Art lovers set to flock to Emsworth Art Trail as venues will be filled with creations

This year’s Emsworth Arts Trail is set to take place over two weekends on April 25 and 26 followed by May 2 and 3.

Last year’s event saw 99,000 individual visits recorded over the two weekends, an impressive increase since the trail began in 2001, with just a handful of artists exhibiting in their home studios.

‘The Emsworth Arts Trail has certainly put the town on the map as a destination for art,’ said Carol Price, the event’s chairman.

‘Over the last 19 years we have seen visitor numbers grow and grow, with art lovers arriving from far and wide.’

The trail is a creative and colourful journey around Emsworth which includes many local businesses and community venues, with artists and makers exhibiting their work in shops, halls, pubs, sailing clubs, home studios and pop up galleries.

Carol said: ‘We like to think of ourselves as a community of artists, with new exhibitors always welcome. We have a few new artists joining us this year.

‘There is always something to surprise and fascinate - from both the new and the established participants.’

With the majority of venues within a mile of the town centre, visitors often make a family day out of it by walking, cycling or scooting along the trail, and visiting the harbour.

The printed trail guide can be picked up in shops around Emsworth or in the library and includes a map to plan a route around the wide variety of work on show including painting, printmaking, photography, textile art, wood carving, ceramics, jewellery, glasswork, sculpture and, new for this year, a blacksmith.

Artists will include Elisa Mott, who designs and creates kiln-formed glass from her studio in The Makers Guild at Portsmouth Guildhall, jeweller Sylvia Tomkinson who creates distinctive collections and Barry Sutton, a sculptor creating bronze-cast sculptures of humans and animals.

To preview all the artists taking part, and plan a visit, see emsworthartstrail.org.uk.