Open Studios

We managed to catch the very end of the Norfolk Open Studios this weekend, when we went to the Art Factory (formerly the old Bally shoe factory) to see an exhibition of work including some by our friend Martin Battye.  What utter bliss to walk about in this huge echoing building, surrounded by amazing, beautiful objects.  Thank you to everyone who contributed, it was so inspiring.

There we were in Martin's studio, surrounded by a litter of half squeezed-out tubes of oil paint, and turps, and brushes, and canvases propped against the walls and, for some reason, several boxes of bottles of wine, and a huge thunderstorm broke overhead, the first big one of the season.  The room was sunk in strange, liminal gloom, and rain roared against the windows.  I stood and watched the lightning flash, and felt the thunder rattle the windows, and realised how elemental art feels to me now.  I suddenly felt so outraged that I was not the one with the studio, that I had not been able to do this myself.  And a voice came back from within, 'But it wasn't the right time for you then.'

The time is coming, though.  I can feel it.