios weekend. I usually choose about four or five artists to visit, however, this does not always go to plan!

One of my first ports of call was to see Pam Newall's garden studio; located very space efficiently in her shed! This was a treat to also see her beautiful house and garden. Pam has just completed the Professional Print Diploma course at Wrexham Print Centre and is now looking to take an MA in printmaking.

The weather was ideal for this weekend, hot and sunny and Pam had very kindly supplied visitors with glasses of refreshing orange juice on ice, perfect for such a hot day. Pam's work is lovely; her prints feel like moments captured in time and the colours are subtle and beautiful. You can see her work in the Print Centre up to 24th July in the 'Print Out: Professional Printmakers' Exhibition and Pam also has a print in the Wrexham Open at Oriel Wrecsam.

After spending quite a lot of time talking to Pam and some of her visitors, I then drove to the studio of another graduate from the Professional Printmaking course, Heather Prescott:

I received another warm welcome from Heather and spent a lot of time talking to her (I think this is why I don't get to see so many artists! But the ones I do see are just so interesting). Her collagraph prints are beautiful with lovely colours and textures. Also Heather is experimenting with some prints onto Chinese paper which will be exciting to see how they develop. Her studio is fascinating with so many lovely things to see:

Then I was invited to view the studio of Heather's neighbour, artist Mike Priest:

Most of Mike's abstract paintings are on a really large scale, as you can see and he has an exhibition coming up in the autumn at Shrewsbury School. The colours he uses and his mark making techniques are what make his paintings special. Mike has a really nice studio space, situated in his garden. On the day I visited some of his paintings were propped up outside and the light filtered through these into the studio giving a kind of Japanese feel:

Although a lot of Mike's work is large scale he also paints smaller works in preparation for the larger canvases and these along with some of his monoprints can be seen in Wenlock Fine Art