Heather Nevay
Hayshed Gallery
The intrinsic beauty of Sea Charts inspired me to create a world of secret places and sea-monsters in this collection of original drawings from around Scotland.
The Year of Coast and Waters
25-28th September, 2020
Cowal is a peninsula in Argyll and Bute, in the west of Scotland, that extends into the Firth of Clyde. Scattered along these secret shores there live a wealth of artists expressing themselves through various media.
Here you will find painters, glass artists, ceramicists, sculptors. We have photographers, jewellers, artists working with textiles and wood. All these skilled people choose to live and work among the inspirational land that is largely hidden in this area of Argyll.
Come and discover it for yourself…
Welcome to the Cowal Open Studio Weekend!
Artist Hubs
We’re making some changes to the event to protect our visitors and artists from Covid-19.
This year rather than artists hosting visitors in their own studios, there will be multiple spacious hubs, with a number of artists exhibiting at each. This will allow us to implement social distancing and improved hygiene in a safe, controlled setting.
Virtual exhibition
Welcome to our virtual exhibition!
We know that due to the current circumstances, many of you won’t be able to visit an Artist Hub in person. Please take a look at the selected works below, and at the individual artists pages.
Flying South by Anne Hewitt
By Carole Patrick
Archipelago by Heather Nevay
By Hayshed Gallery at Carry Farm
Ashore Holy Loch by Tiffany Kendra
Necklace by Derek Prescott
Louise Day 
Heather Never
Carole Patrick
Helen West
Paddy Allen
Catriona Henderson Darroch
Anthea Gage RSW
Bonita Ellmore
Sarah Ross-Thompson
Brian Philips
James O'Neill
Antony Clarkson
Geeta Menon
Jenny Philips
Anne Armstrong
Lorna Morrish
Derek Farrar
Karen Middleton
Gill Maclellan
Leonie FitzGerald
Siobhan Owen 
Sheila Rodger
Inge Bos
Irene Florence
Deb Wing
Dawn Rossiter
Ann Baxter
Natalie Sedgewick
Frank Stephenson
Moira Ferguson
Pauline Beautyman
Marcia Clarke
Fiona McPhailFollow us on Facebook
Over on our Instagram account we are joining in with #marchmeetthemaker There is a prompt every day to help you learn all about us, so if you want to see all our posts then pop over to follow our account cowal_open_studios.
Today's prompt is Beliefs and Values.
Quite simply put Cowal Open Studios is not just about the once a year event. As a whole is seeks to encourages and support established, new and emerging artists and makers who live and work in our local area. Our main event in September is rightly the focus of the year but inbetween times we hold social gatherings (before covid), share opportunities, support members in training for example in social media, provide an all year round website which artists can use as a gallery shop for sales, and we encourage members to interact, develop friendships and feel part of a wider creative community.
We are currently open for new members of any art discipline who work or live in the Cowal Peninsula. If you are interested please message or comment below.
www.cowalopenstudios.co.uk
Susie Clapham
If you follow us here on Facebook you may also like to follow us on Instagram.
All through the month of March we will be joining in the Instagram challenge Meet the Maker. Each day we will take the daily prompt and tell you a bit more about our open studio event, our artists, the studios, photos of our beautiful corner of Argyll and sharing our thoughts and hopes for this year's event.
Follow us at www.instagram.com/cowal_open_studios on Instagram to find out more.
If you are not on Instagram, don't worry, we'll be sharing some of the highlights with you too.
24-27 September 2021
Membership for our 2021 Cowal Open Studios is now open. If you are a professional or semi professional artist or maker of any discipline living and/or working in the Cowal area of Argyll, and would like to join our event, then get in touch.
Please comment or message your interest and an application form will be emailed.
If you are a regular member and have not got a renewal email, again, please get in touch.
#cowalopenstudios #openstudios #argyllartists #madeinargyll #keepitargyll #2021events #localart
Hello again - this is my fourth and final post for the Cowal Open Studios artist takeover.
I have to say how wonderful the committee have been this year in organising the event so well under the difficult circumstance of lockdown. Well done to you all and I’m sure all the member artists involved with Cowal Open Studios will echo these comments.
This final contribution features a further look at my workshop and some of my experiments in copper - including one of my early attempts at flame painting. It’s the one which definitely has a Munch theme looking like a combination of The Scream, The Very Hungry Caterpillar and our old boxer dog.
In case you are not familiar with flame painting, it’s exactly as described - I use a hot flame like a brush and “paint” designs on the copper.
It features on all my hand beaten copper wall panels which are framed by the lovely lady at SP Framing. Thankfully I married her over 50 years ago so I get special rates - but I’m still put to the bottom of the queue when other artists need their work framing.
You’ll also see some off my attempts at origami in copper.
Thank you for your interest and please do visit my workshop in Lochgoilhead when the all clear from lockdown is announced.
At the moment my work is available directly from my workshop in Lochgoilhead and locally from Pinetrees in Lochgoilhead, the Tighnabruaich Gallery, Dunoon Burgh Hall, Fynewood in Dunoon, The Barony Centre in West Kilbride and Turadh in Taynuilt