Marlborough Open Studios – weekends of treats  

Liz Nicholls

Lesley Andrews invites us to plan weekends enjoying work by talented local artists with Marlborough Open Studios, between 5th & 27th July 

Imagine admiring work by more than 60 artists in studios located in and around Marlborough, across the Pewsey Vale reaching Devizes and its catchment… Marlborough Open Studios (MOS), offers just that. You can meet artists working in amazing ways, using old and new techniques, and making everything from sculpture to prints, for the home and items for everyday use. 

One of these artists is Robin Gregory, a retired bricklayer with a lifelong interest in photography and digital cameras, giving him a whole new accessible world of creative photography. Spiderman, this month’s cover image, is a wonderful example of Robin’s work. It was created by combining three separate images; the rocks are from a photo taken in Devon, the sky was taken over Roundway and Spiderman was at a gathering of people who share a love of dressing as comic figures. This particular Spiderman was happy to pose sitting on some steps. It might sound simple but the marvellous result required something like eight hours of clever reworking. 

This year’s bursary artist Nathan Hamblin, a young early-career artist, uses cutting-edge techniques, literally! One of Nathan’s works (pictured immediately above) which will go on sale at a shared studio in Potterne, involved specifying an area of approximately four square kilometres around Clifton Bridge in Bristol, downloading a satellite image and with clever computing refining it to reveal accurate area contours. Fed into a laser-cutting machine, each contour is cut on to mountboard then meticulously glued to get this striking and accurate 3D topographical sculpture. Nathan’s clever programming also creates striking ultra-modern vases and lamps. 

Both of these artists will share their studio opening with others, in Robin’s case with landscape painter Cathy and her husband Nick Pearce a potter and Nathan is showing with metal sculptor Roy Evans. 

It wasn’t always like this. In 1995 a small group of Marlborough artists got together and launched Marlborough Open Studios (MOS) as part of what was then the Marlborough Festival of Music and Arts. It was launched with a few sheets of an A4 photocopied catalogue featuring 15 artists, all in the town or nearby surrounding villages. The next year the group stretched to a printed poster then to printed catalogues in colour similar to the highly professional publication distributed today. 

Somewhat remarkably, two of those artists, Susan Kirkman and Arran Miles have taken part in every one of the events and will again share Susan’s studio and be joined by a third artist, Amanda Ralfe. The offer here is more traditional and covers painting, printmaking and drawing.  

Visitors on the look-out for a special gift, something beautiful for their home or maybe for reproductions as greeting cards will find something that appeals. Everyone is welcome to visit to meet the artists to learn about their work. If you’d like to try something yourself some artists run workshops. Moreover, as Arran said to me: “Artists love talking about their work” and even after 30 years of exhibiting,  
she remains inspirational when describing her own beautiful range. 

Look out for the 2025 thirty-year anniversary MOS catalogue. It will be widely available across the area this month and online at marlboroughopenstudios.co.uk. Plan your visits over a number of July weekends. And then you can stop at a local café or pub for the perfect summer outing – one that is sure to leave you feeling inspired by the richness of creativity that MOS brings to our area.