open studio weekends: 13th-14th june + 20th-21st june: 11.00am - 6.00pm

The site festival, now in its 13th year, will present the work of over 300 local, national and international artists in 83 sites in the Stroud Valleys.
artists studios may also be open at other times in the week: please ring artists directly to check individual opening times

welcome

“There is no such thing as art” E.H.Gombrich concluded in ‘The Story of Art’. There are, he says, only artists - men and women searching for new solutions and fresh vision with integrity and commitment.
He was writing at the mid-point of a century which had already seen more radical changes in the way artists saw the world than at any other time in history. In the first two decades alone, one can think of Monet at Giverney, dissolving the material world, it seemed, into light and air. A few miles away in Paris, Picasso deconstructed the world of appearances and re-invented painting and sculpture.
This may seem a long way from the five valleys; but who knows what echoes of these radical visionaries you might come across as you make your tour? You can certainly expect to see a diversity of work and the co-existence of tradition and innovation from the kind of artists whom Gombrich refers to, working with originality and imagination to find their own way forward.
This search, their journey, which you will see in an intimate way in their studios, may be weaving many diverse strands into a new ‘Story of Art’. Expect the unexpected!

Roger Jones painter and open studios artist

printed copies of the open studios directory and site festival programme ar available from SVA, Stroud Tourist Infrmation and at various galleries and locations throughout Stroud