Oxfordshire Artweeks is the UK’s oldest and biggest open studios and pop-up exhibition event, and the 41st festival – which runs from 6-29 May and begins with a coronation – promises to be fit for a king.
As the country’s creatives open their doors to welcome visitors, for free, there’s a wealth of art and intrigue to explore. In the villages around Faringdon as many as 50 artists, ceramicists, sculptors, and jewellers – many of whom are taking part in Artweeks for the first time this year – invite you to explore more than twenty locations venues including the National Trust Heritage and Rural Skills Centre in Coleshill, just beyond Badbury Clumps, once the top-secret training headquarters for the secret British Resistance. You’ll find artists, designers and makers showcasing extraordinary talent, explaining their materials and, often, demonstrating their methods. Touch and talk about thousands of pieces of art and craft and uncover the stories of their inspiration.
Week 1
6-14 May: Between the Thames and the Ridgeway
1) Closest to home and perennially popular:
Great Coxwell Artists are showing their regular mix of ceramics, stone, glass, painting, digital art, wire, mosaics, jewellery, collage, quilts, and wood and promise a charming stroll through the village and delectable refreshments in The Reading Room.
(Artweeks venue 43)
Start at Holloway House, Great Coxwell SN7 7LZ
Open 7-8 and 13-14 May, 11am-5pm
2) Two new venues in the Oxford directions:
There’s a new venue along the A20, as Buckland Village artists exhibit stunning hyperrealism drawings, sculptures, ceramics, oil paintings, drawings, photography & more in St George's Church. Look out for Gabriella Anouk’s hyperrealism drawing using colouring pencils in which she finds beauty in the mundane and then distorting it in an unnatural way. A big lover of Dalí's absurd and surreal style, her unexpected and possibly impertinent ‘Slime Series’ depict beautiful natural pieces of fruit part coated by dripping colourful or translucent substances. Expect too statement furniture pieces, animal sculptures loaded with personality and presence and other surprises.
(Artweeks venue 42)
St George's Church, SN7 8QR
Open 7-14 May, 11am-6pm
In Hinton Waldrist, visit Andrew Bloomfield and Wilbur Heynes in a 17th century barn. Both newcomers for 2023, Andrew and Wilbur are exhibiting landscape paintings, still life and portrait paintings alongside portrait sculpture in clay and kiln-fired art.
(Artweeks venues 40 and 41)
Barn at The Grange, Hinton Waldrist SN7 8SA
Open 8 and 11-14 May, 11am-6pm; Sun 11am-2pm
3) In Stanford, a trio of treasures:
In Stanford-in-the-Vale nine artists are coming together in three venues within a few hundred metres of one another. They offer a warm welcome, a tour of local walks, woods, and hills in evocative paintings by Lawrence Ward, and a great variety of work including charming ceramics, intriguing jewellery, delicate collaged wall art, stunning stained glass, and tactile wood pieces.
(Artweeks venue 51)
Kate Daunt | Jamie Macfarlane | Noriko Macfarlane
53 High Street, Stanford in the Vale SN7 8NQ
Open 6-14 May (11am-6pm)
(Artweeks venue 52)
Kerry Houghton | Chrissy Morton | Ben Houghton
10 Spencers Close, Stanford in the Vale SN7 8NG
Open 6-14 May (11am-4.30pm)
(Artweeks venue 53)
Lawrence Ward OAS | Anne Mills | Chloe Romanos
The Vine, Mill Farm, Faringdon Road, Stanford in the Vale SN7 8NP
Open 6-14 May (11am-6pm)
4) Take the backroad out west:
Follow the B4508 from Fernham to Bourton, stopping first at Henleaze Farm Bungalow, next door to Farmer Gow’s in Fernham, Sharon Rich’s unique hand-carved stone sculpture and stained glass is inspired by nature, myth, and magic.
(Artweeks venue 50)
Open 6-14 May, 11am-6pm/Mon-Thu 2-5pm
In Longcot, Pat Elmore also invites visitors into the sculpture garden and gallery at Nutford Lodge, (next to King & Queen pub) where over 100 sculptures will be on show.
(Artweeks venue 48, SN7 7TW)
Open 6-12 May, 11am-7pm
Further west in Watchfield, sculptor Emma Ablitt is exhibiting further hand carved stone sculptures in a peaceful country garden.
(Artweeks venue 47)
3 Oxford Square, Watchfield SN6 8TB
Open 6-14 May, 1pm-6pm
Beyond in Bourton near Shrivenham you are invited into two charming studios, to meet artists Tara Parker-Woolway and Clare Carswell and discover vibrant and ethereal original paintings imbued with wistful colours, drawings, collage, prints, cards and performance art.
(Artweeks venues 45 and 46)
Tara: The Studio, 6 Church Row, Bourton SN6 8JG
Open 8, 13-14 and 20-21st May (12pm-5pm)
Clare: York Cottage Studio, Bourton SN6 8JH
Open 8 11-14 and 18-21 May (12pm-5pm)
Week 2
13-21 May: In Coleshill, Clanfield, Bampton and Beyond
5) A new Coleshill venue for Artweeks, a new Heritage and Rural Skills Centre for the National Trust
It’s a great opportunity to see the inspiring work and talent of craftspeople who provide courses or work from studio spaces at the Skills Centre on the Buscot and Coleshill Estate. You might even decide to have a go yourself.
(Artweeks venue 44)
Coleshill nr Faringdon SN6 7PT
Open 20 May, 10am-4pm
6) Over the Radcot Bridge to Clanfield:
Clanfield is home to six talented artists and the Drew School of Ceramics which invites you in to see the work produced by its students. We guarantee you’ll be impressed. Here too teaching duo Ben and Sue exhibit high fired garden stoneware and domestic pottery and right next door Silvi Schaemloelffel’s contemporary expressive oil painting studio is a whizz of floral-inspired colour and energy, character, and charm. Also in the village, you’ll find Charlotte Sweeney’s colourful, functional stoneware ceramics for the home, wheel-thrown with some pit-fired vessels; faces in many media including acrylic, ink, charcoal, and pastel by Artweeks newcomer Tee Trueman, and exquisitely realistic paintings of people, animals and still life by Petra Richards whose fine detail, vivid colours and life-like capture will take your breath away.
(Artweeks venue 281 and 282)
Ben, Sue, and the Drew School of Ceramics Friars Court OX18 2SU
Open from 13-18 and 20-21 May, 12pm-5.30pm
(Artweeks venue 283)
Silvi Schaumloeffel Friars Court OX18 2SU
Open 13-21 May, 11am-5pm
(Artweeks venue 284)
Charlotte Sweeny Elder Barn, Bushey Drive OX18 2TS
13-14 16-21 May, 11am-5pm
(Artweeks venue 285)
Tee Trueman Sol Studio, Setting Barn, High House Close OX18 2TD
13-21 May, 11am-6pm
(Artweeks venue 286)
Petra Richards WOA
Northcourt Farm, The Barn, Marsh Lane OX18 2RQ
Open 13-21 May, 11am-6pm; Sat/Sun 12-4pm; Wed 17 7-9pm. Also 6-12, 23 and 26 by appt.
7) Beyond to Bampton:
At the heart of Bampton’s Market Square stands West Ox Arts Gallery which is gathering together a new selection of artists for 2023 and art that stunning stained glass inspired by the moon and lunar incantations by Kay Gibbons, a fresh take on still life by Denny Webb and felted bags by Helen MacRitchie. Alongside popular regulars Pip Shuckburgh and Tuula Nicolson, you can also visit Mark Fitzgerald at Sun Pottery and explore a first-time venue, The Old Forge, where Sue Side’s striking graphite portraits and watercolours are shown alongside organic tactile stone sculpture by award-winning David Williams and talented young jeweller Tamzin Keown.
(Artweeks venue 287)
West Ox Arts Gallery Market Square OX18 2JH
6-28 May, 11.30am-4.30pm
(Artweeks venue 288)
Pip Shuckburgh Fairwood, Cheapside OX18 2JL
Open 13-14 and 18-21 May, 11am-6pm
(Artweeks venue 289-291)
Tamzin Keown, Sue Side & David Williams, The Old Forge, Church Street OX18 2NA
Open 13-14 and 19-21 May, 10am-5pm
(Artweeks venue 292)
Tuula Nicholson Wisteria, Church View OX18 2NE
Open 13-21 May, 11am-5pm
(Artweeks venue 294)
Also, Neville Crowson shows plein air landscapes, garden scenes, seascapes, still life and church interiors Blomfield House, Cote nr Bampton OX18 2EG
Open 13-21 May, 11am-6pm
Elsewhere across the county, explore a five-acre sculpture park in the Cotswolds, take an art trail through the towns of Woodstock, Watlington and Wallingford or visit city studios in the heart of Oxford, including a printmaking workshop in the heart of the Bodleian library. Artweeks also promises a global journey through the eyes of Oxford artists who have been influenced by people and places around the world and the colours, fabrics, and styles of exotic destinations: tour America on a motorbike, go on safari in Tanzania, head to Svalbard or Cuba, and be enchanted by Rajasthan.
The question is, where will you go first?
