Fifty artists will open up their studios next month.
The members of Eden Valley Artistic Network’s Open Studios and Art Trail takes place between September 4 and September 19 and gives people the chance to visit artists’ studios and buy their work.
The artists said they were looking forward to meeting people and many will demonstrate their techniques and working in their studios.
Polly Marix Evans is one of the artists taking part.
Like many artists in early 2020, Polly saw COVID-19 shutting down her main job as a self-employed artist as events and exhibitions were cancelled.
She was furloughed from her part-time job and faced with creating a routine to help her and her children continue with work and schooling during lockdown one.
Reality shook their world when her father contracted COVID and died, followed by a worrying couple of weeks wondering if her mother had caught it too.
The difficulty of dealing with this tragedy while far from family hit hard and the lack of a proper funeral and celebration of his life has left a feeling of being cut adrift.
Polly’s art helped her through this difficult time, as it has before. “Every time something shakes the snow globe of my world, it eventually works its way out through my art.
“Sometimes it takes a while, but usually it finds a way, often in the middle of the night or in the middle of a yoga session – I keep a notebook next to my bed to try to cut down on the midnight wanderings.”
Polly is a member of EVAN and Cumbria Printmakers. She has exhibited at The Great Print Exhibition at Rheged for the past three years and has been invited to exhibit in Great Print 7 at Rheged this winter. Her work is available across Cumbria, the UK, and, through her Etsy shop, the world.
She will be opening her studio in Aiketgate during the EVAN Open Studios & Art Trail 2021.
For more information, visit evanevents.co.uk/open-studios-and-art-trail-2021/
