Hurst Open Studios

Hurst Open Studios welcomes the community

By Annette Street

Hurstpierpoint Open Studios will take place over the weekends of 16th-17th and 23rd-24th September during the Hurst Festival and there will be 25 artists at 13 venues around the village.
Come and meet the artists and view paintings, textiles, stained glass, photography, jewellery, ceramics and sculpture. We’re also supporting an exhibition by Ukrainian artist Alexey Artyukh. There is something for everyone to enjoy and maybe treat yourself, or someone else to a unique piece of artwork.

Look for the blue and white balloons! Find more details online: www.hurstfestival.org/hurst-open-studios Hurst Life spoke to two new exhibitors in the village; Matt Startin, who has recently moved here and Tamila Moiseieva, a Ukrainian who is exhibiting on behalf of Alexey Artyukh:

By Tamila Moiseieva
Alexey Petrovich Artyukh, was born in 1966 in Kiev and in 1999 he was ordained a priest in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. He paints in the styles of academic realism and Impressionism. Work in Ukraine is still hindered by financial difficulties, as life has become harder, paintings are not ordered and not bought. So, Alexey can’t sell anything in his country now. Therefore, he has difficulties with feeding his family. We are very grateful to organisers of Open Studio and everyone who helped to show and promote Alexey’s creativity in England, a country where there are many lovers of art and all the beautiful things that exist in this world! I am hoping to sell paintings of Alexey and transfer money to him. This is my goal. Thank you.

By Matt Startin
I originally studied Architecture at the Mackintosh School, part of the Glasgow School of Art, but then found a job into the video games industry as a 3D artist. I have now been making video games for over 25 years and I’m currently an art director at Electronic Arts (EA), a well-known American video game company. I started printmaking back in 2015 when I took a course in traditional etching at BIP printmaking studio in Brighton. Visitors to my studio will see a collection of my aquatint etchings and mezzotint prints and I’ve recently been working with charcoal too. There will also be a few photographic prints for sale. I’ll be working in the studio so people can watch me create a mezzotint plate and I’m happy to talk about the printmaking process to anyone that wants to listen.