Kentish Express – 14 October 2004 – Weekend Display for Village Artists

The villages of Brabourne and Smeeth will for the second year running be the venue for a village arts weekend on Saturday and Sunday. (October 16-17)

This year the artists have decided to hire the scout and guide hut for their venue and Sue Chapman, chairman of the six-strong committee said: “Last year we were unfortunate with the weather with strong winds which blew down the marquee in my garden.

“Luckily this wasn’t until towards the end of the last day.

 
“So this year we decided not to take any risks with the weather.”

The village arts event has got bigger this year.  Artists from the villages – Sue Chapman, Cathy Chesney, Liz Garnett, John Devenport, Vi Sprawling and Angus Zapora – are to be joined by other local artists including David Robinson, Neville Langley, Jane Richardson, Julie Taylor, Olga Van Dijke, Leigh Smallwood, Lee O’Connor, Jacqui Palmer, Lyn Mercy and Linda Lewis.

There will be a wide variety of art on display both indoors and outside including paintings, photography, glasswork, textile art, pottery, silverware, metalwork and woodwork, and it is billed as a great event to purchase more interesting and unusual Christmas presents.

Also there will be live demonstrations by Linda Lewis of textile art on Sunday, Sue Chapman, watercolour/acrylic painting, and Vi Sprawling, who will be doing pastel soft toy portraiture.

“This is all part of the growing movement by local artists to raise the profile of arts in the borough and show locals and visitors the wealth of talent that is in the area” said Liz Garnett.

A number of the participating artists are members of Ashford Visual Artists and take part in South East Open Studios.

“We are all truly excited about this increasingly popular art event in our village and hope that we might even be able to expand it next year with even more participating artists, especially if we can utilise even more of the outside space,” said Sue.  “If anyone has any ideas or would like to participate next year, do come along and speak to us so that we can start planning early.”