Buster’s Portrait Surprise for Owner at Art Trail

Artist, Caron Light surprised a visitor at the Henley Arts Trail this weekend by exhibiting a commissioned portrait of her dog Buster at The Anchor pub.

Caron aid, “I was commissioned by the daughter for a surprise painting of her Mum’s dog.  She brought Mum to the trail just to have a look around.  When she saw Buster’s painting her face was a picture.”

The Anchor normally has a number of Caron’s paintings on the walls but she brings more of her work to exhibt at the Arts Trail.  The pub was an Arts Trail venue for only the second year. Caron was joined for the first time by Arts Trail newcomer, Annie Monk who has recently moved to the area.

Anne has recently moved to the area.  She’s been painting and tutoring for 30 years.  She paints with acrylics and mixed media.  My imagination inspires my work which are my memories from landscapes and we’ve all got it in our memories. The abstracts come from nowhere.  I just put the paint on and have to make sense of everything.  I am moving more into abstract as I enjoy it.”

A new venue for this year was Ravenscroft Road where the Ravenscroft crafters; Jane Butler (Never Felt Better), Linda Cookson (FuzzBee Felts) were exhibiting their cute felt characters and Patricia Van de Bunt her unusual wire art.  Jane said, “Linda and I have known each other for 27 years.  She used to be my post lady.  About 7 years ago we both took up felting. We decided to have our own venue this year as it was the right time as we both had enough things to sell.”  Linda added,”I saw felting at the Stonor Craft Fair where they were making amazing animals and I took it up that Christmas.  We’re both self taught but have been on one course to learn some techniques.  I like it because I can put my weird mind into 3D form and I like to hold art in my hand.  It’s also a very forgiving medium.”

Patricia who has moved from the Netherlands and used to make lamps said, “It was too difficult to bring all the tools I need to continue making lamps so I thought I would try some wire art and I just fell in love with it.  Jane invited me to join her and Linda just a few weeks ago so I had to make a lot of things in a short time.”

Jo Keiller, Henley Arts Trail Coordinator said, “The 2023 Henley Arts Trail was a huge success with record numbers of footfall and sales, especially at the Greys Court venue which saw hundreds of people through the doors daily and paintings flying off of the walls at record speed!

We really pushed the publicity campaign this year as much as we could, especially on social media and it seems to have paid off as our exhibitors have expressed that it has been the best Henley Arts Trail to date! We’ve also received a lot of positive comments from our visitors about the quality and high standard of work that was on show.

All and all a very successful 2023 Henley Arts Trail!”