Worthing Open Houses

St Paul's Centre, a photo by fred pipes on Flickr.

It was a lovely day on Sunday so I decided to head west to Worthing. When I cycled down to the pier, however, it was shrouded in sea mist! So I headed east, past Coast Cafe des Artistes to the first Open House on my list. One of the best things about the Worthing Open Houses is the lovely logo by Teresa Stewart-Goodman (who also designed the Ukelele Festival logo), and you can find her work at 8 New Parade (venue 6), the home of Alison Milner. See the 50s style tables she did for Habitat (and maybe buy one or two in their closing down sale!). Also of note were the amazing botanical cut-out drawings of Sin Mui Chong-Martin and of course my old mate from the Dragonfly House, queen of the scraperboard Vanessa Rattray.



Alison recommended I visit venue 2, 9 Eldon Road and I wasn't disappointed: four 'mature' students from Northbrook exhibiting together, including photographs and engravings of demolished and threatened Art Deco buildings by Laurence Olver and 3D photographic sculptures by Barry Williams. Then it was back to the sea for a coffee at Coast, where I bumped into Brighton artist Nick Orsborn eating cheesy chips! People at the next table said they'd had trouble finding venue 12, the red phone box, but I saw it straight away on the corner of Marine Parade and the Steine, where forces day was going on. I was looking inside, when I was joined by the curator of Phonie Art (Facebook link), Leona Angus. The phone box had been adopted by the council and the exhibition had all been created using mobile phone cameras! Another one is planned for Shoreham.



Time was running out so I cycled over to Alexander Terrace, to the first floor apartment at number 5 (venue 13) for a close up view of the Desert Quartet by Elisabeth Frink, and bumped into illustrator and ex-BiG member Nadia Chalk, who was exhibiting her exquisite pen and pencil drawings there. I was going to pop into venue 14 also on Alexander Terrace (which claimed the world's smallest cinema), but I was expected to take my shoes off, so I didn't bother. I spotted something else that Brighton Open Houses didn't have - it's own car!



It was nearly 5pm so on the way back to the station, I had a quick look inside St Paul's centre (venue 17) - an amazing church (mostly a cafe!) with a splendid alter piece... and the mixed display of art there summed up my afternoon (so I did get to see some Sarah Young images after all!). Round the corner I just caught the end of the Secret Back Gardens, and bought a strawberry plant! Great day out, and despite my moby battery being almost gone, managed to check in some Gowalla and Foursquare locations! It's on next weekend too, so give it a go.