Art Trail Returns

THE Leigh Art Trail, Leigh town’s annual celebration of the best in local art, returns on Saturday July 6th when visitors will once again be able to see an incredible array of painting, sculpture, mixed media and photography in venues all across Leigh.

Shops, cafes, businesses and artists’ homes will become pop-up galleries for the nine days and a host of special events are being laid on.

The organisers are especially excited this year to showcase many artists new to the Trail, with everything from exquisite contemporary portraiture to “magical realism”; deeply affecting photographs of people who have experienced cancer to colourful makeovers of fly-tipped boats.

Wendy Scotland of the Leigh Art Trail said: “It’s wonderful to be back and the line-up this year is incredibly strong. I’d urge people to get out there and see for themselves what remarkable creative talent we have in the area.”

Oil painter Emma Foster is among the new crop of artists for 2024. She will be exhibiting her stunning work at hairdressers Brush 71 on Leigh Road.

“I often portray the figure within nature,” said Emma. “I suppose you could call my work magical realism as, although it is figurative art and almost photographic realism, it intertwines a touch of symbolism, a little bit of the unreal.”

As usual on the Trail, the breadth of work is huge, with some 70 artists taking part in 50 venues. One of the most eagerly anticipated exhibitions is by photographer Mia Davies. Her raw and thought-provoking portraits are accompanied by stories of individuals who are living with or have lived with cancer.

“I want to bring cancer to the discussion, raising awareness and hopefully making it less of a taboo conversation topic,” said Mia, whose images are on display at Chalkwell Hall.

“Light can be interpreted in symbolic ways and empowers the story within the portraits. My inspiration is to share the narrative of real-life people. I have a personal connection to them because, like them, I have my own story to share.”

Two finalists in the recent Southend Portrait Artist 2024 join the Trail line-up for the first time. Craig Hallums’ small-scale drawings, on show at Hopsters on Elm Road, are inspired by the narrative art of comics. And Peter Bowen’s gorgeous oil paintings, mostly portraits and figures, can be found in Leigh Vintage Interiors on Leigh Road.

“I walk a line between attempting to truthfully represent what is out there and being open to marks that just seem to happen,” said Peter. “I’m a messy artist. I sometimes get as much paint on me as on the canvas!”

Visitors to 4Sale on Rectory Grove are in for a treat in the form of photographer Si Brandon’s lighthearted shots of Leigh’s boat wrecks, decorated with streamers, balloons and wrapping paper!

“They caught my eye years ago,” he said of the wrecks. “They looked sad. I hope I was able to cheer them up a little. If I’m not working on something, I quickly start to feel stagnant and sad, and it’s so satisfying to transform a thought into a unique material object that exists in the world. That’s really inspiring.

“Beavers must feel something similar when they build a dam. In fact, I hope every beaver can take a moment after gnawing and foraging to stand back, look at the thing they’ve just built and think, ‘I made that. How cool is that?’”

The pocket-sized Trail Guide includes a map of the route. Scanning the QR code on the front takes visitors to the event’s website (leigharttrail.com), where there are profiles of all the artists and the all-important opening times for each venue.

The organisers want people to stay in touch via social media. Wendy Scotland added: “We’ll do our best to keep everyone informed – and of course we’d love to see photos of our visitors enjoying the Trail, too. They can share them with us on Instagram using #leigharttrail.”

The Leigh Art Trail starts on Saturday July 6th and runs until Sunday July 14th in venues all across the town, For more information, pick up the Trail Guide in town, go to leigharttrail.com and follow the Leigh Art Trail on Instagram and Facebook.

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