London Artists' Studio Tour

The London Artists' Studio Tour was on this weekend. Jim and I and our friend Laurie B managed to visit 9 studios all in one afternoon. It was a whirlwind of gorgeousness.

If you want to take the tour, you just get the map from the brochure, and drive to the house of the artists that interest you. No fee, no schedule. The artists must apply to be part of the tour and are selected for quality of their work as well as their studios being able to accomodate visitors. The artists benefit from exposure and a chance to sell their work. I heard they had a great turn out today, probably because the weather was just perfect for driving.

As much as I enjoyed looking at the art, I enjoyed seeing the artist's creative spaces even more. They reminded me of my knitting room so much, I felt an urge to nurture my space more than I do now.

I was also surprised at what fired me up. While I do enjoy visual media, the work that spoke to me the loudest was by a metalsmith who wasn't even part of the tour. I was so enthralled with his pieces, I just wanted to dive right into them. The artist (Richard Sturgeon) described them as experiments in negative space and that made me think of knitting lace.


It reminds me of a ball of yarn, or a mobius and I want to touch it, trace it, and warm it in my hands. Think of the colors it could reflect and the shadows it would throw. What a fun piece! His other pieces were trees, figures, and flowers, but the tangles thrilled me the most.

The tangle is sitting on a coffee table that I seriously lusted after, made of spalted maple by an different artist. (I didn't get the name, and I'd be ashamed if it weren't because I was so enthusiastic about the work.)

And that's the only picture that I have to show. I couldn't do the art justice with my photography skills. But I highly recommend checking out the Studio Tour website which has links to the artist's websites. There's a lot of talent in London.