Second Weekend Approaching

Didn't get to post these last week due to frantic tidying and setting up right up until half an hour before the Private View (as always). We had a great first weekend with plenty of visitors and sales so we have some new pictures on the walls to fill gaps. We're open again this weekend and next weekend 11am-5pm Saturday and Sunday so please come along and see us. Here's a taster of what awaits:

Beautifully soft and colourful hand knits from Bluebell Roebuck

Handpainted scarves from Daubs and Dashes - each one unique

A selection of wreaths by Alexis Rayner

Collages by Vicky Scott (prints and originals)

Jewellery by Helen Chong

A selection of Ruth Mullan's Christmas decorations

Cards for Christmas and other occasions by Vicky Ramsey

Del Thorpe's original drawing from books he has illustrated

Copperfoil doves by Ruth Mullan

Watercolours by Margaret McGregor Betts

Leonor Berdichevsky's pictures

Photography by Bluebell Roebuck

Doesn't Time Fly?

I can't believe it's now only 23 days until the Open House begins. Now is when things really start getting a bit frantic. I've spent the day mounting photos and bottling up fruit liqueurs so at least I feel like I've actually done something constructive with my day. The flyers arrived yesterday so I need to start getting them out. Please come along to see our work - all the same artists as May but with lots of new art and crafts to look at.

Stormy Weather With Some Rays of Sunshine

As anyone who's ever hosted an Open House will tell you, the hardest part is setting up the house to start with. So much to sort out and so much to rearrange. But in the midst of all this chaos, a few rays of sunshine are starting to shine through. One of the things I love most is the opportunity to have some beautiful works of art in my house for the next month and it's beginning to take shape.

Leonor Berdichevsky (watercolours), Margaret McGregor Betts (watercolours, etchings and collagraphs), Alexis Rayner (painting and crafts) and Del Thorpe (illustration) are all set up and my photographs are on the walls. Margaret's work is bringing some welcome colour to these grey autumn days

and Alexis's flower pictures are a beautiful reminder of summer.

Amongst Del's new work are a couple of film posters - I don't have a picture yet of "A Passage to India" to share with you with its gorgeous shades of orange but I love the detail of his "Brazil" poster which you can see below.

Before my summer went a bit pear-shaped (and I don't just mean the weather), I managed to get some new photos with the intense colours we need to get us through these gloomy weeks.

And here's one of Vicky Scott's new prints.

Three days to we open - look forward to seeing you soon.

Start of the May Open Houses

Here we go again with the start of the May Open Houses in Brighton. I'm happy to say I have six of the same artists who were with me at Christmas with the welcome addition of Araboushikha, a stone sculptor, who has brought along two stunning, wonderfully tactile pieces which are in the garden as well as some smaller ones. "Harold" is a limestone hare and "Fire In the Belly" is a piece in serpentine.

Vicky Scott has brought along one of her original pieces to show the process that is carried out before her prints are made. "Alice in Wonderland" is a collage of detailed card pieces cut by hand (even the whiskers on the mice and cats) which is pieced together to make the finished article.

In addition to his detailed postcard sized original works, Del Thorpe has for sale some larger size prints. Theseus and the Minotaur is a recent work, the original of which was created for a charity auction raising money for Chestnut Tree House Children's Hospice. Having missed out on the auction for the original work, I'm thrilled to see the prints here.

Why not come along and see what we have? You can find us at 45 Westbourne Gardens, Hove, BN3 5PN. We are open the weekends (including Bank Holiday Monday) until 24th May from 11am till 5pm.

Last weekend of the Christmas Open Houses 2014

It has been a fantastic Open House so far this Christmas with so many visitors last Sunday we had to send out for more supplies to make the mulled wine.

Gaps are starting to appear as are red "sold" stickers but we still have plenty for you to look at.

Many thanks to all of you who have come so far but if you haven't (or if you want to return), we are open tomorrow and Sunday between 11am and 5pm. After that, I'm afraid you'll have to wait until we open again in May as I need to get the house back to approaching normal before Christmas.

 Alexis Rayner

 Del Thorpe

Vicky Scott

Winter Night by Leonor Berdichevsky

Watching the Sunset by Leonor Berdichevsky (sold but more prints can be ordered)

Helen Chong

Mark Charlton

Private View

I've been a bit slack writing this blog over the last couple of weeks - trying to get everything finished and set up has taken a lot of time and brain space.

We had our Private View tonight which, as always, was great fun. A good excuse to meet up with people. It was lovely to have such fantastic feedback on how the house is looking. If you were one of those who came along, thank you for making the effort to spend the evening with us.

No pictures for this entry as I have to rely on my phone taking pictures for immediate posting - I've never had a digital camera as I love the anticipation of waiting for a film to be developed - and it doesn't like taking pictures after dark. I will try to take some pictures tomorrow morning and post again then.

Just about washed all the wine glasses and got the recycling ready for tomorrow so off to bed now. If you're in the area, please visit us tomorrow and maybe also call in to the last Kitty in the City fundraising fair before Christmas - just round the corner from us at St Philips Church in Richardson Road, Hove.

The Big Chill Begins

A slight exaggeration perhaps but the temperature suddenly dropped today and our heating decided to go on holiday yesterday so the air does have a certain wintery feel in our house.

Bearing this in mind, and the fact that it is now November, I don't feel so bad about introducing the "Christmas" word. I have been telling youngest child since July that she is not allowed to sing Jingle Bells until the Open House starts and I never used to do Christmas until after middle child's birthday (end of November) but I don't feel so bad about it this year as we did at least have a proper summer.

There will be various Christmas goodies on offer at the Open House. I do sachets of spices to make mulled wine, Christmas decorations and stockings (I will post pictures of these at some point) and we will have Christmas cards as well. Vicky and Del have some great cards - check out their websites http://www.vickysworld.co.uk/artwork and https://www.facebook.com/delthorpesdrawings?ref=hl - and here are some of Leonor's.

All Hallows Eve

It was hard to believe it's the end of October until it got dark before five. Just finished cutting the shapes in the pumpkins for the children before they're out trick or treating. I prefer the older traditions of Hallowe'en when it was still considered more of an end to the year.

Del has been creating some fantastic Hallowe'en pictures recently - check out this link https://www.facebook.com/delthorpesdrawings?ref=hl. And I'm not above using any excuse to post pictures of skulls and skeletons and other scary stuff so here we have a photograph of pumpkins, dresses and cushions made out of fabric appropriate to the season and Vicky's rather wonderful "Things that Go Bump in the Night".

And just in case you don't come across anything scarier than small children this evening (and let's face it, they can be quite scary at times), here's a genuine grave experience - clearly not for the faint-hearted.

Del Thorpe

Del Thorpe has been a guest artist at my Open House for a couple of years now and it's great to have him back again this Christmas, not least because I get to have his work on my walls to enjoy for a few weeks. He has been illustrating children's books for some time now, including Tony Robinson's Weird World of Wonders series. (He even got a Blue Peter badge for the World War 2 book in this series.) The latest book in the series, "Pets", has been published this month.

Del's artwork is always very popular at the Open House, particularly his "Adventure Calls!" series. For this May, he created some original watercolours in postcard size and has plans to produce some more for Christmas, along with some large scale ones. I'm really looking forward to seeing them and  shall post pictures here as soon as they are available but, in the meantime, here are some of the Adventure Calls! prints. Check out his website http://www.delthorpe.co.uk for more.

10 weeks to go!

Amid this gorgeous sunny weather, believe it or not, just 10 weeks to go until the start of the Brighton Christmas Open Houses. I've got all my guest artists signed up (Del Thorpe, Alexis Rayner, Vicky Scott, Margaret McGregor Betts, Ruth Mullan, Leonor Berdichevsky, Mark Charlton and Helen Chong), now I've just to get on with making my own stuff.

I've been taking advantage of the late summer sun and spent the week painting silk in the garden to make into scarves. The knitting will have to wait until cooler days.

Keep checking back as I'm aiming to post every few days with plenty of examples of work by all of us showing at Christmas. In the meantime, here's one of my favourite photos - Brighton Beach in Winter.