Brighton Artists Open Houses 2010

Well hello! I hope everyone is now beginning to get some regular sunny and warm days and are managing to get out and enjoy some of it too!

As promised here are some images for your viewing pleasure, of my trip to Brighton and around the Artists Open Houses with my sister.

The oh so essential handy guide to all the trails and houses


comfy shoes a must! (Thanks mum and dad, they are sooooo comfortable!)


sunny streets to walk along


gorgeous tasty markets to wander through



cool footwear to spy!


had to show you this, loving the legs! this cinema even offers you tea and cake whilst you watch your flick, how fab!


And to the houses - advertising your house is open!


sculptures inside places


sculptures outside places



great ironworks, they had a forge going too



one fab house I had to take a few pics in, yes I did ask if it was okay!
Clair Letton's absolutely stunning paintings, they are amazing, such colour


Fiona Edwards mirrors, these are just beautiful


more gorgeous paintings


yummy colourful cakes!


textiles, teacup candles and pants, I mean what more could you want??!!





My sister loved a house called the pink birdhouse and the bird in it's front garden below, we even have a sticker for visiting!


You must take a look at Dupenny, fab designs, vintage, retro and cheeky!



and finally a few postcards/pics I picked up




Love my wee bird print card by Liz Toole, think I may frame him. Her prints are v lovely.


And so I have returned home, been chained to my sewing machine for a few days completing cushions for an order that thankfully reached its destination last week, phew! Onto the next thing on my list of to do's along with all the tidying up, etc, etc I need to do. Anyhow, SALE starting in my shop(s) from MONDAY NEXT WEEK, I will be back then with a post for you to see.......... Enjoy the sun this weekend, make sure you remember that SPF factor though! ;0 x

Artists Open Houses - Brighton

Well, A little later in the week than I was hoping to post about my weekend nosing in and out of other peoples houses(!) but here it is.
It's quite a long post but mostly pics so you can get a glimpse of the visual side of my 'artist's open houses' weekend.

Brochure in hand my sister and I set off to walk the streets and burn some serious shoe rubber! and believe me we did, over the weekend I think we visited around 32 houses !!!!!! Oh my word how nosey are we, but then if you're going to open your doors............

My wee pumps all ready to burn their rubber soles

the sights you see a strolling the streets, old style telephone boxes still make me smile, wonder if it's still in working order ?! should have checked!

The Dragon Fly House - full of amazing work and such a great sculpture/metal work on the side of the house

Oooo a gorgeous front garden to one of the houses

And although it may look like we hadn't been anywhere before we stopped for lunch, we had! and a lot of the houses didn't open until 12pm so we were due for a bite to eat.

salami, mozzarella, rocket, yum

Deservedly empty plates left by us both......

And so back out to pound the pavements.
Lovely window box

Houses visited down the 'twitten'

And featuring................................House number 15 on the Central Brighton Artists trail - AK@37 Dean Street.
This is a house that's doing its first year of the open houses and definitely worth a visit. It hosts the work of 15 fab artists (and such nice peeps too!) Work varies from paintings, illustration, textiles, sculpture, photography, drawings and jewellery.
What a fab curved window, shall we go inside?

Here we are in the entrance hall, I love the fact that in most houses on the trails, every possible inch of space is used in a way to display art and craft

quirky and original jewellery, so fun, laser cut from I think perspex and plastics. I love how the pieces are framed and displayed

fab gorgeously colourful textile purses and bags, just how cool are these fabrics?!

sculptural pieces

sweet pieces of beaded and fabric/textile jewellery

You can't see very well from this image but these, I think they are casts(?) and sculptural pieces of building fronts and little seaside huts

this wave piece of skirting board is so cool, love it!

bright vibrant paintings in the 'outside' room

where we found that v yummy cakes and drinks were being sold, how cool is this little cabinet between the two rooms that the cakes were displayed in?!

Out in the garden were pots of colourful plants and flowers with pieces of v colourful sculpture peeking through

a view from inside the garden looking back in at the house, how pleasant it was to sit outside with our drinks and cake!

Oops unfortunately I wasn't quick enough with my camera before we had devoured the scrummy goodies......

So thank you to all those at Dean street for letting me snap away with my camera. Lovely creative and talented people producing some wonderful work!

Phew! so many lovely houses with some beautiful work. I was less snap happy on the sunday, but I did take a couple of garden pics below.
We loved the sculpture in this garden as well as the perfect ball shrubs, sculptural in themselves

Fabulous water feature

And yes more cake on the sunday too! well....... you have to treat yourselves and indulge one weekend in a while surely??!!!!

So if your are in the Brighton area or near, I cannot recommend doing the artists trails enough! It's so worth the visit each year. Fabulous work, some really lovely people, amazing houses, wonderful gardens and obviously delicious homemade cakes!!!! ;0 x