Opening the door to a world of art ...

With 25 mapped venues; homes, studio’s and businesses, hosting over 40 artists work, this year’s Todmorden Artists’ Open Studio weekend will be the biggest and, say the organisers, best yet.

All exhibitors are listed in a comprehensive brochure which also has a handy map – these are available throughout the town and the map is also painted on the wall at Creative with Nature Gallery.

Explains one of the organisers: “Artists and makers are driven to create and are filled with a need to share their work with others on a practically financial and spiritual level.

“The Open Studio event is a wonderful opportunity to meet artists, see where work is created and buy direct.

“There is an incredible diversity in Todmorden across all disciplines, work that strives to capture beauty, deal with emotions, pass on a message or purely for decoration, it’s all here and everyone is invited.”

This year’s guest artist is muralist Walter Kershaw, who has been painting in the public eye – literally – for decades.

Walter has created murals to brighten the lives of those living in deprived areas of the North West, he has also painted to commission huge works in Europe and South America and in 2014 created a piece of work for Dulwich Outside Picture Gallery.

Taking a leaf out of his book this year, Todmorden Artists are planning a pop-up ‘Street Art Wall’ at a town centre location to really bring live art to the people.

Several visiting artists, Kershaw and some of the artists in the brochure will work together on a temporary wall over Saturday and Sunday.

“We hope that the general public will enjoy watching the ‘wall’ evolve over the weekend, pick up a brochure and visit the many venues to see what’s going on inside.

“We want to encourage visitors into our spaces and to also bring art outside for everyone to enjoy. Art really does make things better and we hope that our event inspires.”

For more information please visit facebook.com/todmordenopenstudios or email [email protected]

The event runs from Friday, September 9 until Sunday, September 11th from 11am to 5pm and stretches throughout Todmorden, Cornholme, Lumbutts and Walsden.

lWalter Kershaw was born on December 7, 1940 in Rochdale. George Best was a good friend to Kershaw and purchased six large drawings and oil paintings from him, whilst playing at Manchester United.