For the third year running, I was delighted to share a venue with @susanwilliamsart, @ginaglover and @gkeddie during the Northants Open Studios on 8th, 9th and 10th September. It was an exhibition of work by four excellent and diverse artists, all working in Northamptonshire.

This year we were at Susan Williams’ home and beautiful garden (previously having been at Gina Glover’s home in 2021 and mine in 2022) where we each had our own designated space at the venue, giving us the opportunity to create our own individual atmosphere and character. Mine was to create a calm and beautiful room by giving each piece of work space… and there was even gentle music.

When the first Covid lockdown happened in March 2020, Gina Glover moved more permanently to Northamptonshire. She rang me and said ‘Can we meet on zoom once a month or, if possible, go for a walk together, I don’t know any other artists here’ and I replied, ‘Let’s do better than that, I will introduce you two other artists in the county and we can all meet up’. It turned into monthly zoom meetings due to covid restrictions, between Gina, Susan Williams, Graham Keddie and me, which then developed into us exhibiting together at Northants Open Studio each year since then.

We have all enjoyed and greatly appreciated each other’s support over the years and continue to meet once a month. Please click here for further information about the individual artists.

Watch this space for what we do next year!

Kettering based installation artist Susan Williams is exploring themes dominating the news, her headspace so to speak, including environmental concerns and the sorrow of war. As a counterpoint she also looks to nature and the garden adjacent to her studio for positive energy: www.susanwilliamsart.com

Gina Glover will be showing her new series of camera-less photography entitled Glassy Essence/Heat Death, with exposure of the photographic process occurring in real time. These will be shown alongside her small sculptures entitled Temporal Events, made with found objects from the Harrington WW2 secret aerodrome. Her textile sculptures will be found in the garden flower beds: www.ginaglover.com

Kettering based artist Graham Keddie, shows film with sculpture. He has been exploring the combing reused text collected from media, social media and overheard conversations with film recorded at this specific location. The film plays with meaning, metaphor and perception. This new work is made for this exhibition: www.grahamkeddie.com

Brigstock based textile artist Rosalind Stoddart, uses fleece from her alpacas and natural dyes from her garden. ‘From field to studio’ she explores colour saturation, texture, surface and fusion of materials to create sumptuous results: www.rosalindstoddart.co.uk