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So the 2015 Rochford Art Trail has come and gone and we have had great joy covering it. Here are a few final reflections

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That was the Trail that was.

And so the 2015 Rochford Art Trail has ended.

It seems that it is only with a blink of the eye that the ten days of the Art Trail have come and gone. Here at Rochford Life we had the pleasure of meeting with some of the newcomer artists before the Trail actually started and so for us it has been more of a three or four week experience which has been pure pleasure.

Then came a (thankfully) sunny Thursday morning and we watched a number of artists setting up in their location. At midday we had the pleasure of watching Chairman of the Council, Councillor Heather Glyn, officially opening the trail from the Library, in her own inimitable and charming style. Already Max Dolding had been out on the first of the walkabouts and Ann Bacon had sold a picture from the window of the Faith Shop. It was well and truly under way.

So what are the statistics of this year’s trail? Here’s a rough tally.

a) Specific Events

A pre-Trail Market in the WI hall

Opening event in the Library

1st Saturday Group Exhibition in the WI hall

Group exhibition, Mon-Thurs, in 2nd week in Rochford Hotel Pavilion

2nd Saturday Group Exhibition in the WI hall

b) Venues: 24 (incl.  weekend events)

14 shops, 4 cafes, 1 library, 1 pub, 1 garage, 1 WI Hall, 1 hospital and 1 golf club!

c) Artists (impossible to count! Almost certainly in excess of 40!)

1 glass worker

2 photographers

1 ceramicist

1 mosaic sculptor

1 textile artist

2 printmakers

And a load of artists (sorry we didn’t count up the individuals in the group exhibitions or at the Pre-Trail Market)

d) Group Exhibitions

Open Arts Group – Venues 1 & 22 throughout

Haven – WI Hall on 1st Saturday and Venue 13 throughout

Roche Art – WI Hall on 2nd Saturday

Mixed artists in the 2nd week in the Rochford Hotel.

And what were our overall impressions?

Well, we have confessed our pleasure at looking at works of art, amateur and professional, water colours, oils, acrylics, pencil etc., so you should not be surprised that we thoroughly enjoyed it all.  We took particular pleasure this year in the ‘exhibitions’. The shear variety of works, styles, materials and subjects was excellent. When you think that apart from all the individual artists displaying in shops etc., there were four actual group displays, the range available to look at was excellent. Although Open Arts Group and the ‘mixed artists’ were part of the ongoing trail, nevertheless their sheer numbers constituted exhibitions in their own right. Certainly Roche Art were really only on display on the last Saturday (although present at the pre-Trail market) but again the variety of works on display made it a very worthwhile venture. The Haven Art Group were to be congratulated on being part of the main Trail in the Library AND having a day exhibition on the first Saturday.

By contrast, we felt sad that there a few artists who clearly were only able to display a few of their wares because of the limitations of space, but that only left us wanting to see more, which is not a bad feeling with which to be left. (And we have provided links to their websites you where possible.) In terms of shear space and giving room to their artist, the Beehive Coffee Shop were to be congratulated for giving prolific artist Karen Wilcox so much space for display. The Beehive was virtually an exhibition in itself!

We realise that for many shops, participating in the Trail even in a small measure is a work of grace, because not every shop or shop window lends itself to display of any size, so thanks should be conveyed to every venue that participated. (Could not the two church halls in the centre of town not be sacrificed for one week next year?)

Perhaps an important question that might be asked is how many people stopped to look or purposefully went out of their way to see the Trail? I really don’t know the answer to that.  From some verbal feedback I would suggest that the answer must be at least a reasonable number, certainly sufficient to make it worthwhile. It appeared that more shops this year used their window space rather than internal space for display so I doubt whether they would be able to comment on increased numbers coming in during the Trail.  

No doubt there are some things that could have been improved – that’s what next year is for! Anyway none of us is perfect, but having said that this year’s Art Trail in Rochford provided a great deal of pleasure for those who went looking for it and Kerry and the other artists are to be congratulated on providing such an excellent display for us. From our particular point of view here at Rochford Life we would want to say thank you to all the artists who made themselves available to us; it was pure joy meeting you and seeing your work. Thank you so much. Now what about next year…..

PS. To start some thoughts about other sorts of Trails in Rochford, please read our article, “Appreciating Art’ on Page 5