On Friday and Saturday October 17 and 18, Rye Creative Centre, for Open Studios, invited people to come and talk to the artists who are working in their studios on New Road. There are 30 studios and I want to apologise here to the artists I did not visit. My choice was random, with such wonderful art all round.
On the ground floor my first room to visit was The Studio, where I recognised a few artists present from ten years ago. A large room, it is a professional arts space for artists with disabilities, offering daily workshops from 9am to 3pm in a happy, safe and creative environment. Jenny Edbrooke and her dedicated team of volunteers saved the day centre from closing after it had been open for many years. The team encourages the individual and supports any artwork or project in which they want to express themselves.
Next was a small space but well used, lots of paint, brushes but minimal and interesting art on the wall. Richard Elliott explained that he prefers working mainly with plaster and concrete. The ships on the sea expressed his free spirit and often living in different places but near water, river or sea.
Upstairs were quite a few more studios, one of which was occupied by Jillian Eldridge. A lovely array of colourful fabric greeted the visitors, a lot of sensual Indian material of gold, blue, a special green and more. Jillian’s paintings were of these textiles but arranged in a wonderful way looking like a dress or shawl but as she explained, she just drapes them as she feels like it and then paints the result. She showed in this year’s Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy.
Next was Nick Archer’s very large room hung with his expressive large artwork. His new experiment is painting on copper. The arc in which the small works of different subjects, was arranged, to suggest time passing and change, looking at it clockwise.
Walking toward a smaller room, this offered a totally different aspect of art. David Eckold’s studio was a fascinating collection of wood sculptures. David said he loves working with wood which you can find at home or in the woods and at times also has to be bought. He explains that his love of working with wood comes from wanting to experiment with tension which wood allows. He also feels that working with simple material would be useful and inviting in his educational field with children.
It was good to see that quite a few visitors walked around in the studios talking to the artists.
Image Credits: Heidi Foster , Tessa Holmes .