A Guide To Hampshire Open Studios

Hampshire Open Studios is an annual event, taking place for about two weeks each August.  During this time, local artists in a variety of media open their studios (and sometimes homes) to the public so that they can come view their artwork and speak with the artist.

Hampshire Open Studios is run by a charity group, and so it does not make any profits as an organization.  The artists pay a fee to participate in order to cover the costs of printing (they produce a great guide booklet each year).  It has been going on for nine years now, with more artists participating and more people coming to enjoy it each year.  In 2009, over 500 artists in Hampshire were included!  This included painters, wood turners, sculptors, jewellers, and more.

Because there is such a wide variety of artists participating, there is something for everyone.  The guide booklet is really informative and lists the open studios by geographical area.  Then it includes each artists name, their address and opening hours, a description of their work, and photographs of examples of their artwork.  This way it is easy to find what is of interest to you.  Unfortunately there’s just no way that one person could have time to go to all of the participating artists.  However, using the guide book, you can look through for either artists that are closest to you (and with so many artists spread around Hampshire, if you’re local to the area, there’s bound to be someone nearby), or the artists that interest you most.  Whether you love paintings or photography, and no matter what style of artwork you like most, there’s bound to be something for you.

What makes Hampshire Open Studios really special is that there are so many artists participating and showing their work in their own space.  This means that you are often seeing the artwork where it was created.  Also, the artists are normally there so that you can speak with them.  I really enjoyed being able to speak with the artists and discuss their techniques, inspiration, training, etc.  It’s a really unique opportunity to be able to view so much artwork and speak with the artists in a relaxed atmosphere.

Although the items displayed are for sale, there is no pressure to buy anything.  This means that you can go either to shop and support local artists or just to enjoy viewing the artwork.  If you are interested in buying, make sure to bring cash or your cheque book, because the artists won’t be set up to accept credit cards.  Keep in mind that there is a wide variety of items on sale.  For example, even if you can’t afford a painting, they may have postcards of the paintings that you can buy as a memento.  Likewise, many of the artists have an array of items ranging from smaller, cheaper items to larger, more intricate, expensive items.  It’s a fantastic opportunity to buy some great artwork directly from the artist.

If you are in the Hampshire area of Southern England, it is definitely worth going to at least a few of the participating venues in Hampshire Open Studios.  In August, watch out for signs with a pink boar on them pointing to participating studios.

To visit the official Hampshire Open Studios website, click here.