Goodworth Clatford Art & Craft Weekend: Kicked start autumn culture

Picasso’s dancers are at Tate Modern, Van Gogh’s at The National, while a couple of doors along, Francis Bacon is waiting to shock you in The Portrait Gallery.

All good, wholesome stuff.  Well, perhaps not Bacon – wholesome isn’t a word often associated with his take on life and art. 

Yet wholesome or not, there’s nowt new in any of these exhibitions, on account of the fact that all the artists are a bit on the dead side and not actually creating much these days.

So, if you were looking for something new to stimulate the right side of the brain, Goodworth Clatford Art & Craft Weekend was the place to kick off your Autumn culture boost.

One of the exhibits (Image: Chris Parkinson-Brown) The show evolves a little with each reincarnation. On the art side, the drift away from impressionistic and abstract works towards figurative realism continued this year – a trend that seems to go down well with many visitors, if not entirely to my taste - with lots of sharply drawn animal portraits and local scenes. 

Some atmospheric seascapes helped bridge that gap between reality and artistic interpretation, while colourful beach views in the Naïve style brought smiles to lots of faces.

In the craft room, there was much to inspire the visitor looking for that little extra Christmas gift, including some innovatively imaginative handmade leather goods, and a wacky children’s camo jacket with Western-style tassels, that Mrs Reviewer felt would have been perfect for me, had there been a size to accommodate the maturity midriff!  I decided to take it as a compliment.

But my showstoppers this year both came from the art section. New exhibitor Ferelith Molteno displayed a series of mixed-media scenes from India, all created on cloth bases, with her depiction of  Varanasi being a wonderfully evocative reminder of a place that hums with the spirituality of life and death; while across the room, Lesley Heslop showcased a modernist, pared-down landscape that drew me in with its deadpan vitality each time I walked past.  Fabulous, both.

So don’t despair if you missed the show: there’s always the golden oldies of Picasso and pals to keep you occupied until the Spring. But if you feel like it’s time to move on from those old codgers and seek out some originality, keep next November free for the must-see art event of 2025 in Goodworth.  See you there.

This article was written by Chris Parkinson-Brown.